REACHING OUR DESTINATION
We arrive in the middle of the night in Ulaanbaatar, where more than half of the population of Mongolia live. It’s a very modern city and the most polluted capital in the world according to studies. Using coal for energy and heating in a valley on a high plateau might have helped them get to the top of the list. It’s not a pretty place.
Lake Khövsgöl
I was thinking I could do some underwater photography to help promote the underwater camera housing brand Fantasea. I didn’t count on the ice that was still on the lake in late June…
Mongolia has a hard climate. This tough place forms the character of the nomadic people who live here. The reindeer people are here as well; they are related to the tribe living in the north of Sweden, where I come from.
There are big larch trees here. I counted the tight concentric rings on a cross-section of a trunk. It grew to an impressive age of 700 years, growing slowly and weathering the constantly changing conditions in this country.
The area is beautiful and has become a tourist attraction. We hike and camp by the lake.
A No-Man’s Yet All-Man’s Land
We move on. Walking, busing, hitchhiking, and one time renting a driver, Nara, who has became a friend since then. There is so much land and so much space! A place for the spirit to breathe.
We have the Lonely Planet book, which can be a helpful reference. But reading what to do and not to do, what is possible or not, limits you. So we got a map and put away the Lonely Planet. It just restricts you. I have never traveled with it before and am happy without it.
Mongolia is a country where the land is for nomads. Around 60% of the people still live the nomadic life, so being out and about is kind of what you do here. People are very friendly and we are getting invited here and there. I feel good here.
Vodka
There’s a lot of it going around. I don’t know if it came from the time when the Soviet Union was part of Mongolia or the other way around. (Mongolia became independent after the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1990.)
The popular brand of vodka is Chinggis Khan —which is not to be confused with Chinggis Khan beer— and it’s drunk by too many people, too much. Too much for me as well. Bright-minded people find their way to the bottom of hell with this liquor. Too often I have seen it ruin excellent people and their families.
