Chapter 35 - Mongolia - Land of Extremes

Mongolia is a land of extremes, first of all because it's the least populated country in the world. This means fewer people live in Mongolia, per square mile, than in any other country in the world. This was a sharp contrast to my recent visit to Bangladesh, the most densely populated large country in the world. As expected, when I was in the countryside of Mongolia, I didn't see many people.

What I did see, though, were lots of horses and livestock. Mongolians are still mostly nomads, as they have been for centuries. This means most Mongolian families pack up all their belongings and move with their horses, sheep, goats, and yaks (a type of very hairy cow that does well at high altitudes and cold weather) to wherever they can find green grass and fresh water. Because the weather is so extreme in Mongolia (especially during the very cold winters), the grass in an area can only feed the nomadic families' animals for a few months. Then, the family has to walk and ride their horses to a different place where recent rains or warmer weather have caused grass to grow.

Because nomads are continually moving, the Mongolians have developed a great type of home called a "ger." It's a round tent-like structure made of sticks tied together and covered with felt. You can see the frame of a ger being built in this photo. I learned that felt is made from the wool of the nomad's sheep by dragging wet clumps of wool across the ground and trampling it with horses! The felt is thick enough that it doesn't leak when it rains or snow.  Since the nomad can find sticks in the forest, a ger is a great self-sufficient structure for the nomads. Mongolia is quite windy, so the round shape keeps the ger from blowing over.

A new addition to gers is the solar-powered satellite TV systems I saw in many of them. The Mongolian nomads admitted to enjoying the latest soap operas and shows from the capital city of Ulan Bataar. But the primary reason for spending a lot of money on such a system was to get the weather reports, so they would know when and where to move next with the seasons.

I got some sense of how extreme the weather could be in Mongolia just by traveling from north to south. I started up north near Mongolia's border with Russia, specifically the large forest called Siberia. (In fact the Tran- Siberian Railroad from Beijing, China, to Moscow, Russia, passes through Ulan Bataar and this region of Mongolia.) I visited Lake Hovsgol, which is a large lake full of crystal-clear fresh water. My friends went swimming in it, but they only lasted a few seconds, as the water was so cold. Lake Hovsgol is home to another extreme, the largest freshwater fish in the world. Can you guess how big this trout grows to? Think of the biggest fish you've ever seen caught in a freshwater lake. If you're lucky, you might have seen one eighteen or twenty inches long. Now imagine a fish four feet (forty-eight inches) long! That's how big that species of trout grows in Lake Hovsgol. I didn't see one, but I could have if they had swum close to me, as the water was crystal clear.

Lake Hovsgol actually flows down the hills and across the Mongolian and Russian border to drain into Lake Baikal. I didn't see Lake Baikal, but we were close. That lake is the deepest lake in the world, going down to 5315 feet. I live on a lake that's about 60 feet deep. So 5315 feet (or 1620 meters) is REALLY deep! It's so deep and large, in fact, that Lake Baikal holds 20% of the world's non-frozen fresh water. Lake Hovsgol contains 2% of the world's non-frozen fresh water. So together they form an important fresh water ecosystem worth protecting. It rained quite a bit there while we camped, so I had no doubt as to where all this fresh water came from for these lakes.

From there I flew south to the Gobi Desert. The locals told me "Gobi" is Mongolian for "desert". So I thought it was funny to visit the Desert Desert. The Gobi is famous for all the dinosaur fossils they've found there. Many were found in the area called the Flaming Cliffs, pictured here. The paleontologists (a scientist who finds and studies fossils) named the area "Flaming Cliffs" because the red stone looks like the area is on fire when the sun strikes the cliffs during parts of the day.

My favorite fossil in the museum was the one they discovered of two dinosaurs who died while fighting, possibly the most important and famous multiple fossil in the world. (Double click the photo to see a larger version.). One theory about why they looks this way is that a sand dune collapsed on them mid-fight, and they were buried while one dinosaur had his claw in the other's mouth, as if he were pushing his attacker away. It was pretty incredible to see this freeze-frame of a fight that happened millions and millions of years ago.

