Golden Eagles & Weeping Kiwis: A Mongolian Farewell!

The Golden Eagle features in the culture of Mongolia. Kazakh tribes in Western Mongolia have an intimate relationship with eagles, capturing young Golden Eagles and training them as hunters of marmot, fox, and wolves. Eagle hunting.

But to me, an eagle is more than that: it represents thoughts and feelings, friendships and memories that transcend time, space and dimensions, soaring on forever.

Friends we make upon the travelling road may be wonderful, fun and interesting companions for a fleeting moment in time, to reside faintly in our memories after we part. A few may be remembered fondly because exciting events were shared and enjoyed, creating special bonds that go beyond just a casual encounter.

How do you reflect upon the good friends you have met on your journeys? 

Photo of Golden Eagle by Bill Clark.

Play this as you read the words. Then play it again throughout the story I have to tell.

White Stupa No 1 by  N Jantsannorov.

 A famous, Russian trained, Mongolian composer.

Across azure Mongolian sky

Golden eagle soars, wings spread wide.

Where trails diverge, the blue flags fly,

Ovoo spirits are our destinies guides.

Rock cairns - Ovoo - besides roads and trails where travellers walk three times clockwise to invoke good fortune on their travels.

The eagle looks down upon the place

Where on Orkhon River's grassy swathes

Cotton carpets the trees' green glades,

Lasting friendships were duly made.

Tranquility.

Wool from Cotton Wool trees covers the ground where we enjoyed a barbecue picnic with friends beside the Orkhon River near Khar Khorin, Mongolia.

Grasslands reach to horizon clear

Crushed thyme scents the crystal air

See horse and rider hurry there

For Naadam Festival draws near,

When silk clad wrestlers will vie their chance:

The victor does the eagle dance.

Wrestlers prepare during Naadam Festival. Victor of each bout dances with arms stretched wide simulating an eagle in flight.

When came the time for sad goodbyes

And new found friends need pass on by,

Fragments of our hearts will now reside

With the Eagle flying free and high.

Communities throughout Mongolia hold their own local Festivities at Naadam. Not unusual to see lone riders, often very young children, galloping across the vast grass steppes preparing  for upcoming races.

 White Stupa No 1 is often playing in our home or my workshop, especially through June and July, those months when we know Naadam Festival season occurs in Mongolia. For us, it's both a reflective, soothing tune and a very powerful melody. We're both back in Mongolia!

Deegii bought us the CD. Deegii is nephew of the family we were homestayed with in Ulaan Baatar, 7 days living and travelling with Zundui and wife Armara in 2005, on a Friendship Force exchange.

With no common language, communication boils down to more basic gestures and body language to get feelings across. You have to really concentrate on the person, and give deeper thought as to how you convey meaning and needs, and similarly you have to pay attention intensely to your new friend's feelings and intent.

Perhaps you reach each other on a deeper level? 
Perhaps language smothers at times? 
7 days getting to know each other, without common language, creates deep, lasting bonds.

Departure.

Driving towards the airport on the morning of our departure, the thought that I would never see Zundui and Armara again hit me. Kay looked glum also. I was wondering, after all the short but intense time we had spent together, just how our friends felt about us, and did our leaving mean much to them?

Zundui and Armara were also quiet, then an animated discussion ensued between them. Zundui made a mobile phone call, chatted to someone, then switched on the 4WD radio and turned the volume up. A few minutes later we heard the announcer speaking in Mongolian, but with "Jim and Kay" interspersed several times coming over the radio! Zundui and Armara were also excitedly pointing at us, and to the radio, saying "Jim and Kay ". Then the announcer switched to English and dedicated the next tune to  friends of Zundui and Armara - "Jim and Kay, who are leaving Mongolia." 

I don't often cry, but tears filled my eyes; Kay was blubbering, and two weeping Kiwis listened intently to the music dedicated to us on that final farewell drive. It was a joyously sad time.

Thanks Zundui and Armara - it was the best of times.

