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Post by Aj_June on Jun 18, 2021 19:40:32 GMT
Everyone has their own taste and preferences. While I don't think I can permanently live in Mongolia, a quiet vacation in the interiors of this awesome country would be a great thing. Lately I have been seeing a lot of videos of Mongolian cuisines and I would definitely like to try them. Of course I know that I will not be going there in this pandemic era but in a year or two I will definitely try.   |
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Post by mystery on Jun 18, 2021 21:25:58 GMT
I was in Mongolia for a few days shortly before the pandemic. It was interesting, but not quite what I expected. Sometimes I felt like I was in Siberia, because there were so many Russian influences. I stayed in gers (yurts), and helped the families herd camels and milk cows. The bactrian camels were a lot bigger than I expected. The desert gets very cold at night, and the gers were freezing. I was able to try fermented mare's milk, which is kind of a delicacy. I went to a Naadam (games) but it was a small local one, not the big one in Ulaanbaatar. The traffic in Ulaanbaatar was nightmarish, and the roads everywhere were pretty bad. I wasn't crazy about the food, but to each their own. I'm glad that I went, but I don't plan to go back anytime soon. If you're not used to wide open spaces, you'll probably enjoy it, just as something very different than home.  |
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Post by gameboy on Jun 19, 2021 15:29:01 GMT
Hey AJ, long time no.
Interesting that Mongolia and Tibet share the same religion - Lamaist Buddhism.
I've been enamored of Tibet all my life. I must see the Potala before I die.
In the U.S. we have little restaurants allover the place called "Mongolian BBQ". But they're not run by Mongolians.
Mongolia is one of the most remote and intriguing places on earth.
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Post by divtal on Jun 19, 2021 18:21:14 GMT
Several years ago, my parents' next-door neighbors made a visit to the Gobi Desert. I had never known anyone to visit Mongolia, before that ... I was impressed. They returned with tiny fragments of rock, as souvenirs for friends. (They were purchased in a shop, and mounted on a card. So, my friends weren't "ravaging" the desert.)
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Post by Schwarzwald Magnus on Jun 20, 2021 3:39:39 GMT
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Post by Aj_June on Jun 20, 2021 18:37:04 GMT
Hey AJ, long time no.
Interesting that Mongolia and Tibet share the same religion - Lamaist Buddhism.
I've been enamored of Tibet all my life. I must see the Potala before I die.
In the U.S. we have little restaurants allover the place called "Mongolian BBQ". But they're not run by Mongolians.
Mongolia is one of the most remote and intriguing places on earth.
Hi Gameboy. Great to see you too. Good to see you mention Tibet because Tibet is also in my top 10 list. Mongoloian Buddhism, although not Tibetian Buddhism directly as in Bhutan, is still derived from Tibetan Buddhism. Quite a lot of Soviet influence too partly because of support Mongolio got from Russia against China and partly because of lot of Kazakh migrants. I like the fact that Mongolio has maintained its culture in spite of being an isolated desert.
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Post by Aj_June on Jun 20, 2021 18:41:12 GMT
I was in Mongolia for a few days shortly before the pandemic. It was interesting, but not quite what I expected. Sometimes I felt like I was in Siberia, because there were so many Russian influences. I stayed in gers (yurts), and helped the families herd camels and milk cows. The bactrian camels were a lot bigger than I expected. The desert gets very cold at night, and the gers were freezing. I was able to try fermented mare's milk, which is kind of a delicacy. I went to a Naadam (games) but it was a small local one, not the big one in Ulaanbaatar. The traffic in Ulaanbaatar was nightmarish, and the roads everywhere were pretty bad. I wasn't crazy about the food, but to each their own. I'm glad that I went, but I don't plan to go back anytime soon. If you're not used to wide open spaces, you'll probably enjoy it, just as something very different than home. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience, mystery. I read somewhere that Mongols use fork and knives and even hands to eat and not much chopsticks unless they are eating in a Chinese restaurant. There is a channel on youtube in which a guy presents a lot of traditional Mongol dishes and I am a big fan of how this guy presents his cooking. It's like art. His videos are fun.
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Post by enigma72 on Jun 20, 2021 23:15:49 GMT
Hi AJ!!
How is India faring the pandemic? Any better?
I never thought to visit Mongolia. The scenery is beautiful
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Post by gameboy on Jun 21, 2021 6:00:02 GMT
Hey AJ, long time no.
Interesting that Mongolia and Tibet share the same religion - Lamaist Buddhism.
I've been enamored of Tibet all my life. I must see the Potala before I die.
In the U.S. we have little restaurants allover the place called "Mongolian BBQ". But they're not run by Mongolians.
Mongolia is one of the most remote and intriguing places on earth.
Hi Gameboy. Great to see you too. Good to see you mention Tibet because Tibet is also in my top 10 list. Mongoloian Buddhism, although not Tibetian Buddhism directly as in Bhutan, is still derived from Tibetan Buddhism. Quite a lot of Soviet influence too partly because of support Mongolio got from Russia against China and partly because of lot of Kazakh migrants. I like the fact that Mongolio has maintained its culture in spite of being an isolated desert. I find it odd that Genghis Khan is a national hero there. Khan killed more people than Hitler. I mean, he was a genocidal maniac.
