A trip to the countryside

Shortly after I learned I was coming to Mongolia, dirty Karen sent me a photo of someone riding a yak, telling me that "you need to do this."  So of course it became a priority, and the beginning of many yak conversations.  I told my awesome counterpart of my yak riding desires, and she hooked me up with a journey never to be forgotten.  So we embarked on this journey to the countryside to visit one of our student's family.  Her family herds yaks...about 200 yaks.  I will leave you to only imagine my excitement.  After buying some gifts, we waited for a russian minivan to carry us away to the countryside. 

the car ride.

If you were wondering how many people fit into this russian minivan (that you manually had to wind up to start) the magic number is 18. No seats, no problem!  just sit on the floor!

I have never been car sick before, but here in mongolia, moving vehicle rides are a different story.  In a land of no paved roads, you just drive over huge rocks, and take quick repeated sharp turns to avoid the huger ones.  River?  no problem!  just drive right through them! Luckily, I was fortunate to not toss any cookies, but others in the van were not so lucky. No stopping necessary!  just stick your head out the window, or quickly grab a plastic bag and you are set to keep travelling!

On the way out to the countryside, we took three pit stops.  The first of which were to see the famous chess stones, which are some natural rocks that stick out of the ground.  and then some other rocks that are carved like chess pieces.  My cp's were telling me that they thought people were buried on these grounds (along with a king), along with gold and such, and no major excavations had ever taken place.  Which I think is just awesome.  The cool thing about the chess stones is that I could climb on anything I wanted, and further jump off anything I wanted.  Let’s just say I took full advantage.

i like making mongolians jump off things with me

can you see the red mark?

Our second pitstop was at someones house to use the outhouse.  This outhouse could accommodate two people at once, and had two planks missing from the ground.  The person before me went in, and I others tried to get me to go at the same time telling me it was possible.  I pretended not to understand their mongolian and politely waited to squat solo. Luckily the person behind me did the same.  When exiting the outhouse, in front of a line of Mongolians waiting, I may have not see a plank of random wood that was connecting the outhouse to the fence, and I so confidently walked straight into it. The onlooking Mongolians choked back their laughs to ask if I was ok. To date it was the third worst time that I have hit my head in Mongolia.  I had a red mark on my head for a day, and it hurt for about 4 days.  

Our third pit stop was just a very random potty spot break, but we our drive had already nestled us into the beautiful mountains and just this random place that we happened to stop was mind blowing. This third pit stop is in fact, why I love living in Mongolia.

Once we reached out destination, we all climbed out of the clown car and just straight into a giant herd of yaks aka my destiny.

The countryside bathroom.

I had asked shortly after our arrival if there was an outhouse. Ha ha.  silly me. In the countryside, you just go to the bathroom ANYWHERE!  So once I mentioned the bathroom, all the ladies decided that they all had to go, so we departed for the outside all together.  We made our way through the herd of yaks and across a frozen river until we found an appropriate place to pick our flowers.  As I started to pee, a couple yaks heard the noise, and traveled my way to see what was up.  Now, in Xorollo, I had gotten pretty close to some cows while I was peeing before, but this experience now takes the lead for animal/peeing proximity.  These yaks just came right up with no shame and tries to stick their noses in my business!  I shooed them, and finished quickly.  Once I had walked about only a foot away however, the yaks had immediately come back to the spot where I was squatting, and started to lick the ground. 

Milking a yak

The family I stayed with milks roughly around 30 yaks every morning, and also every evening.  I got to help them milk two yaks.  Let's just say in the time it took me to milk those two yaks, they had already finished milking all the others.

Milking a yak is perhaps similar to milking a cow, in the sense that it is uncomfortably moist down there and that it is difficult, but it is much different in the sense that there is a lot more hair, and the thingys that you are supposed to pull are super tiny.  With a cow, you would use your whole hand, but now that I am experienced, I can tell you that with a yak, you just use your thumb and pointer finger.

Pro yak milker.

Again, when the american steps up to the yak milking plate, crowds form, laughter ensues, and pictures are taken.  So first step is again to let the baby yak suckle for just a bit, before you set up your stool and bucket to start yan

king away.  Now, with the yak, there is so much hair, that you can't see what you are supposed to be pulling under there.  I expressed my concern, and was just told to stick my hands under there until I feel ''it."  So, I did as the Mongolians do, and just gave that yak a nice belly rub until I found what I needed to find.

Compared to my cow milking experience, I was a pro at yak milking.  Yes, it took me a long time, but my milk pale actually had some milk in it.  Later, I got to drink my spoils, and it was the best yak milk I ever drank.

My destiny.

