10-12 July - Naadam 2016 in Ulaanbaatar

10 July, Sunday

We overslept.   The phone in our room was accidentally off the hook without our realisation. Awoke at 9 am, we went downstairs at 9.10 to get some breakfast.  Dulgu told us that they had been trying to call us to come down for breakfast for ages without being able to reach us due to the wrong placement of our phone.  We had whatever was available as breakfast was technically over by 9am.

Me with Roy at J Hotel

After breakfast, we packed to move to our next hotel - the J Hotel which would be our home for the duration of Naadam.  It was the hotel that the tour we were on housed its guests.  Dulgu came by to say au revoir at the end of her more than 12 hour shifts.  Russia and Mongolia are the only two places thus far that we have heard of 12 hour shifts for hotel receptionists.

At 12, a cab was called for us to go to J Hotel.  We were advised that the cab driver knew where to go.  But as soon as we left the vicinity of the hotel, the driver asked us for direction.  Good thing we had Map.me and was able to give him the required directions.  It was a short journey as J Hotel was a stone throw from our first hotel in UB, the Platinum. The cab driver charged us 5000T for the trip even though he was no better than a finger cab and that would have cost us probably less than 2000T.  Thus far, UB, had not been too impressive.

Fountain in city centre
in front of City Council building

J Hotel is new but it had no airconditioning.  The doors at both ends of the corridor were held open by door jams to allow air circulation.  Most hotel rooms with guests inside kept their doors and windows open to allow the cross ventilation to lower the otherwise high temperatures within.  Hmmm …. Interesting.  We checked in, dropped our gear and decided to head into the city centre.  J Hotel was nearer to the city centre than our previous hotel.   There was nothing on our schedule until 6 pm.  Traffic was almost non existent by then, we took Roy to Central Mall and Parliament Square.  We bought Naadam T shirts at the stalls that were set up for Naadam at the other end of Parliament Square.  An impromptu stage had also been erected for a concert later that evening.  

Chinggis flanked by a general at
Parliament House

We walked to the area along Peace Ave, Seoul St and Beijing St to find some lunch.  We ended up eating at a traditional fast food place – mutton soup, Khuushuur - fried bread with mutton filling (the official Naadam food) and a sizzling meat and rice dish.  After the late lunch, and taking in the festive air in the city centre, we went back to the hotel to rest up before our scheduled tour meeting that evening.

Parliament Square with the Naadam stage
in front the most modern mall in city centre UB

After the nap, we started to not feel too well.  My travelling companion suspected that she might be having a touch of food poisoning, so she advised her partner to take a preventative dose of activated charcoal.  

At the tour meeting, we found that there were two groups happening simulatenously. Originally Group 2 had 10 people.  By that evening it had 12 people instead of 10.  There was a octogenarian by the name of Brian who had not been able to find his roommate Lee.  There was a tall German lady (Jule) and an Indian lady (Dr) and two very young Aussies – Michelle and Hannah.  There was a couple from Ontario, Canada who was travelling with another couple friend - they had met two years ago on another G Adventure trip to Turkey.  

The briefing dealt with the usual administration - time to meet the next day, the schedules, travel insurance, etc.  The evening would begin with a group dinner after the briefing.  By the time briefing was over, the rest were heading out to welcome dinner.  We had opted out saying that we had had a late lunch at 3pm.  Actually, we were feeling much sicker but we did not want to alarm the rest the group.

Our travelling companion's partner went to get some yogurt for us, with the hope that it would help settle the stomach.  Yogurt had always managed to do the trick.  The yogurt in UB though were not strong yogurt but a fermented milky drink .  We continued to be sick.  Our partner continued to work from UB even though he was on vacation as a site where he consulted to had some issues.  They had called him for help as both their technical supervisors were on holiday.  My travelling companion remembered little except for trying to clean her system out and having to take carbon pill in the middle of the night as she did not want to be "crooked" for Naadam the next day.  The next day would be an early start day.  The Group would leave the hotel at 8 am to walk to Parliament Square to watch the ceremonial "horsetails" being picked up from there and brought to Naadam Stadium on horse back.  We were hoping that the episode of food poisoning dissipated quickly.

11^th July, Monday

Day 1 of Naadam.  The weather was unbelievably beautiful – nice blue skies, no rain and it was not scorching hot.  One could not ask for a more beautiful day.  It was by far the most comfortable day since our arrival in UB.

