Naadam begins ...

i worked out the dust issue: there's too much of it so they don't bother anymore. makes sense to me. Mongolians are obsessed by Ghengis Khan. he reigned over 800 years ago but made such an impression on the national psyche that everything seems to come back to him. the Mongolians have a sense of pride in him and in themselves, connected to the land and to their horses that seems quite unique. this pride is, of course, under pressure due to the demands made upon them in a time when cities are growing expedentially at the expense of more 'traditional' lifestyles. UB acts like a magnet drawing in the young from the steppes but not offering them the dreams they expect. there are no jobs for a start & accomodation is scarce so gers appear on the hillsides in a kind of gentle urban sprawl. they have no sanitation, no running water and no infrastructure but despite this they spread like forests of little white mushrooms on the hills outside the main city. with this comes the associated problems of poverty and disillusion: alcoholism, domestic violence, increased morality and morbidity and a lot of corruption. bonded labour and trafficked womn are common, as is child sex abuse and street kids. up until recently there was a huge community of kids living in the sewers where it was warm and offered some kind of shelter for them in the middle of the freezing winters. Naadam is the main festival of the Mongolian year and is usually celebrated in every village - the biggest being in UB. i paid $75 for a 2-day trip to see it here which is not what i'd normally do. one problem in Mongolia is that you just can't figure out how to do things: often the locals have no more idea than you do. they're also terrible at place and street names. asking for directions they look at you blankly, give your map a cursory glance and then wave in the general direction of another block diametrically opposite to where you know it should be. they just want to get rid of you half the time. so trying to find where to buy a ticket for the big stadium event proved more difficult than i'd thought. the horse racing was 37km out of town so that seemed even more complicated so buying a 2-day pass seemed the answer to all that. on the first day we all had to meet at a local cafe for breakfast where i had one of the worst omlettes i've ever had in my entire life. the 'chef' seemed to have emptied half a bottle of dried herbs into it - old and chewy ones at that. combine the herbs with half a litre of sunflower oil and it really wasn't pleasant and repeated on me all day with a taste of stale oregano. anyway we all all nearly threw up and then headed out the door. the stadium was just up the road but the weather didn't look good - overcast & ready to rain. settling into our seats the heavens opened and we had to watch the big event hiding under raincoats. it was quite entertaining: first of all some Mongolian riders dressed in full Ghengis Khan military gear rode in waving huge flags. they went round twice and then sped out again. then a few jeeps arrived carrying Mongolia's first ever Olympic Gold winners from Beijing - in Judo and Boxing. another jeep carried a middle aged guy with a long ponytail (never a good look on an older guy) wailing into a microphone - i think he was attempting a song. then a few more horses came riding by with a few flags, followed by some marching army-types. then out of the clouds in true Crouching Tiger fashion came a white figure sliding along a trapeze with a long trail behind. i think they were meant to land on a horse but it didn't seem to go right as they ended up landing in a patch on muddy grass and then had to be shoved up on a horses back. not that it mattered: the crowd went crazy. there were a few more marches around on horseback, then some kids did a ribbon dance then climbed on each others shoulders and made a tower. some women went by in traditional dress having a few problems with their non-traditional stillettoes and then there was a speech by the democratic president. it was still raining at this point and as i was still burping dried stale oregano i decided to get a drink before the wrestling started. leaving the stadium was difficut as the spectators seemed to be having an inpromptu wrestling match themselves as they tired to leave. over to the archery ...