The jet lag didn't feel too bad when I woke up on Thursday morning. I was slightly disappointed, as well as relieved, to see a continental breakfast. I was dying to try some traditional Mongolian food but on the other hand this was also the last chance to eat food that was definitely going to agree with my stomach. We had been warned!
We set off on our 6-hour road trip at 11.30 am; first stop was the supermarket for western stomach friendly food. Soon after leaving Ulaanbaatar the city was replaced with sprawling light green mountains for as far as the eye could see. The view was phenomenal and stretched across several provinces!
Not long in to our drive we came across the most ENORMOUS statue of Genghis Khan on horseback; we had to stop. The silver statue sits on top of a plinth which is also a museum. The sculpture is the world’s largest equestrian statue at 40m tall. Inside is another statue of an elaborately decorated traditional boot, standing at 9m tall. A lift in the centre of the museum emerged at the pommel (front) of Genghis Khan's saddle; you could then walk to his horses' ears and soak up the spectacular view across the countryside of Ulaanbaatar.
Outside the statue were several gers (Mongolian yurts) where we sat and tried fermented mares’ milk. Fermented mares’ milk is only produced in the summer. Milk is collected and put in to a cow hide then pulsed with a spatula 1000 times. The initial taste is pleasant enough however this is quickly replaced with a rather sour aftertaste. It made us all pull faces similar to the child eating Tangfastics on a Haribo advert. Needless to say, I didn't manage to finish my bowl or even drink 1/4 of it.
We pressed on and used the 6-hour journey to learn everything we could about Mongolian racing and the Mongolian horse as a breed from Uyasakh (horse owners’ son). We would need all this information to define and compare the different populations in our study. Uyasakh was the only person fluent in English and would be our translator and saving grace over the next few days.
Although the Mongolian horses stand at less than 14.2 hands we must call them horses, not ponies, out of a sign of respect. I'll explain everything we learnt about racing in a special post.
We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant and had vegetable soup with meatballs and noodles. Again, this was a broth type soup. I have come to realise that this is a very traditional meal. It was good apart from the large slabs of fat which I avoided and something that looked suspiciously like brain.
The countryside was STUNNING. A single road runs east from Ulaanbaatar to Khentii through planes of light green grass. At the edges of the planes were rolling mountains. The terrain changes ever so slightly half way through our trip. The grass became coarse and the lower parts of the mountains were covered in what looked like a bright red heather plant. As we drove on to our destination the mountains returned to their original light green colour. We saw very few people as we drove. Every now and again you would see a collection of gers with a flock of sheep/goats or a herd of cows; a portable corral in the middle of the plane, providing a glimpse of the most peaceful way of life I’ve ever seen.
As we entered Khentii, the resting place of Ghengis Khan, the roads began to get worse. Our driver expertly avoided the pot holes, which looked more at home on Tattersalls cross country course than on a road. We pulled over to wash all the bugs that had splatted on our windscreen as we drove along. When I say 'pulled over' it wasn't like pulling over on a road in Ireland/ England. Pulling of the road literally means just driving off the edge down a large bank to the river. Now I understand why we needed a 4x4. When the toilets were tested at this stopping place the consensus was "think of green grass" .... enough said there I think.