Naadam banner leaving Mongolian Parliament
for the Stadium

The stomach appeared to have settled although my travelling companion was still feeling a little weak and sore.  For breakfast, she ate two slices of toast, an egg, washed down with some juice and some coffee.  Amazingly, it stayed in.  That was a good start.

The parade where the Naadam banners were transported
from Parliament to the National Stadium

At 8am, the gathered group started to walk towards Parliament Square.  There were people everywhere, especially at the Square.  Many were dressed in traditional finery.  We observed nine white horsehair banners being matched out of Parliament on to waiting horsemen who then mounted their horses and began to circle Parliament in a clockwise manner.  We went to the street side to wait for the horsemen to pass.  We were told that black banners were used in times of war and white in times of peace.  Traditionally, at Naadam, the banners were all white.  The banner bearers on horseback rode towards the National Stadium some distance away followed by other horsemen, mounted cavalry and some nomads.  

Many roads have been closed and there was little traffic on the streets.  Crowds were walking to the stadium.  We walked with them.  Around the stadium were food stalls offering delicacies of all kinds - fermented mares milk in recycled soda bottles, khuushuurs, bowls of noodles, souvenirs and toys for kids.  Some nomads were offering camel and horse rides.  

We went to Gate 9, the gate indicated on our ticket.  As we were looking for our seats, we found that the group was two seats short.  We ended up with the two seats that were away from the rest of our group.  At first we were a little unhappy with the couple that changed group but the seats turned out to be with the other group on the same tour and offered a much better and unrestricted view of the Naadam proceedings.  There was also an extra empty seat next to us which gave more room for camera maneuver.

The President of Mongolia doing the
Naadam dance around the Naadam banners

Except for a pesky child in front of us whose constant movement was interfering with our photographic attempt, the opening ceremony went on perfectly.  The opening ceremony involved a lot of humans riding on horses, traditional dances, and war scenes.  Although we did not have anyone interpreting Mongolian for us, the scene before us was quite self explanatory.  it told the story of Chinggis Khan and the unification of tribes which lead to the birth of Mongolia. The story then took us through the recent history of the nation ... the rocket launch, young people dance, ASEM and then parades of various groups which represent all aspects of modern Mongolian life.  The President of Mongolia was present to chair the opening ceremony.  He even did the traditional Naadam dance in front of the nation.  There was a large cauldron where a torch was lit - the scene at the end of the opening ceremony was like a mini Olympic with a distinctive Mongolian flavour.

At Naadam, participants competed in three categories of games - wrestling, archery and horse raising.  The only game not open to female participants was wrestling.

Wrestlers paying homage

Some of the colourful performers at the Opening Ceremony

Bujin, our guide had said that we would go first to see archery competitions after the opening ceremony before returning to wrestling later as spaces to watch the archery competition were quickly taken.  As soon as the opening ceremony was over, all the locals exited the Stadium quickly.  The other tour guide came to collect his people for the archery area.  Since we had not seen our group or Bujin, we followed this guide but had him inform her that we were with him so that she would not be looking for us.  We were better off with a group than by ourselves as we had no idea where to go for anything nor could we find our way as nothing was written in any language other than Mongolian.  We also could not tell who could speak English and who could not.  As we were exiting the Stadium, we noticed all the wrestlers lining up to touch their foreheads to the white horsehair banners before they began competing.

The President of Mongolia declaring the archery
competition open

At the archery site, we watched an archery demonstration before the official opening of the competition by the President.  He is the newly elected gentleman.  He shot three arrows as far as he could and it reached the end of the archery arena.  The competition then began.  The target for the archery competition is a three high row of small size concrete blocks built into a low wall on the ground.  A small red area in the middle of that low wall represented the bull’s eye.  Near the targets were people to indicate how close the archer came to the mark.  These were in the line of fire but they appeared nonchalance about this, jumping away from the arrows as these came towards them.  No one got shot at all which although surprising to our eyes, was the norm to the locals.