The Gobi is also famous as the first place anyone ever discovered fossilized dinosaur eggs in nests. Before then, scientists only theorized (or thought) that dinosaurs laid eggs. With those fossilized nests, they knew for sure and even could see some baby dinosaurs fossilized inside broken eggs.

I really enjoyed the Gobi. It doesn't have many sand dunes, like the desert in the second least populated country in the world, Namibia (see chapters 13-15). Nevertheless, I was able to get this photo on top of the one sand dune we did see. The Gobi is mostly a large area covered with small stones. Sometimes I would see only one ger for a long distance. That's because the desert only had very small patches of thin grass. So it takes a large area for the nomad's sheep and goats and camels to find enough to eat.

We rode on some camels for a few hours across the desert. I can say that traveling by camel isn't the most comfortable form of transportation out there. We were on the two-humped Bactrian camels, as opposed to the one-humped Dromedary camels I rode in Egypt (Chapters 26-27). The Bactrians were definitely the more comfortable of the two types of camels, since you sit between the humps instead of on top of a hump.

I was curious what the humps would feel like. The humps were like floppy but still hard masses of flesh. They say the humps are mostly fat, but they were harder than the fat I feel on myself. The front hump on my camel flopped over like a soft hill of tissue. I tried pushing it back up, but the camel didn't like my playing with his hump, so I let it alone. After all, camels are infamous for spitting when they are displeased, and I didn't feel like having camel spit all over me.

I learned that camels scratch their noses on their humps. When I was sitting on him, my camel kept reaching back and scratching his nose on my knee (as you can see in this photo)!  This meant I had camel snot all over my trouser legs. Needless to say, I decided it was time to wash that pair when we got back to the ger that night!

I felt fortunate to be able to meet the many friendly people of Mongolia, who welcomed me into their homes and onto their horses and camels. With the exception of the solar-powered satellite TVs, I believe their lifestyle wasn't much different from the way their great grandparents had lived before them. In fact, every Mongolian I met was very proud of the most famous Mongolian in history, Genghis Khan. He conquered the largest empire in the history of the world, stretching from Europe to China. The Mongolians were able to capture all this land 800 years ago in part because they were such good horseback riders and their armies were so self-sufficient. In some ways, I suspect Genghis Kahn would see many similarities to his time in the traditional lives of the nomads I met.

Travel Questions on Mongolia:

1. True or False: Mongolia has lots of people in it, making it the most densely populated country in the world.
2. What animal is like a cow but lives in the higher altitudes and which the Mongolian nomads keep as a type of livestock?
3. The advantages of using a ger as a type of home for the Mongolian nomads are:
   A) They can build it out of materials they can create themselves.
   B) The round shape keeps it from being blown over in the windy Mongolian countryside.
   C) The felt doesn't leak when it rains or snows.
   D) All of the above.
4. What is the name of the capital city of Mongolia?
5. Lake Baikal, into which Lake Hovsgol drains, contains what percentage of the world's non-frozen fresh water?
6. What does "Gobi" mean in Mongolian?
7. What's the name of a scientist who studies fossils, like those dinosaur fossils found in the Flaming Cliffs of the Gobi desert?
8. What are the names of the two types of camels? Which one has two humps and which one has one hump?
9. Why did Toto stop trying to push on his camel's hump that was flopped over?
10. What did Toto have to wash off his trouser leg after his camel ride?
11. How many years ago did Genghis Khan conquer the world's largest empire?

Global Nomad Questions on Mongolia:

1. The Trans-Siberian Railroad goes from Beijing, China, to Moscow, Russia, through Mongolia. Do a cybersearch on this amazing railroad and write a paragraph on what you discovered.
2. Perhaps the most famous Mongolian is Genghis Khan (although the Mongolians spell his name as Chinggis Khan). He conquered and ruled the largest empire in the history of humankind. Do a cybersearch on this interesting historical figure and write an essay on what you learned.