On our return home, there was a big let down emotionally for some weeks - post travel depression syndrome. Then one day I decided to chuck one of the CDs I had brought back from Mongolia on the stereo. Part way through track five, Kay and I looked at each other as we recognised the tune playing as our "Farewell" tune!

White Stupa No 1.

In Mongolia, Stupa represent the Buddha's body and relics placed within it represent the life energy.
Simple rock cairns or Ovoo lie beside paths and roads where travellers may invoke good fortune for the journey by walking around it three times clockwise, and placing an item there, often a stone or pebble. Over time, the ovoo become quite large. Prayer flags will also fly above. Blue represents sky or space, white for air or wind.

Zundui and Armara used modern technology to create an online Ovoo to wish us good fortune for our travels by having the radio station play White Stupa No 1. We left Mongolia with our stupa on CD. Good fortune certainly has enveloped us.

It's a wonderful, hauntingly melancholic but inspiring tune, very evocative of the vast, natural and raw country with beautiful people with the hugest, whitest-teethed smiles.

And the best part is, now that I have written that verse, I can sing along with the music! Everyday!

For Zundui, Armara and family. Hope we meet again!

http://thefriendshipforce.org/

Golden Eagles & Weeping Kiwis: A Mongolian Farewell!

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No Visa! No Enter!

"Why you not have Visa! This visa not good! No visa, no enter!" The Mongolian border guard officer yells at me. Our group were imprisoned in our compartment, a guard placed on our door. This was serious stuff! Images of perishing in some forgotten gulag in Siberia flashed through my imagination. Then jackbooted guards in their WW2 era uniforms tramped towards us down the corridor. We were to be escorted off. Somewhere....


You ever have that heart sinking feeling when your dreams seem to dissolve into custard?

We'd always wanted to visit Mongolia, that land of horses, and an ancient people that set massive forces moving across the vast steppes to the create the golden age of the Mongolian Empire, stretching right across Asia into Europe. We'd finally got here, to have those dreams squished...by this cute little Mongolian Border Guard, all 5' 3"of her, on her spiky 6" heels with the nicest legs...I was thinking "I hope she's going to be our prison guard." Imagine being tortured by her in those 6'' spikey heels.

Can't help notice the shoes. I am a custom shoe designer after all. Gives me a good excuse to look at women's shoes. And legs come out of them....

My wife and I were travelling the Trans-Mongolian Railway. Starting in Beijing, 8 of us had headed straight through to Irkutsk to meet up with the rest of our Friendship Force group who'd travelled across from St Petersburg. We thoroughly enjoyed Irkutsk, a city astride the Angara river that flows out of Lake Baikal in Russia's Siberia. A few days of glorious weather exploring Irkutsk is a must for any traveller on the Trans-Siberian. Lovely ancient wooden buildings drooping at odd angles with the constant movement of the freezing and unfreezing of the permafrost, which just added to their character. We'd both enjoyed the Museum of Wooden Architecture an hour's drive out of town, and long walks along the river in the evening people watching, the promenading locals or young couples courting as they enjoyed a few hours of Nature's beautiful but short summer.

Lystvyanka on the edge of Lake Baikal has always been a place that had drawn me to it. We loved it. Little dashas and wooden cottages. The smell of smoked omul, the local fish delicacy caught fresh from the lake and smoked on the side of the road. Long walks from our hotel to the town along the lakeside. Well, we had to enjoy it. Russian hotels have a problem with finding enough food for 25 guests who don't bother to book in for lunch or dinner, and Russian hotel staff don't bother to tell 25 guests that you need to book in! Clash of cultures for sure.

But now our complete group were to retrace our tracks back to Ulan Bator, capital of Mongolia. We had spent 2 days and nights travelling up from Beijing already, but heading back was going to be just as interesting, and that was the problem - our most knowledgeable travel agent had not applied for multiple entry visas! Our single entry visa had been stamped on the way through.