An archer in action

The men’s archery competition was followed by the women's.  While there, a well dressed in traditional clothes gentleman with an open blue silk umbrella explained the game in perfect English to three of us, the others being an Indian couple that we did not know at all.  As the afternoon got hotter, we found some stairs in the shade and sat there.  Just then, we were approached by none other than the three new friends who had shared the carriage with us on the leg of the Trans Siberian from Irkutsk to UB – Tracy and the couple.  They were all staying with their friend, a teacher in UB at the International School for the past three years.  She said that summers in Mongolia were usually like that day and not the days before that.

After watching archery for a little while, we went to lunch with our adopted tour group.  

Lunch was salad with khuushuur and a cold drink.  After lunch was free time which we could spend watching the wrestling matches or do something else.  

A gate of the Winter Palace compound

We decided that we would go to the Winter’s Palace which was not too far away.  We walked there by ourselves, just the three of us.  We were purchasing entry tickets when we spotted three of our original group - Jule, Durgha and Lee.  Nice coincidence.  We all decided to explore the winter palace together.  Entrance fees was 8000T each but photography would cost 50,000T.  We opted against photography.  Afterwards, we wondered if they had meant each or the group as a whole.

Statues at a road junction depicting
Silk Road trade

It was a great place to escape from the Naadam crowds.  The winter palace had been permitted to age naturally.  It is now a museum that stores Buddhist relics of historical significance.  Not that there was much worth photographing as were not Buddhist relics experts or enthusiasts.  We finally made it out the door after an hour or so.  Walking back to the hotel, we stopped to take pictures with the statues in a traffic circus that depicted a camel caravan along the Silk Road.  

A group of us decided that we would go to an Indian for dinner.  We rested for a bit, then walked to Namaste near the tourist area of town.  The fish masala we ordered was a little oily but the naan was great.  After dinner, the three young ladies headed to the fireworks at Sukhbaatar Square, Lee to have drinks with his friend, and Jule walked back with us after visiting the nearby supermarket for some essential supplies.

 

That evening, Roy and we would watched the fireworks from the balcony of our hotel.  UB was still relatively flat so the balcony of our hotel offered a great view  We were tired from the interrupted sleep the night before so we slept at an reasonable hour.  The next day would be another early start day.

12^th July – Tuesday

Breakfast started at 7.30 am, with departure scheduled for 8.30 by mini bus to the horse race,  The venue was slightly out of town.  Our mini bus driver was a lady who spoke and understood English really well.  Bujin originally wanted to sit with the group at the back but there was not enough space so she sat the front.  Lee and Jule and we sat near the front so we spent some time getting to know each other.

The quick change of traffic lanes on Mongolian roads on
the way to the horse races for Naadam

The trip out to the horse race area was interesting as the police kept increasing the number of outgoing lanes on the road to 5, leaving only one for oncoming traffic.  This was carried out without any physical structures other than regularly spaced traffic police in high visibility net jackets.  To those of us from developed nations, this appeared to be a breach of safety protocols.  The locals knew the rules though and no one was hurt.  They were alert to the humans and horses which suddenly appear on the roads.  The entire city appeared to be going to the horse races.  Our lady driver was impatient but safe.  When we arrived at the venue, we off loaded at a convenient spot while she went to find a park.  Bujin walked us to the grand stand where we would watch the race after first making a washroom stop.  

A call as the portable washroom cost 300T and an hour of queuing.  We were really embarrassed by the American ladies in one of 4 group of our tour (they were in one of the two groups that were finishing with Naadam) who asked if there was a price discount for the long wait to the poor Mongolian attendant who could not understand her.

Other activities appeared to be transacted in the WC, including sale of mare’s milk.  Hmmm … We were there mainly to watch the horse races where the riders were young children.  It was the highlight race for Naadam.  Bujin said that some years back, the Mongolian government thought of restricting the competition to children who had attained a specific minimum age, but the general population, especially the nomads, did not agree with that restriction.   To this day, children of all ages competed together.  

Waiting for the race to start

We had seats in the grand stand near the finishing line.  There was no fixed seating. Children were everywhere.  The police made sure that all the spectators stayed out of the track area.  We watched the young competitors ride their horses over to this one gentleman who was gathering the contestants together.  Some of the children looked barely 3 years old.  When they have all gathered, they all rode out to the starting line of the race.  Many were observed to ride bare back on the horses and without stirrups although all were wearing helmets, as well as elbow and knee guards.  

