Tall yellow doll

How do you summarize a month long which was an experience of a life time in 1 (not too long) story? Ok I’ll try but you can expect some extra stories when I get back home.

Short Itinerary
UB – Mörön – Hatgal – Mörön – Tsagaannuur – West Taiga – Tsagaannuur – East Taiga camp 1 – East Taiga camp 2 – Tsagaannuur – Mörön – UB.
If you want to know where all places above are, look it up on the map, although I think you’ll have a hard time finding it all (I’ve been there and trust me I don’t even know exactly).

Kidney’s in my chest
What would you do if you had to go from UB to Mörön (a small town – I call it settlements because in my opinion it’s not even a town) in the North of Mongolia?
a) take a plane (about 1,5 hrs)
b) take a Jeep (about 24 hrs)
c) take a Russian old van (about 24 hrs as well but a lot less comfi)
d) take a horse (don’t even want to know how long)
Before you answer… remember… Mongolia has no roads.
We didn’t have a choice so we had to go by Russian van also called 4-gun. And from UB to Mörön was only the first part of the trip, many many many more hours followed. The track is so incredibly bumpy you end up with all your intestines in a different place. That combined with going through rivers, being stuck in the mud and going through snow storms makes the ride already an adventure on its own.

Herman
‘Singing is what makes your horse calm,’ says Bayanmug our horseman, at least that’s what I think he means. And believe me that’s the first thing you want when you are riding a horse in the Taiga (especially when you have that much experience that I have – which is NONE). You have to lead your horse through mud, swamps, rivers, snow, steep mountains and forests. My horse seemed to like ‘Het regent zonnestralen – Acda en de Munnik’ a song about a guy called Herman from that moment on my horse was called Herman. I praised and I cursed at him, we went through a lot of ups and downs (literally as well).
There are so many rules and things that you need to think about when you try to ride the back of such an animal. There was not a single part on the trail that you can sit back and not pay attention:
Mud – try to lead your horse around it, but of course that would have been too easy, most of the time that is impossible. Just put your feet steady in the stirrups and hope for the best. The worst thing that can happen is that your horse goes down and will fall on you. My worst time was when Herman was stuck up until his neck; luckily we managed to get out without getting down.
Swamps – Kinda like mud, some parts are safe but in between are puddles and holes where your horse can trip.
Rivers – The horses go through ice cold water and ice amazingly well. Try to avoid slippery rocks.
Snow – Hold on tight and pray for the best.
Steep mountains – Lean forward and hold the manes (because the hairs are attached and the saddle is not) when going up the mountain, lean backwards as far as possible and push your feet in the stirrups when going down the mountain.
Forests – After mud the most terrible according to myself, the horse knows his own size but forgets that I am at least a meter sticking out on top and that my legs are somewhere on the side of his body as well. That means ducking all the time (sometimes that is not working so hold on tight), losing your hat and losing part of your knees. The horse just doesn’t seem to understand that your knees can’t go through trees. That resulted in several bruises and more serious injuries (even blood involved…).
Unfortunately the one thing that I was trying to avoid all the time did happen…I fell of, but only once (and we spend about 40 hours – 40? Yes 40 – in total on a horseback, so I’m still kinda proud of myself). Horses panic when they do not stay with the rest of the group, the horseman was fixing my saddle and we got behind. When I was trying to get on (I was half way), my horse started running, I was trying to hold on but had to let go after some time…just another blue knee.
There was one thing I really liked about horseback riding: going fast! Some areas allowed to go faster than just walking or trotting (the most annoying of all, you’re constantly shaking up and down which puts your kidney’s in your chest again) than we made the horse canter or gallop. That’s really cool. Just say ‘Choo’ (go) a trillion times and hit him on the bum.

