Mongolian Tour: Horses and Reindeer (Travel Dream!)

While I can recognise a Shetland pony, I don't really know the difference between a horse and a pony.  Some people seem to refer to them interchangeably, so I am forever confused.  Such as it was, when writing out my travel dreams, one of them was to ride a Mongolian pony in the desert.

Before arriving in Mongolia, and for a long time after, I knew very little about the place (which is absurd, because I applied for an AYAD volunteer position based in Ulaanbataar in 2008, but I instead went to Nepal). What I did know is that they were horse people.  Love horses, just love them.  Horse carvings, horses painted on the sides of trains, horse souvenirs, horses where you find bicycles in every other country - hell, the national drink appears to be fermented mare's milk!  Horses were something we saw just about everywhere we traveled in the country, and why we wanted to make it a part of our tour.

After leaving the yak herders and beautiful Terkhiin Tsagaan, we moved again into more barren terrain, to the home of a collection of gers all devoted to strengthening, breeding and training beautiful horses.  Mongolian horses have somewhat of a wild streak to them (much like the people) and probably all horses do, but there's something in their eyes here that makes you realise you are not dealing with a household pet.  We were to spend 3 days with these beautiful creatures, as we climbed to the mountains in search of not only reindeer, but a family of the Tsaatan people who herd and breed them.  I'm actually not exaggerating about "searching" for them, because we literally did not know where they would be.

We learned earlier on the trip that Mongolians do not name their horses;  we found this out because we asked what Bataar called his car, and the answer from Bimba was "he doesn't call it anything, just like Mongolians, we don't name our horses".

"Not even your favourite?" someone ventured.

"No".

"What about one you receive as a gift?"

"No.. and those are even more special, we don't even ride them...that's the crazy", she says.  More on "that's the crazy" later.

Day 1 - Meeting the people

The afternoon of our first day here was remarkable.  While Bimba prepared an evening meal for us, we were treated to a veritable show.  The whole neighborhood (at least from gers within riding distance) had gathered outside Nara's family's home (Nara was our horse guide).  Partly they had come because tourists had arrived and they wanted to get a good look at us, and partly because they were here to see the breaking in of a horse.

Matcha (our apprentice horse guide) had the unenviable job of saddling the unhappy star attraction while the old sages looked on.  Young and old, women and men, toddlers and teenagers, all squatted within a safe distance, only occasionally mumbling a joke or piece of advice.  

Lesson time

The show only really began once the saddle was on, because another man climbed aboard and the horse fairly lost his temper and he raced off bucking and kicking to the horizon and we never saw the rider again.  

And we never saw him again

Strangely enough though, the horse was back the next day - Matcha had the job of riding it along with escorting the horse carrying all our gear!  Man, it gave him a rough time.

Following the show, the group broke up and went their separate ways, the highlight was a 3 or 4 year old, standing on the back of Dad's bike!

Show's over, heading home with Dad

Day 2 - Riding

My nameless dun-coloured horse, poor fella, as I am sure I was much too big for him, measured up to my expectations of an almost wild animal.  He was not interested in pats, "good boy" comments or sugar cubes, or stopping when told to.  He really wanted to go where we were going and then get back home.  

Rob's horse had a chunk bitten from his hindquarters

Kat had a chestnut horse which almost earned a nickname (until we remembered that we shouldn't) of "Bitey" due to his tendency to try to eat the other horse's butts. Strangely Kat's camel from the sand dune expedition shared this same tendency! Kat's horse was otherwise fairly cooperative, usually stopping on request and pretty happy to be alive. He did require a firm grip and Kat certainly found him more fun to ride than any other horse she has even met!  

Kat striking a Mongolian marauder pose

Our first day was spent walking steadily upwards towards a glacier near the Russian border (I was never able to find out the name), the vicinity of which we expected to find the Tsaatan family - for they were somewhere non-specific, in-between their winter and summer camps.  Through open plains, windy hills, boggy marshes, lush green forests and pine-clad ridges we meandered, getting to know our horses (but not our guides who were almost basically silent).  Bimba was (what appeared to me) an expert on the back of a horse and I think she loves it any time one of her groups goes on a riding expedition.  

Kat & Bimba, the horse-whisperer

Two dogs followed us all the way, and it took me almost the entire day to realise that they belonged to our guide Nara and weren't strays from a nearby ger-camp. They had a marvelous time finding their own way through the streams we crossed, digging out mouse and prairie dog holes and at one point terrifying my horse so much that it bolted (which is the part that terrified me).  Before long we were back under control and I was still in the saddle, but my heart rate was certainly right up!

Kat taking a sneaky break with Bitey

In the evening, we found the family, camped out in a clearing of a pine tree wood, not far from a thrashing stream.  After the initial introductions they rather kept to themselves, except for helping us set up our own yhurt, complete with semi-permanent (as permanent as anything is in a nomadic society) stove/fireplace and introduced us to their magnificent herd of reindeer.