Boys and girls raced side by side

Champ rode without stirrup nor saddle

The race soon began.  The children rode hard.  Accompanying them on the sides of the race tracks were safety vehicles.  As they reached the end of the race, one could tell they were really tired.  Two horses came in without riders as these must have fallen off.  The champion cleared the finishing line with quite a wide margin.  He was tiny and he kept looking back.  2^nd and 3^rd places were tight calls as were the final two.  Boys and girls competed side by side.

Race not to be last

After that race, we headed towards where we would have lunch.  We tried to form a conga line leaving the grand stand area so that we would not lose each other.  At some point, Bujin was vseparated from us.  We were left with Anica and Karen and ours and their respective significant others.  Someone kept pushing Karen so my travelling companion said uh-uh to them and they stopped. Karen thought it was funny.  Then suddenly, a gentleman from a tourist group hurried over to our travelling companion, took her by the shoulder and asked if she knew what time the next race would start.  She had worn a scarf around her head rather than a hat that day.  She asked him if she looked Mongolian to me but he did not appear to understand.  So she told him that she is Australian, and therefore had no idea at all.  Everyone thought the incident was really amusing.

Lunch was pizza.  The tour group was trying to cater to our non-Mongolian taste buds after complaints about lunch the day before from some in our group.  Some members of the group had problem with that.  Being vegetarian in Mongolia where the staple is usually meat is going to be difficult.  Fussy eaters who do not eat certain types of meat or complained that they were too oily or cooked to their liking where the basic way of cooking was to add salt to boil or roast were going to be challenged too.  Very specific diet requirements not catered for and demanded to be catered for in the group was starting to bore us.

A scene we watched while at lunch

On the way back to the bus, our guide Bujin almost lost the way.  She also almost let us on the wrong bus.  Our lady bus driver recongised us.  We headed back to town, but on the way, we would make a nature bathroom stop.  It was our first such bathroom stop.  Jule, Durgha and my travelling companion just got off the bus, went to the other side of it out of sight of the roads and did it.  We decided that we need to "break the ice" and get used to it. Karen and Anica went looking for a ditch.  The lady driver said that there was a dead animal in the ditch and it smelt bad.

On the way back to the hotel, the bus dropped off those who wanted to go shopping in the city centre.  The rest of us got off at the hotel.  We were instructed meet again at 8pm in the lobby so that we could walk to the Closing Ceremony at the Stadium.

We decided that as we did not need a full meal, we would snacked on some cookies and a coffee.  Those who went shopping came back to the hotel with fruits for dinner.  

A pair of wrestlers at the quarter finals

At 8pm, those of us who were attending the Closing Ceremony walked to the Stadium. Some of our group had opted not to go.  Arriving at the Stadium, we note that the wrestling matches were still in progress.   The Closing Ceremony would begin after the wrestling competition was completed.  At that stage, there were 8 competitors left - quarter finals.  We were cheering for one of the fitter looking wrestler.

The Mexican wave in progress

At the quarter final, there was a controversial call.  There was a long deliberation.  The longer it took, the more agitated the spectators in the stadium got as each had their share of spectators.  A Mexican wave started among the spectators and went around the stadium several times.  More and more experts got called into the field to help with the determination.  The riot police was called in to ensure that the increasingly noisy spectators did not become one of those soccer incidents in Europe.  Finally, the determination was that they would re-compete.  The competition took a long time to get to semi-finals.  

The long deliberation

Riot police in action

As we were leaving the city and getting out quite early the next morning, none of us wanted to stay too late just to attend the closing ceremony.  At around 10pm, we decided that we would go back to the hotel and watch it on TV from there.  A wrong turn resulted in us walking the scenic longer route which some of our fellow tourists complained intensely.  We were not too concerned as we were afforded the opportunity to see the city lighted up.  

Arriving at the hotel lobby, we decided to spring a surprise on Bujin as she was celebrating a birthday the next day.   We all sang happy birthday to her and gave her a huge hug.  

When we arrived at our room, we noted from the TV that the wrestling matches were finally done.  The stadium appeared to have lost its crowd too.  An abbreviated closing ceremony was carried out.  We watched that on TV.  We were glad that we had not stayed on for the abbreviated ceremony.  Still it was past midnight before we got ready to sleep.

Note : A more comprehensive story of Naadam 2016 in pictures will be published shortly on Sylvia's Photos : https://www.facebook.com/SylviaTanPhotography/