Silk Road Expedition, Sept 11, Day 11 – Hohhot

After breakfast that morning, we left the hotel and then drove out into the countryside, where I finally saw Mongolia as I've always pictured it in my mind; beautiful, but little to be left up to the imagination. The group took about a two-hour bus ride out to spend the night in "traditional" Mongol ghers... or as traditional as they could get in a place obviously built for tourists. It was a collection of the huts built around a large dining hall, with a native staff dressed in traditional Mongol garb. 

As you can see, it wasn't exactly roughing it out in the middle of the Mongolian Plateau. You can't see it too well, but on the left is a doorway that leads to the bathroom, with a sink and toilet (which didn't work too well - my roommate and I would have to reach inside and pull some lever to flush it). 

Look, a TV set just like the kind that the Mongolian nomads use! 
Hopefully you can make out the main dining hall right in the center (it's the biggest gher of them all).

After we all settled it, we all went off down the street (the only street) to where stood a large obo, the traditional altar for Mongolian shamanism. Once we arrived, the guides told us how Mongolian worshippers would circle their altars three times and then pray for whatever they desired.  

I tried pacing around it as the tour guides instructed, but I only made it around once before I noticed someone hiding beneath the metal structure where lighted incense could be placed (as seen in the above photo. Sorry, a better name for it currently escapes me as I write this.)

For three yuan, you could hold the little creature, as a native peddler informed me. I simply couldn't help myself, and thus made a fuzzy new friend.  

After the visit to the obo, we had several hours of free time on our hand, so I went with a small group of others to stroll around the area. Chances are, I took way too many photos of the surrounding grasslands, but despite my best efforts, I was unable to stop myself. There's something oddly beautiful about the rolling, empty green and yellow plains contrasting with the clear azure sky that just appealed to me so much.

Possibly the loneliest road in the world.

If you actually thought this guy is herding horses on a motorcycle of all things... well, then you thought right. 

At about five o'clock, we were treated with a display of Mongolian wrestling from some of the staff. The rules are quite simple - first one down loses, no going below the belt.

After several rounds, we were then able to take them on if we so dared....

....And then battle each other if we liked. 

Then sometime afterwards came dinner, followed by some absolutely spectacular views of the setting sun and emerging moon over the plains. 

Finally, we topped the night off with a performance by the staff (pictured earlier above lounging outside a gher atop a cement stage), who did an impressive array of traditional dances, songs, or pieces of music performed upon native instruments. Alas, I completely forgot to bring my camera with me, and thus I have no photos at all. Thus, you'll simply have to take my word for it when I say that I saw a Mongolian woman perform a "Bowl-on-the-Head Dance", where she pranced around with a stack of bowels balanced precariously atop her head. 

Actually, I don't regret forgetting my camera for that as much as I regret not having my camera for the spectacle that followed, when we were invited to come up on stage and perform. While a few girls did some dances we knew, we ended up just bringing out someone's iPod and iPod speakers, and just ended up dancing about on the stage several times ... and let me tell you, the staff were not shy at all about joining in. 

Is there anything like jamming out to a techno beat ("Sandstorm", to all those familiar with the tune) in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of Mongolians? I think not.