How to build a yhurt 101

The big buck, recognisable from his ridiculously humongous antlers fed alongside the 30-strong herd of varying ages.  

Big man reindeer

You could easily touch and feel their fur (not the antlers!) as they were very docile.  Before we knew it, the reindeer were herded in for the night. I couldn't tell whether the baby human* or the reindeer were more adorable!  

*Child might be cuter than a reindeer (look at those cheeks)

They were all tied overnight, so they did not wander too far from where the family were staying.  I think this was mainly because in-between camps they had no pen in which to house them, and they needed the mothers close by for milking in the morning.

Mama reindeer settling in for the night

Day 3 - More riding and the glacier

A much slower and easier day, where we started to understand our horses a little better; we spent a few hours climbing the hill above our camp guided by the dogs to have a glorious view of the glacier.

Off to the glacier

Matcha, Sarah, Kat, Tasha & puppy-dog winding up the hill

We had a snow fight and just sat quietly, as far from anywhere as we have been on our entire world journey, soaking up the sound of the wind and the impermanence of our existence.

Even dogs like contemplating their existence

Day 4 - Homeward Bound

Our horses seemed to know the route pretty well.  So they knew that this day was time to go home.  With most of the route downhill, it was all I could do to keep my horse from galloping all the way!  Back through the same marshes and slopes, any time there was an open space he tried to go for it.  Eventually we all had confidence enough that we let them go and BOY what a feeling!  When the ger was in sight, I just needed to slacken the reins one little bit and he would go.  I probably looked like a lame little Lost Boy, but I felt like the Man From Snowy River.

Our crew: Tasha with Nara, his wife and son, Batar, Sarah, Kat and Rob
The best way to get the smile off a Mongolian's face is to pull out your camera!

Westeros...I mean Beijing

Beijing was great, especially as Sarah the China Fairy met us there for a wonderful week of travel. It wasn't long into our trip that we realised that perhaps we had wandered into Westeros instead of Beijing.* 

If you haven't seen or read the Song of Ice and Fire (AKA Game of Thrones), this post will make no sense to you.  In which case, you probably have better things to do.  One strong recommendation would be to immediately stop what you are doing (ie. reading this) and go and read the books NOW...there's only 5 of them, get to it.

We spent our week exploring...

The Summer Palace (King's Landing)

Where we learned about the Empress Cixi and her nasty, manipulative and probably murderous rise to power.  Empress Cixi (which we imagine sounds a lot like Cersei) ruled as "regent" over a large period of the Qing dynasty.  She forced her son to marry against his will, declared war in the early 1900's on everyone around (including some pretty significant world powers at the time: the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and the US).  She was probably involved in the deaths of many political opponents, was resistant to reforms and lived an indulgent life in the Summer Palace and, towards the end of her rule lived in a time of mass unrest that ultimately ended in the collapse of the Qing dynasty, not long after her death.  Probably a significant warning at the current time for a certain Cersei Lanniser of King's Landing.

The view from the Summer Palace/Red Keep

Summer Palace

How the rich live in both kingdoms

Hutongs (Fleas Bottom)

Exploring the Hutongs of Beijing was not dissimilar to Arya's early exploration of the alleyways of Flea Bottom in King's Landing, where she chased cats to work on her reflexes.  The weaving streets, the touting shopkeepers and the constant throng of people here and about, it was easy to draw the comparison.

Sarah to the Hutong Cat Cafe as Arya to the alleyways of Flea Bottom

The Great Wall of China (The Wall)

The Great Wall...well this is an easy one isn't it?  I mean, there's a huge wall in the north of Westeros.  There's a huge wall in the north of China.  Both were built to keep out a terrifying enemy.  Frozen zombies in one case, marauding Mongolians in the other.  And further, remember that Daenarys is told of a prophecy, involving a three-headed dragon.

THE WALL

The three-headed dragon!

Castle Black after the battle with the Wildlings!

The Forbidden City (Meereen)

The Forbidden City's sister would be Meereen, a stretch we'll admit...but its intimidating structures and lack of any kind of colour will have to do.

Formidable

A hot climate paired with lots of concrete!

The journey

On our voyage we were constantly met by intimidating protectors in the form of dragons, lions, stags (and probably wolves, although to be perfectly honest, we couldn't find a single one to back this theory up).  These animals all represent the strongest families of Westeros, and and there are plenty of other animal sentinels used in China that could relate to other smaller houses.

Targaryans standing guard

Baratheon on the watch

Lannisters all dressed up

Then we ventured over the border into some grassy lands.

