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This week was filled with activities associated with the biggest celebration of the year in Mongolia.  The celebration is called Naadam and has been taking place for hundreds of years.  It is a national celebration and has a New Years feel to it, except that it takes place over several days instead of one evening and day for New Years.  It centers around four sports and we made sure to experience all four.

Monday: the official opening takes place on Thursday, but some competitions begin early. One of those is archery.  The archery competition celebrates the great skill of the Mongol warriors as they introduced a new kind of warfare when they built the largest empire the world has ever seen 800 years ago. There are different kinds of archery based on distance and the types of targets. Some types allow men and women, some are men only. We found a shaded spot in the stands and as usual, we were the only non-Mongolians from what we could tell. 

We were surrounded by the archery competitors and one by the name of Khogor, came over to sit with us and explain some of the activity. We got to know him a little through the use of our translator. He was actually the Mongolian Champion of Archery in 2004. 

At one point, he took us up to the prime viewing spot and put us in front of various snacks and told us to have some.  It was a great experience. 

The event we watched that day had around 15 targets lined up on the ground and the archers would fire their arrows at the targets.  It didn’t matter how close to the center they hit – if they hit any of the lined-up targets, they got a point.  They had eight arrows to shoot at a time.  The competition lasts for several hours.  We did not stay for the end. We were hungry so we walked over to the shopping center to eat at The Bull Hot Pot restaurant (we tried to go to a different location on Saturday night, but the wait was too long). We ordered their set menu, which comes with beef, many different vegetables, mushroom soup, and dumplings.  You cook the ingredients in the soup at the table – very much like fondue.  The restaurant has robots that bring the food out.

After lunch, we walked to the main market to look for deels to wear to the Naadam opening ceremony.  Deels are the traditional Mongolian dress and often, couples will wear matching ones.  We couldn’t find anything that inspired us to buy but walking around the market was a little reminiscent of walking around the Medinas in Morocco.  You can find just about anything you can possibly need.  After the market, we went over to the National Park and rented a four-wheel bike.  We rode for about 30 minutes around the park.  The seat was too low and too far forward for us, so it wasn’t a very comfortable ride. 

On the walk home, we found a Foody location in the Shangri-La mall and enjoyed bean wraps and kombucha just like we had at their other location last week.

Tuesday: Today’s activities started at the main square (Sukhbaatar Square) for us. It won’t be possible to properly describe how cool this day was.  It was beautiful and it was even emotional.  Today was a celebration of the traditional dress of Mongolia and everywhere you looked in the square, it was filled with people dressed in absolutely gorgeous clothing.  The colors were so vibrant.  The pride was so evident on the people of this country.  It was a very special experience.

From the square, we walked to the national stadium area to watch the knucklebone competition. This event is a game that has been played by the nomadic Mongolians for centuries. They line up around 15 knucklebones (they may specifically be ankle bones from sheep or goat) around 15 meters away from the shooter.  The shooter has a flat square stone and flicks it toward the knucklebones.  The more bones the shooter knocks over, the more points. The shooters compete on teams and the teams support their shooter by humming a very calming noise to help the shooter concentrate.  The opposing teams hum also but they make pitch changes, trying to break the shooter’s concentration. It is a very stoic game other than the humming and whether the shooter makes a good shot or a bad shot, the demeanor does not change.

After knucklebone, we walked to Silk Road for lunch.  It’s in the same building as Veranda and Fat Cat Jazz Club – has to be one of my favorite buildings given that all three places have been outstanding. At Silk Road, we had chips and guacamole, shared pork and chicken tacos, and finally found a really good margarita.  We did something we don’t think we’ve done before.  Once we finished lunch, it was all so good that we asked the server to just repeat everything start to finish. So, we went from lunch right into dinner and we were stuffed.  But it was so, so good.

Wednesday: Today was back to the gym for our workouts.  We checked out the flag-raising ceremony at the square beforehand.  Lots of people and the main part of the square was closed off for the ceremony.  They raised six Mongolian flags to celebrate the coming of Naadam. After the workout, we had chicken teriyaki bowls and miso soup at a Japanese fast-food place called Yoshinoya. After walking around the square and putting together our grocery list, we headed to the butcher to pick up some steaks (and some very good chocolate chip cookies – who would have thought?) and to the grocery store. It’s time for new running shoes for me and there is a store on the third floor of the State Department Store that sells Asics, so I was able to get some new ones.  Dinner was strip steaks, broccoli, and a baked potato at home.  I went over to the square later (while Sandy enjoyed some quiet time) to see a little of the performance taking place, which was a story of people coming together out on the steppe for a Naadam festival.  I think the opera leads we saw a few weeks ago at Madame Butterly were a part of this performance.

Thursday: Opening Ceremony of the Naadam Festival and wow was it impressive.  I’ve not been to an Olympics before, but I would think this had a very similar feel.  We walked around the stadium looking for the spot to pick up our tickets. The tickets are virtually impossible to get when they go on sale and so you are pretty much subjected to the after-market sales. They are attainable – just not at the $10 price level.  We paid $150 for each of ours and chalked it up to – this is just one of those things that you can’t miss.  It was worth every dollar. We picked the tickets up and headed to our seats.  The ceremony started right on time at 11am. Mongolia’s President comes on the field and makes a speech to open the festival and then it’s non-stop performance.  Horses, dancers, singers, loud music – totally impressive. The Mongolian band called The Hu performed (heavy metal but also with traditional instruments) – they were a highlight.  Also, the horses and the riders were amazing. The entrance of the nine silver banners – highly revered for centuries – was also very cool. Overall, the pride and the way their traditions are honored is such a special experience.