Sleepless in the Taiga
Looking back it is amazing in how many different places, circumstances and situations I’ve slept the last couple of weeks. It started and ended with my legs in my neck in the 4-gun, in a gher-tent in Hatgal, in families cabins, in tents and on the floor of the old TCVC (Tsaatan Community and Visitors Center) in Tsagaannuur.
My least favourite was the tent, the first thing that kept me from sleeping was the cold. Woke up several times with ice in my hair. I’m also not in favour of setting up and breaking of your tent all the time (nomadic life is just not my thing). Especially when you are trying to do that in the dark and the only place close is covered with bushes or stones. Trust me it’s not comfortable. Another thing that kept me from sleeping one night was ‘The Crazy Shaman’. This needs some explanation. The Tsaatan people that live in the Taiga have the Shamanistic believe. In short that comes down to believing in spirits and rituals. In every community there are several Shamans which can have contact with the spirits and have special powers, this all happens when they are in a trance. There is one Shaman in the West Taiga who appears to have some mental problems. Last time when my colleagues were up in the Taiga he almost attacked one guy with a knife and stabbed the tent with a knife while people were sleeping in there. Next to that he thinks he is Chingis Khaan and wants to conquer the world.
That night our horsemen went to another camp so it was just us and the horses. Katrina and I were lying all curled up because we were afraid he would come and stab the tent and hit our feet or head. At 3.30am I could have sworn that I heard someone walking around our tent. Katrina tried to convince me that it was just the horses and the wind…I’m still not convinced.

The noodles-cabbage, rice-cabbage diet
Every time when I was abroad one of the favourite topics is to talk about food that you don’t have (for example boerenkool met worst when you are trying to keep your toes from freezing of). This time we hardly had any food at all so you start dreaming and talking about the craziest food and food combinations.
If you think that Sonja Bakkeren helps try the noodles-cabbage, rice-cabbage diet it works much better I can promise you that. When we were in Tsagaannuur we liked to put some differentiation in our diet with Snickers and Goi (some Mongolian fruit juice).
1 free tip: Do not come to Mongolia for the food! All the food that they make tastes like fat and has huge chunks of fat in it. Another list of food and drinks that always will be offered to you when you enter a cabin, gher or ortz (teepee): milk tea with salt (cow, yak or reindeer milk), dried cheese which is soooo hard that it breaks your teeth and the taste is awful, fermented milk, bread which is a bit sour (definitely on the top of my ‘this is doable list’) and fried dough.

Bathroom bummers
From flushing toilet (UB), to toilet pot above a deep big hole (Hatgal), to outhouse (niet te verwarren met het welgestelde begrip ‘ons buitenhuis’) – which is a little wooden construction with a hole in the floor, when it’s full you just dig a new hole (Tsagaannuur, on the road), to nature (Taiga, on the road).
Showers? Uhm no, non existent, apart from the shower house in Tsagaannuur. There’s a lady who heats water on the stove and brings it upstairs to put it in a big bucket where it goes in to some pipes until a couple of drops come out of the shower. That is called gravity.
Particularly during the bathroom moments I was thinking about how happy I am that I was born in Holland.

Zognimonges
I always manage to pick up the most important words first, like: zognimonges which means stove monster. My favourite aspect in a land without electricity, especially when you are staying in the mountains (above 3000m and the temperature is somewhere – no thermometers – below zero) is a stove. We tried to build one in our North Face tent unfortunately Bill (to who the tent belonged to) didn’t let us cut a hole in the top for the chimney. They keep you warm and you can cook on it, what else do you need?

What I came for
After all this craziness I still managed to get some things done for my research had a couple of interviews with locals and we came a long way with the new Tsaatan Community and Visitors Center, spend quite a number of hours on painting. Furthermore we already had the first tourists making use of the new facility which provided income and jobs for the local community.

Steppe by steppe
I see that my story did become somewhat longer than expected and I am still full of stories. The fact that impressed me most on this trip was that you do have to come to Mongolia for the nature. It is beautiful, especially the emptiness and remoteness is hard to describe but great when you experience it for yourself. Endless steppes filled with nothing…

So long,
Tall yellow doll (my new Mongolian name, given to me by the horsemen Borhoo and Bayanmug – short explanation: they call all white people yellow) or America (according to our 4-gun driver Gala: Marieke – Merica – America).