But yes, I envy you seeing Mongolia.
Russia is also guilty itself of quite a bit of colonialism and displacement of Siberian peoples. Mongolia was lucky to have avoided absorption into the U.S.S.R. Do you know if the Kazakh migration was engineered by Moscow?
There is also an "Inner Mongolia" in China which has been overran by the Han Chinese of course. The independent nation of Mongolia is also referred to as "Outer Mongolia".
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Post by mystery on Jun 21, 2021 12:09:19 GMT
I was in Mongolia for a few days shortly before the pandemic. It was interesting, but not quite what I expected. Sometimes I felt like I was in Siberia, because there were so many Russian influences. I stayed in gers (yurts), and helped the families herd camels and milk cows. The bactrian camels were a lot bigger than I expected. The desert gets very cold at night, and the gers were freezing. I was able to try fermented mare's milk, which is kind of a delicacy. I went to a Naadam (games) but it was a small local one, not the big one in Ulaanbaatar. The traffic in Ulaanbaatar was nightmarish, and the roads everywhere were pretty bad. I wasn't crazy about the food, but to each their own. I'm glad that I went, but I don't plan to go back anytime soon. If you're not used to wide open spaces, you'll probably enjoy it, just as something very different than home. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience, mystery. I read somewhere that Mongols use fork and knives and even hands to eat and not much chopsticks unless they are eating in a Chinese restaurant. There is a channel on youtube in which a guy presents a lot of traditional Mongol dishes and I am a big fan of how this guy presents his cooking. It's like art. His videos are fun. Yeah, I don't recall using chopsticks in Mongolia. I certainly never had anything as interesting as what the guy prepared in your video! Dumplings are pretty popular, and noodle dishes. I wish I had been able to spend a little more time there to get to know the culture better, but that trip was kind of a whirlwind. I went to Inner Mongolia, too. What I found quite strange was that in Inner Mongolia (China) they still use Mongolian script, which looks pretty unique. But in the country of Mongolia, they use Cyrillic. I was disappointed about that. |
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Post by mystery on Jun 21, 2021 12:20:15 GMT
gameboyI was planning to go to Tibet on that trip, but everything just fell apart. I was planning to take a tour out of Kathmandu (Nepal) which would have been the easiest and cheapest option, except that I was informed that the Chinese government would cancel my Chinese visa if I did. So, I declined that option, and thought I could sign up for a tour when I was in Beijing. Turns out, not so easy. No one seemed to have any tours available, and I suspect it might have been because I was American, because that was something they really focused on. You can also book tours online, which is probably what I'll do next time, although they are more expensive. If you don't have a Chinese visa, going through Kathmandu is definitely the least hassle.
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Post by gameboy on Jun 21, 2021 18:17:22 GMT
gameboy I was planning to go to Tibet on that trip, but everything just fell apart. I was planning to take a tour out of Kathmandu (Nepal) which would have been the easiest and cheapest option, except that I was informed that the Chinese government would cancel my Chinese visa if I did. So, I declined that option, and thought I could sign up for a tour when I was in Beijing. Turns out, not so easy. No one seemed to have any tours available, and I suspect it might have been because I was American, because that was something they really focused on. You can also book tours online, which is probably what I'll do next time, although they are more expensive. If you don't have a Chinese visa, going through Kathmandu is definitely the least hassle. So the Chinese don't allow one to visit Nepal and then return?
And was there any problem visiting Tibet while in China?
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Post by mystery on Jun 22, 2021 2:10:14 GMT
gameboy I was planning to go to Tibet on that trip, but everything just fell apart. I was planning to take a tour out of Kathmandu (Nepal) which would have been the easiest and cheapest option, except that I was informed that the Chinese government would cancel my Chinese visa if I did. So, I declined that option, and thought I could sign up for a tour when I was in Beijing. Turns out, not so easy. No one seemed to have any tours available, and I suspect it might have been because I was American, because that was something they really focused on. You can also book tours online, which is probably what I'll do next time, although they are more expensive. If you don't have a Chinese visa, going through Kathmandu is definitely the least hassle. So the Chinese don't allow one to visit Nepal and then return?
And was there any problem visiting Tibet while in China?
The Chinese government is very weird about Tibet and Xinjiang. They try to discourage foreigners from visiting, probably because people don't approve of what the government is doing there (essentially ethnic cleansing). Like I said, I found it impossible to organize a tour to Tibet from Beijing. If you don't have a Chinese visa (or you're willing to lose it) then it's easy to go to Tibet from Kathmandu. The government just doesn't seem to want foreigners to travel within China after visiting Tibet, presumably because they might say things critical of the government. They obviously do not tolerate criticism well, which is why the country is so severely restricted by the Great Firewall, and there are surveillance cameras with facial recognition everywhere you look. I found it to be a pretty creepy place, actually. Very sad. |
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