Mongolian Tour: Games and Kids

I previously mentioned how one my favourite things from our Mongolian trip was hanging out with our host families. One highlight in this regard was when we arrived up North with the families who trained horses. Another, was a a few days earlier when we stayed in a house rather than a ger. On all occasions children from the host families and their neighbours were pretty excited to have people to play with them. It was lots of fun spending a few hours playing volleyball, soccer, martial arts, chasey and other games with these guys:

Skilled volleyballer that I struggled to keep up with

Did not want to stop playing

Look at me!

A bigger kid!

Lover of whirly-whirls

Rob: the ultimate piggy-back 

These kids are going to be tired tonight

Collecting tolls at one of the coolest toll-bridges ever!

At the end of our stay with a family we would give them small gifts. As part of our fundraising for Nepali youth we accepted a challenge from Tim to fire a bow and arrow from a horse in Mongolia. Our plan was always to give the toy bow and arrow to a child after we'd used it. However, we thought that it would be a pretty boring gift for a Mongolian child, for all we knew they had a real one! It actually turned out to be the best gift we gave. The boy we gave it to (pictured below) was clearly delighted and he touched the bow and arrow to his head which Bimba told us was a way to show appreciation. We were so pleased he liked it! 

Rob catches a ride

A little one from the reindeer herder family. We had a fun flower picking game.
(Pick flowers, put them in flower pile!) 

UNO Special Rules: the game that transcends all barriers!

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. 

It’s a three-way!

Though not everyone has heard of it, the game “It’s a three-way!” has a long and proud history. Here is how it works:

Players: 1 or more people

Location: most places

Equipment: eyes, ears and a certain level of brashness

Aim: to locate three particular items at once thus creating a ‘three-way’.

Instructions to play:

Any player must spot the following items and say the required phrase:

1. Dog                        Say “Zitch dog” – credit to “How I Met Your Mother”

2. Postal box              Say “Do you need to post anything?” (Other players answer)

3. Yellow vehicle        Say “Spot it motorcycle/car/scooter/bike”

When all three are located in the same vicinity the player/s must yell with pride:

“It’s a three-way!” (causing embarrassment/confusion/excitement to those around them.)

“Three ways” happen a lot in Melbourne but rather less as we have plodded around South East Asia. When Rob and I landed in Hanoi we started to notice the postal boxes were more conspicuous that other places. This had often been the missing link. Every country has had oodles of dogs (even dogs shaved to look like lions or dogs in Winnie the Pooh costumes) and at least some yellow motorbikes/cars, but postal boxes have been harder to come by. 

I told Rob on our last day in Hanoi if we didn’t “get” a “three-way” then I would manufacture one for the blog. Around 5 minutes later I found a post office to send a painting home from. There was the post box, next-door was a small dog and flying past I found a yellow scooter!

“IT’S A THREE WAY!” I yelled on the busy streets of Hanoi.

Noone really noticed too much…

As I took the photo of the dog, the owner probably thought that I mustn’t have seen a dog before! Success…was mine..and Rob’s! We live in anticipation of our next three-way. What country will it be?