But we had enjoyed the ride so far. We had coped without showering for a few days and made do with ‘cat washing’ in the cramped bathroom at the end of each carriage. Sure, we had to wait until another passenger had washed their dishes or coffee cup, or even their undies in the wee basin, but we’d packed plenty of antiseptic tissues and hand wash.

We had tried out the dining car, but found most of the menu unavailable, and egg omelets get boring for anything but a survival situation. Cup-a-soup, or dried meals and coffee, mixed up with the plentiful supply of hot water from the samovar fired up at each end of every carriage at least filled the belly. Actually, we ate rather well. Packs of chippies, snack bars, biscuits, etc we had brought with us, and hunter gatherer forays at each station for local produce helped supply enough of a feast. We still remember the box of apricots bought for $3 at Erenhot, each with the sweet tang of of the way fruit used to taste from our childhood memories!

Bedding was provided and we took silk liners. The pocket knife I packed was great for making up our own meals. Our thermo mugs were invaluable, cutting down on the number of trips to the samovar.

We shared cabins with another couple of our group. Ear plugs are a necessity. Nothing worse than sharing a room with a snorer! But a 4 berth compartment is the way to go as you’ll get to meet other interesting travellers.

Do stay on the train when you get to Erenhot /Erlian on the Chinese/ Mongolian border. Here they change the bogies to match the width of the other country's track gauge. It’s an incredible exercise. Each carriage is separated then lifted up in the air by 4 huge hydraulic jacks and new bogies pulled through underneath, then the carriage is dropped slowly down upon them. It’s a massive undertaking when 24 carriages are suspended in the air all at once.

But all that was in the past and our immediate concern was actually getting back into Mongolia. Those grim unsmiling guards escorted us off the carriage. Our friends, unsure of our return, snapped away, keen to ensure photographic evidence of our disappearance!

Communist era official buildings are amazingly cold, stark and threatening when you don’t want to be in one. But we were the Friendship Force, come to make friends with Mongolians and aren’t they known for their hospitality and friendliness? But you’ve got to have the correct visa!

I’m sure we can work this out and soon be back-slapping each other. But not before lots of toll calls, right up to the Minister of Customs and Immigration. Another $50 for a new visa and we were out of there.

Almost!

Somewhere $50 went missing in the exchange transaction. That sort of got them grumpy at us again. But then the note was revealed under the mound of forms that had been piled high after the massive rubber stamping ritual! Luckily. Apologies all round and we were out of there.

Passing by that cute wee border guard, I remark “I love your shoes, lady."  Not the right thing to say. Daggers glare at me. She straightens up sternly, as visions of her incarcerating and whipping me with those spikey heels on flash through my mind. “Oh dear,” I think. “Jim, you’ve really done it this time, you're in for a good thrashing!”

Then a beautiful smile beams across her face and she welcomes us all to Mongolia.

                                    Naadam Festival, Ulan Bator ,Mongolia.Held every  July 11-13.


The Trans-Mongolian is 1 of 3 alternative routes for the Trans-Siberian .
Which are-1 Moscow - Vladivostok,
                  2 Moscow - Beijing via Mongolia,
                  3 Moscow - Beijing via Manchuria. Or reverse Itinerary.

To find out where to book go here- http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm You'll also find route maps and heaps of good info.Take your time to read the tips on what to do, and what to take.Almost everything you'll need to know is there.

If in Beijing, you can book here-the international train booking office on the ground floor of the Beijing International Hotel.

Many tour companies operate small group tours of the Trans-Siberian/Trans-Mongolian.These can be very good value for the traveller who wants less hassle of finding their way around.Here are a few-

Gap Adventures-http://www.gapadventures.com/
If booking Gap Adventures, click on their advert right side of this page.Any bookings you make initiated from that advert link will earn this site a few dollars which all go to adopting orphan elephants at the http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/ .Every dollar this site earns goes to aiding Wildlife in Africa.
2 baby elephants so far.

This post appeared here-The Englishman Times recently as my Guest Post contribution.Check out The Englishman for heaps of exciting stories and info!

No Visa! No Enter!

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