Meeting the Mongolians (Dothraki)

Mongolians is where the next surprising association is, although you have to use a bit of your imagination.  Remember the Dothraki?  The people who live and die by their horses, a nomadic people, constantly moving to new pastures and do not trust the sea (modern Mongolians don't even have access to one).  They survive on horse meat and fermented mare's milk.  This is textbook Mongolia!  Except for the fact that the Dothraki are no where near the Wall in Westeros, the relationship between Dothraki and Mongolians is pretty strong.

A nomad with his horse

Westeros, er...I mean Beijing, was impressive and not just for the huge scale of everything in it. It is an incredible place to find yourself for a week.

*Later we found out we were certainly not the first to draw such comparisons between Westeros and Beijing. 

P.S. Interesting also to read about speculation as to why Game of Thrones is censored in China. 

Chitwan National Park (Travel Dream!)

Travel dreaming

Our second attempt at fulfilling a travel dream came off without a hitch! Rob had dreamt of visiting Chitwan National Park since 2008 when he lived in Kathmandu. Chitwan is in the south-central region of Nepal, near the border with India and covers approximately 900 square kilometres. The park has more than 700 species of wildlife. Rob had heard great things from friends and was most excited about the possibility of seeing a rhino.

Where to find the animals

First views of Chitwan National Park

Pokhara to Chitwan

The bus ride from Pokhara to Chitwan saw me transporting back and forth between Nepali towns in 2015 and a high school crime scene in Maryland 1999. I had finally taken up my sister, Sarah’s, recommendation to listen to the Serial podcast (you should too!). Problem was I couldn’t stop listening and went back-to-back through 4 episodes. Even during our road-side stop I kept listening as we treated ourselves to a Himalayan Beans coffee. (Yes, drive through's have arrived in Nepal.) I found the below sign a bit disturbing. 

Read the bottom line of the sign

On arrival at Chitwan we were pleased to be in a more temperate climate again. Our accommodation was luxurious because we had a discounted package from the Upper Mustang tour company.

The Mystery of the Brown Crack

Once we had lunch and settled in, we met Umesh, our guide for the evening. He showed us around the village and the town before we walked along the river. Umesh was an excellent guide, not only because he knew his stuff and had a hawk’s eye for spotting wildlife, but also because he spoke to me as well as Rob. (Often I have found that Rob is addressed in conversation.) Near the river that borders the national park, Umesh spotted some deer with antlers bigger than their bodies from a miraculous distance. He also pointed out a “brown crack” to us at one point. Rob searched for it but didn’t see it. The next day our second guide had indicated another “brown crack”, this time Rob spotted it and then revealed the day before he had been searching for a crack in the ground rather than a bird!

Rob searching for a brown crack!

After dinner we attended a cultural dance show in a local hall. There were some brilliant dances and odd audience behaviour. Our favourite involved a high level of coordination and rhythm sticks. We think it could have been interesting for Rob’s brother, Tim, who does and teaches stage combat. After the show we went to a Food Festival that had taken over the town. It felt a bit like that festival they do in Summer along the Yarra and sell the same food you can get in the CBD for half the price. However, it was nice to see how the town celebrated.

This is your breakfast! 

On our second day we were set to take part in a boat ride, jungle walk and jeep safari. Firstly we were greeted by the friendly waiter at our hotel who was present at every meal and always exceedingly cheerful. That morning when our food arrived at the table he dramatically declared, “This is your breakfast!” This amused us since many times whilst travelling in Nepal we often found ourselves not knowing basic things that were happening, for example how long a bus would be stopping for lunch (or was it a toilet break?). Anyway, whenever the waiter presented our meals I found myself saying “Wow” as some sort of unconscious reflex that attempted to match his cheer. (The food was fine but we had much better meals trekking in remote regions to be honest.)

Speaking of not knowing basic things, I think the confusion that sometimes result for the tourist in Nepal was well encapsulated by a scenario at Jomsom airport. Rob and I were waiting to go into separate male and female rooms to be searched by security before boarding our flight.  Two other tourists were ushered over to the queues by their guide. Soon they were laughing and I heard one of them say, “I thought we were being told to line up for the bathroom before our flight, not security.” (In the end the small airport did not manage to rustle up a woman to search the female travellers, so once all the men had been searched I was told to go through the male entry. Noone searched me because I suppose security is considered second priority in this instance.)

Tiny canoe chairs in the fog

Getting back to Chitwan, we soon found ourselves on tiny chairs in a narrow canoe (made from the trunk of a silk-cotton tree) that threatened to tip with every head turn. We were on a boat with three other tourists and three guides that liked to spot the same birds and make the same jokes! (As a visitor to the national park you must have a guide.) It was a foggy morning but were able to see a number of birds before landing for our jungle walk. During the walk we saw more birds, including a few woodpeckers and some deer. I was pretty chuffed when I spotted a sole deer about ten metres off right near our path, before our guide.

Did we mention it was foggy?