After the ceremony, the wrestling started.  This was the third event we wanted to see.  It’s not like the wrestling you see on TV or like Olympic wrestling. Here, about 40 wrestlers head out onto the stadium field and they match up against each other.  So there are 20 matches happening at the same time. The only rule is that the first one in the pairing to have any part of their body besides hands and feet touch the ground, loses. Fascinating to watch.

Hungry, we left the stadium and looked for kushuur (fried pastries stuffed with mutton) at many of the food stalls, but they were way too busy.  One said it would be about a 30-minute wait.  We then walked to Khaan Buuz, which is a traditional fast-food spot that we’ve wanted to try.  The rain started on our walk back and we got pretty soaked – still love our rain jackets, though.  They can’t help the feet much but they sure do help the upper body! The buuz was good – it’s steamed dumplings filled with mutton.    

We also shared a roll that was baked flour, but it must only be baked for a short period of time.  It doesn’t have crust, it’s very light, and would be superb with Little Caesar’s Crazy Bread seasoning. Sandy did some laundry when we got back and then we left to go to the square at 9.  We needed a light dinner and ended up finding Korean chicken (Sandy had honey garlic and I had spicy) at the UB Street Food plaza across from the square – neat place with probably ten different street food options to pick from.  We had gelato in the square and waited for the fireworks show at midnight.  Lot of good performances on the stage.  One really fun performer was Enkh-Erdene.  He looked and sounded kind of familiar. As he was singing, we said – he sounds a lot like the Mongolian country singer we saw on America’s Got Talent within the last year or two.  And sure enough, it was. Eventually, the rain returned and it became too much to keep waiting for the fireworks.  That was unfortunate because when they went off, we could easily hear them (but not see) from our apartment.  It sounded like a great show – it was ten minutes of what sounded like a typical finale.  And based on the rest of the festival, there is no doubt it was top level.

Friday: It’s the last day of Naadam and today we headed approximately 30km outside of the city to see the horse racing – the last of the four event competitions. We had a hard time figuring out the best way to get to the horse racing venue.  We read something online and went to a couple of bus stops we thought might have buses going to the venue.  I asked one of the guys standing there (using Google Translate) and he made a phone call and then walked us over to a different stop and put us on the right bus while telling the bus driver in Mongolian where we wanted to go.  The bus driver told us to sit in the two seats near him.  This bus took us to the west side of the city where we transferred to a very crowded bus out to the venue in the valley.  Their horse races are not at a track.  They take place in an open valley and the races range in distance from around 7 or 8 miles up to around 15 miles or so. The ride took about an hour and after that long in tight quarters, you kind of make friends with some of the others.  One was a little man who reminded me of a jockey and he didn’t speak a word of English, but you could tell he wanted to make sure we were ok.  He told Sandy a couple of times that we were almost there – at least that’s what we decided he was saying. As we approached, traffic became incredibly slow – inching forward occasionally.  Every few minutes, some people would give up and get out to walk the rest of the way.  We lasted in these conditions for about an hour and then walked the last mile.

Upon arrival, we ate some excellent kushuur and then tried a small cup of airag.  Airag is fermented mare’s milk – runs about 2% alcohol content. We’ll stick with the kushuur.  The airag wasn’t horrible – it’s got to be more of an acquired taste. I think I would describe the taste as being like a liquid form of a tart cheese – liquid like milk.  Glad to have tried it and who knows – we may get the chance more when we are in the countryside.  It’s ok if we don’t, though.

After that, we walked toward the valley where the racing takes place. 

We got there in time to see the horses gathering for the next race and then they headed off into the horizon to wherever the start line was.  I think this race must have been around ten miles or so.  After a little while, you could see the dust in the distance, which told you where the horses were coming from. 

As they approached the crowd, there was lots of whooping and hollering in support of the riders and horses.  The youngest age to ride is seven and I think most of the riders were under the age of 15 with some just tiny on their horses.  It was so neat to see. Several horses came in without riders (you can see one in the picture below) – there must have been vehicles that picked up the riders who couldn’t stay on.  Most people (including us) stayed until the last rider came along and it was actually two riders and they were really making a dash to try and not come in last.  I’m going to guess that there was a total of around 75 horses in the race. 

Following the race, we headed toward the bus stop to start our journey back.  As bad as the traffic was getting here and with the number of people needing to go back, we knew the worst case was that we could walk all the way back – it would take around seven hours or so, but at least that was the worst. There was a bus waiting when we got there and a huge crowd wanting to get on.  We opted to hang back and wait for the next bus – our little friend from the morning bus was there as well and he indicated it would be best to wait. After as many people as it seemed possible could crush onto the bus – and crushing it was, watching them get through the doorways, the bus driver motioned to us that there was room and we should get on.  We did and it was perfect.  We had a little space and we were right up front next to the driver.  No seats of course, but we were fine and couldn’t believe we were able to get on the first bus with a few inches of space.  The only sad part was that our little friend didn’t get on. We came back into Ulaanbaatar and the bus stop was very close to the station I wanted to go to buy longer-distance bus tickets for some upcoming travel.  That went fine and then we took a city bus to the Blue Sky Hotel to get dinner up at the top (23^rd floor).  I had chicken wings (again, sweeter than buffalo style) and Sandy had a burger.

Last word on Naadam. This was such an amazing experience. I had read a lot about it and I wasn’t sure if it would live up to the hype, but it definitely did.  It’s kind of sad to see it coming to an end.  I wouldn’t change any of the experience but if we ever get to experience it again, I might try to see some of the finals of the competitions to get an idea of what the competition looks like at that stage. For the first time though, this was the perfect way to get to experience some of everything.