I rode a yak. Better yet, I rode two yaks. So while we were all milking yaks, the dad of the family set off with a string and the sharp tip of a yak horn and a string to ready a yak for riding.  I have learned in Mongolia to not really ask about things I don't understand, such as this yak horn...but I soon found out after seeing the blood dripping nose of a freshly pierced yak what exactly it was for.  Once I saw this of course, I may have made a face and walked in a different direction while being laughed at for my disgust.  But soon enough I was jumping on to the back of a beautiful yak with a bloody nose.  This yak was quite calm and it was a pleasant little ride. The second yak was a different story. Not saying this yak was totally crazy or anything…it was just a little more not as calm…and it was bigger and more difficult to jump onto.  I guess I was jumping to quickly, which scared the yak which scared me and resulted in me jogging away, and Mongolians laughing.  So the owner of the yak herd gave me a boost, but the yak still moved, and I ended up just lying on the yak perpendicularly while again, laughter.  I soon straightened myself out and grabbed on to some yak back hair for stability because the yak was not too happy to have me aboard.   Worth it.

Up to your elbows with...

So in a countryside with 200 yaks, you can probably guess what you have plenty of right outside your front door...dung.  So in the life of a herder, your daily chore is to go pick this shit up.  It is dried out and used for fire fuel to keep you warm and to cook your food and such.  The 2 year old toddler also takes part in this activity, and has her very own pot to carry yak pies in.  (More adorable than you could imagine)  Cultural note: in Mongolia, no gloves necessary!  Just use your bare hands.  Since usually as a foreigner my crazy thoughts get entertained, I was given a shovel when I first asked for one... but then when that proved extremely difficult, I just took the plunge and used my hands.  It wasn't terrible as long as you just didn't think about it.  Sometimes you would come across a patty that was frozen to the ground, to which you just start kicking it until it comes loose.  When repeated kicking does not work, THEN it becomes reasonable to use the shovel. 

buuz

After finishing dung collecting, I washed my hands in a bucket, and helped to make lunch...which was my favorite food, Mongolian buuz.  I started folding them the only way I knew how, as the lady next to me was folding fancy patterns.  I asked her to teach me, and she was more than happy to help me.  She showed me about 5 different ways to fold them, including one that produced some funny looking buuz.  I’ll let you decide what you think they look like…but of course took a photo, and the lady thought I was just taking a picture of the fanciness, so she folded some different patterns and made me take photos. 

Belly scratches

I wanted to pet every animal this family herded, which included yaks, sheep, goats, and a couple dogs.  There was a surprise horse in there too. We arrived after dark, and all I wanted to do was stay outside with the yaks and pet them.  Which I did for a little bit lol.  They didn’t always want for me to touch them, which mainly involved me chasing after them to feel their soft soft hair.  The goats and sheep wanted to be touched less than the yaks, and they ran faster than the yaks.  I got to pet a couple of slower goats, but the sheep were ridiculously fast.  In the morning there was a lot more yak chin scratches and goat belly rubs.  But the sheep were still impossible to touch, and I probably spent a good 45 minutes trying to chase the sheep before they went out to pasture.  I also wanted to hold a baby goat, who I realized after I was holding it, that it was more of a large adult goat.  Nevertheless I was just trying to tell it how awesome I thought it was when he threw his head back and maimed me in the face with his horns.

Mountain climbing admiring

When we first arrived in the evening, all I wanted to do besides pet the yaks was to have a night hike climb to the peaks of the beautiful surrounding mountains, but the more reasonable Mongolians wouldn’t let me go up them because of some “wolves” that were apparently already on the mountains.  So every time I went outside I always got babysat by my Mongolian students who entertained me enough to let me climb up half of a mountain after dark.  The next day, after a hardworking morning of yak milking, yak riding, sheep chasing, goat holding, dung collecting and buuz making, it was then the appropriate time to go climb the mountains around us.  We were all a little tuckered, and after making it up about a fourth of the mountain, we all just sat and admired the view and the gers nestled into the nook of the mountains next to the river and were complete content on leaving the summit for the grazing goats.

Dairy products and Mongolian vodka

So the really cool thing about visiting this family is that I got to learn about even more mongolian dairy products like the wonderful boiled milk foam and fermented yogurt cooked awesomeness stuff, yak yogurt, fermented yak milk, and a ton of others.  Also come to find out that Mongolian vodka is also made from, of course, dairy products!  First a yogurt is made, and then fermented and cooked down to distil the vodka.  Mind blown.

Photo time:

school 4 teachers and students

selfies with sarlags

the family gave this yak to me since i was clearly in love.  

this horse came out of nowhere.

the herder family.

After the family loaded us up with dairy goodies to go back home and enjoy, we loaded all 16 of us back into the clown van, along with a few bags of dung and set out on the bumpy journey home, through the frozen over rivers and alongside the  mountains.  Best trip ever.