Mongolia. Part III. The nomadic life

July 19–30, 2006

A third of the population lives in Ulan Bator. Local sleepy suburbia is exactly the same as in any other Soviet city.

Mongolians are a nomadic people. There are wide multi-lane highways in Mongolia to facilitate their movements.

By the way, the only place I spotted the pole from the movie “Close to Eden” was next to petrol pumps. This pump’s abandoned, but the pole is there, upright. You can see it from afar.

The main type of housing in Mongolia is the yurt (ger). Aside from residential quarters you also find shops, restaurants, and museums in yurts.

A dismantled ger takes up very little space, so it’s easy to tote around.

It can be assembled in no time. Before the advent of the market economy nobody used to lock their yurt — any wayfarer could come in to eat and sleep.

Times have changed — these days everyone locks their yurts.

When assembled, a ger is a proper house with a solar battery (or a wind turbine) and a Chinese satellite dish.

Mongolians are very friendly and open.

If you walk up to a yurt and there’s someone home, they’ll invite you in and at the very least offer you kumis (a fermented milk drink) or tea, without fail.

There’s always a potbelly stove in the middle of the yurt.

Sometimes you’ll see a long drop next to it.

Mongolians are the most Europeanized of all the Asians. They use forks and refuse to sleep on the floor. There are always fully-fledged beds in a yurt. Models with one curved side are common because they fit flush with the side of the yurt, all very convenient. Except for the bed the inside of a yurt is just like a regular studio flat — there’s a chest of drawers, a dressing table with makeup, and photographs up on the walls.

Teenage nomads always sport trendy clothes. You can tell that the parents just can’t say no when their daughter asks them for a jacket with D&G written in sequins on the back. Even though there’s nothing except manure within a 20-kilometre radius.

The children enjoy being photographed.

Pastoral scenes all around.

A yurt will solve all of your housing problems. If someone rolls into town and has nowhere to live, instead of living on the street or crashing on relatives’ couches, he will put up a yurt. It’s a shame that Russians would be offended if you suggested they go without an isba when they first arrive in a new place. Meanwhile, Mongolians have a roof over their heads in two hours flat.

There’s little difference between a Mongolian village and a Russian one. The only difference is the height and the density of the fence. The fences are always two metres tall and without gaps — none of those stakewall fences around here. They form rectangular boxes around isbas or yurts.

In the villages utility poles double as trees.