Cloaked in fog: our morning trek did not initially look promising

Soon the fog cleared up for this explorer

An elephant's life

A visit to the elephant nursery sanctuary was also a part of our program but I was not super keen. In fact, I was hesitant about visiting Chitwan at all because I had read negative reviews about the treatment of elephants. In the end, we decided to opt for a jeep safari rather than an elephant safari so that we were at least not supporting these practices directly. 

Elephant at his post 

This guy came directly over to me once unchained

Daily trip to the forest for the elephants to collect their food

The visit to the nursery was amazing because I had not been that close to an elephant before. It was interesting to seem them interact with the mahout who unchained them and took them to the jungle for feeding whilst we were there. It was also quite sad seeing these elephants with their front legs chained together and, more so, once I read about how they were trained. An elephant calf is initially isolated from its mother and food and water is restricted. The calf is chained as not to harm the trainers. The elephant is taught vocal and signal commands and may be injured during training. I have read they use punishment here rather than the positive reinforcement used to train elephants in other places. 

Commands taught to elephants

However, the flip side of the coin is that the trained elephants do some important work. I have since read that in the past few years, Chitwan has reduced the level of rhino poaching (rhino horns are falsely believed to have medicinal benefits by some and thus are very valuable and sought after). Elephants are used by the army to patrol the national park for poachers, rescuing people from flooded areas and counting wild animals. Unfortunately it seems they are also used in polo games. It really made me question how we see the training or domestication of some animals as okay but not others. I suppose I think that training elephants is okay as long they are treated well. I am not enthusiastic when they are trained purely to entertain tourists.

Jeep safari 

Our jeep safari started off slow as we entered the outskirts of the park. Though I had deliberately set myself low expectations for wildlife spotting, I started to wonder if we would see much at all. I remember saying to Rob that the dried coconut we were munching on was the highlight so far! Thankfully our luck improved. In 4 hours on the jeep we ended up seeing one rhino, one python and many crocodiles, deers and birds. We were very close to the rhino who did not seem to be perturbed by our presence. The poor guy had lost his horn. Our guide told us this was due to bats which confused us. We had read that if rhinos are poached for their horns they are usually killed in the process. We wondered if perhaps the park rangers had removed the horn to protect the rhino, but we were told they don’t do that at Chitwan. So we are not sure why the one-horned-rhino was in fact hornless, but we are pretty sure that bats had little to do with it. It was amazing to see both the rhino, deer and crocodiles up close.

We saw a rhino!

Oh Dear! Missing our camera and a phone camera did not cut it!

Crocodile Sanctuary

Mid-way through our jeep safari we stopped at a crocodile sanctuary. Initially I was most excited about a visit to the bathroom. Then I spotted a spider the size of my head next to the loo, and decided I could wait. At the sanctuary we learnt about the Gharial crocodile species that is critically endangered. The sanctuary is doing all it can to boost numbers but it sounds like it has a challenge ahead. The visit confirmed for me that crocodiles are such odd but fascinating creatures. I would pick one to watch and see how long before it moved an eyelid or went to close its open mouth. Most of them looked like statues at a theme park. 

Nothing sinister



Open mouth competition number 306

More alarming than the spider?

Sunset on our jeep tour

Living a dream! (well this was in the carpark but you get the idea.)

Back to Kathmandu

The bus to Kathmandu was rough. Amazingly it was Rob that felt motion sickness and not I. Nonetheless I still managed to lose half my lunch due to the toilet conditions at one of our stops. We were both relieved when we finally made it to Kathmandu in the middle of the afternoon. Our trekking guide, Krishna had invited us to dinner at his house that night to meet his sister, sister-in-law and baby niece.

Useful information for visiting Chitwan:

Tour or go it alone?: Whilst you need a tour guide once inside the park, you can get to Chitwan independently - we would certainly recommend this. (NB: We didn't due to of our discounted package after the Upper Mustang saga but usually we probably would.) Getting a bus from Kathmandu or Pokhara to Chitwan is easy enough.

Elephant sanctuary: If you go, make sure you visit the museum here to learn about the life of the elephant. It was good to get this insight though it left me with many questions. Most people missed it and our guide did not mention it until I enquired about it. (This time I had done some pre-reading.)

Jeep safari: A lot of places may advise the elephant safari over the jeep tour because the engine will scare away the wildlife. However, I feel like we saw a number of animals for a safari and though I have no experience from atop a Chitwan elephant, I would recommend the jeep option.

Camera and binoculars: A good zoom comes in handy (i.e. make sure your camera doesn't break just prior to your trip to Chitwan like some people we know! (DOLPHIN SANDS ROAD! *Shakes fist!*). Our guides lent us their binoculars lots but, if practical, having your own might be nice too.

When to go: Apparently it was a good time to go because they do burning off  of the elephant grass around this time of year and you can see more wildlife with the grass cleared.

Recently burnt-off elephant grass