Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Hoshuur, the vortex!

We made it! Out of Hotgal, away from kovsgal, and back to Moron. Seven days later! We got caught in what is known as the vortex.

Vortex... Noun.
Hiker/traveler term for the warm fuzzy feeling you get from cold beer, hot food, showers (even though I only took one all week somehow), rest, and good people give you that make it difficult to continue moving and fight the inertia.

Our particular vortex, MS Guest House and the motley crew of wayward children (us included) gathered there for the Nadaam festival. Also their continuously stocked beer fridge was nice. This particular guest house seemed to attract a special kind of good person, maybe it was the camping space, the budget price, the atmosphere, who knows but it was a hell of a good time. The lake was pretty great too, I'll get to that.

The fire master (little silent old guy who worked
24 hours a day stoking the fires) breaking up sheep legs
with a hatchet. A normal sight in Mongolia. Plus two travelers we met
Luc and Christine.

The MS family grew to be a pretty tight crew by the end of the week and our end of stay Ger dance party, complete with open fire BBQ. What had, ostensibly, brought us all there was the Nadaam festival, which translates to more or less "games". It seems to be an excuse to have horse races and wrestling tournaments and is the equivalent of a national fair. There are vendors, games, people gathered, and community events. After contemplating Nadaam back in Moron a series of not so rest rest days spent biking around the lake and drinking around the fire made staying put an attractive decision. So we did. the days leading up to the festival were spent biking to Hatgal, two days one of which was started by horses being herded through our camp at 4 am and then a hilarious interaction with the herder at 8:30. The guy informed me that since I am not married yet and there are many Americans in Hatgal I should impregnate one and have twins. Seems logical. 

Moving on...

Once we arrived, after some rain, we quickly found the guest house 5,000mnt a night plus 7k for dinner and 2,500 for beer. About $8 a day, not bad. We were greeted warmly by some travelers already there and we immediately felt welcome.
Christine and Thorban (Tom if I spelled that
wrong I'm sorry)
They quickly showed us the ropes and we just continued to meet great people over the course of the next week and made some great new friends.

We dedicated a few days to biking around, sans gear, and exploring the lake. On our first excursion we did some off road riding and exploring and found a sheltered cove. It was quite nice and made for a short and easy day.
A nice spot for a snack.

The next day proved to be more interesting. Of course we hung out and met even more travelers that night and in he morning. Including several Dutch guys who had driven from Holland and Peter from England.
Setting out for another lake exploration on what we thought was our last day in the area we opted for a little more adventure. What ended up happening was a 50k day that included almost 3 hours of bush whacking through the Mongolian forest, with bicycles, getting hilariously lost, and finally finding an amazing beach. It was like time travelling in a way, pushing our bikes through dense medieval forest expecting to see some isolated nomad tent around the next hill, or run into some prehistoric forest beast, with no real sense of time and only limited idea of where we were. It was great. But it sure as hell didn't make for a good rest day. Bushwhacking with bikes is hard, as should be expected. 
Where is that damn lake?
Easier trail.

We did, eventually and after loosing some blood and inhaling a few flies, make it to the lake. To a pretty idyllic spot too. The lake lived up to its reputation, big, cold, and beautiful.
WE FUCKING FOUND IT!
Beautiful.
Yak.

A true rest day was needed, that turned into two rest days which then bled into Nadaam. More and more people were arriving at the guest house and the crew continued to grow as well. This of course led to more campfires and beer. It doesn't help that it doesn't get dark here until 11:30pm making late nights easy. Then the party that is Nadaam happened!

Like I said before Nadaam is more or less a national fair complete with sporting events and greasy food. Hoshuur, a deep fried meat pastry, was in abundance and became our battle cry. We watched the festivities. looked for dance parties (occasionally finding them and creating our own when we didn't), and hung out. It was a good time!
Archery.
Wrestling, the primary national sport.

Then the rains came. It rained hard for nearly 36 hours. This erased almost any idea of leaving on bikes. It seemed to keep most everyone else around too. Some were traveling via motorcycle, some by bus, some hitchhiking, but everyone seemed ready to wait out the rain. Sleeping, eating, reading, and beer drinking were the name of the game. Also some creative construction projects to facilitate a bbq. To fit in with the locals we all bought a few sheep legs from the local butcher hut and got busy.
Will it work or just burn?

Neck roast and veggies.

Igor the head chef.

Kutts cutting up the first round.

The bbq was a massive success and was delicious. The party that followed was even better. Rousing rounds of Bohemian Rhapsody in the Ger, bottles of Chinngiss Vodka, cheap Mongolian beer, and great people what more could you want?
Hamish, Igor, Danish guy, Peter, Danielle, Ollie, and Kyle back there.
Great people and great times!

The resident little girl who was always keen to hang out
with the ragtag band of travelers.


Feeling rough the next morning it was time to go! and it started to rain again. Thankfully we managed to get a hitch about 100 yards away when we stopped in at the store. A great Mongolian man with his family running from the rain on vacation. AND! He spoke English, which we learned when he helped translate for us at the store. It was huge to get the 100k back to Moron done in an hour instead of a day. Bikes strapped on the top of a land rover and good conversation.
Great guy!

Tomorrow we set off west, the pavement more or less stops and civilization gets sparse. The mountains get bigger too. It will most certainly be a challenge. The last week has been an interesting mix of emotions and looking forward I am sure it will continue to be. Not moving always makes it easy to get caught in your head. Thinking about the future rather than living in the moment, thinking about the past for no real reason, all the pitfalls of being human. Being surrounded by so many amazing people on their own journeys is at once inspiring and self reflection inducing. What have I been doing? What am I looking for? All the existential questions come flooding in when you sit idle. I'm sure the answers are out there, and in the end does it really matter? The journey continues, we are all chasing something. The key is, I suppose, to be satisfied in the chase and enjoy the task and the trip and not ever expect to catch the "something". If you do catch it, good for you, but if you don't have a damn good time trying.

Until next time.....