Tag: UlaanBataar

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The Black Market in Ulaanbataar

Tack at the black market in UlaanBataar

The Black Market in Ulaanbataar is a leftover from the Soviet era in Mongolia, when it was Communist and all shopping and markets were controlled by the government. The Black Market was an illegal market where individuals went to sell their goods. Now it’s huge, and legal, but the name hasn’t changed. And you can literally find ANYTHING you could possibly want there.

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We went specifically to buy riding boots for me. We also wanted to check out their tack selection, but planned to buy our saddles in Olgii, the city we would fly into to begin our horse adventure.

It was overwhelming, but we finally made our way to the tack section and were blow away by how beautiful the saddles were!

Saddles at the black market in UlaanBataar

Saddles at the black market in UlaanBataar… and how strange they were. I guess I understand now why we saw all of the riders standing up when they did anything faster than a walk. I also quickly realized that I would NOT be riding for multiple weeks in a Mongolian saddle. Not gonna happen. Hope they have other options in Olgii. We learned that most likely there would be Kazak saddles in Olgii, since the population there in Western Mongolia is all Kazakh.

Then we found our way to the boot section of the market. There were dozens of vendors and thousands of boots! I immediately fell in love with the traditional Mongolian boots – they are so unique! But they wouldn’t be my riding boots. Fortunately, the prices were lower than we expected, so Rick agreed to let me get two pairs, one for riding and one for wearing back home.

Mongolian boots at the black market in UlaanBataar

Before we left, we found an amazing section of antiques and traditional items. We haven’t been able to buy really any souvenirs on this trip because we couldn’t carry them. But since Mongolia was our last stop (besides a few days in Korea), we let ourselves stock up. It was also some of the coolest items we’ve seen, in that they were all authentic (not stuff made for tourists to buy) and really interesting. We ended up with a variety of items from a royal family’s turquoise jewelry to a beautiful heirloom snuff bottle, a singing bowl to traditional bronze bells. And of course, my beautiful Mongolian boots!

Getting to mingle with Mongolians going about their day-to-day business and seeing the incredible goods was a highlight of Ulaanbataar for us.

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Nadaam Festival

Since before we were even planning our big trip, we had this crazy idea that we wanted to go to Mongolia, the land of blue skies, horses and nomads, buy horses and ride across the steppe. So while in South America, we got an itch to end our trip with something big and adventurous – and Mongolia sounded like just the thing. So thanks to an amazing friend who helped us out with discounted flight tickets, were able to go.P1210685

We arrived in the capitol, Ulanbataar, from Beijing in the middle of the night and had fortunately booked a hostel already. We groggily woke up the next morning with plans to figure out what the heck we were doing (which part of the huge country we wanted to go horsetrekking in, how to get there, how to buy horses and tack) – but immediately got sidetracked by a flyer hanging in the hostel that offered a ride to the last Nadaam Festival of the year – Today! We asked when they were leaving and the answer was right now, so we hopped in an old Russian jeep and were on our way before we knew what happened.

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A few minutes outside of the city, we were quickly driving through expanses of rolling green hills as far as you could see, no fences, no buildings, nothing. We knew we’re arriving at the festival when we started seeing Gers (traditional nomadic tent-homes, like yurts) and herds of horses. There were thousands of people there.

We started our day at the archery competition, one of “The Three Manly Sports”, which is what Nadaam is all about. The traditional dress is amazing and beautiful. And the skill of the archers blew us away! Even more so when we got to try our hand at it ourselves – it was tough! And we were using a little kid bow.

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Next up we went to see some traditional Mongolian wrestling. Which involves quite interesting costumes!

I loved how there were horses everywhere! The people are incredibly skilled riders – standing up in the saddle, texting and galloping at the same time. We grabbed a seat in some bleachers next to where the horses were parked.

 

The final event we went to see was horse racing. The races are long distance – 25 kilometers – and are designed as a straightaway with no turns. That’s because the riders are little kids from 4-9 years old, and it’s safer if the kids don’t have to turn the horses. Basically the kid is just there to whip the horse and make it go fast. They use kids because they’re so lightweight, and they use virtually no saddle. We grabbed a seat in the grass when the horses and riders started heading out, thinking the race would start soon… but two hours later we hadn’t yet seen the telltale cloud of dust. That’s what you look for, a big cloud of dust in the distance. The riders have to trot the horses about 20 kilometers out from where you first see them and then turn around and start racing. We were so excited when we finally saw the cloud of dust, and it was over just minutes later.

We finished our day off with some fermented yak milk and evading the traffic jam leaving the festival, by heading for the hills. Our driver saw the traffic, busted a u-turn and drove right off the road. We just started flying through the grass, over creeks and rocks, and we made it back to the hostel in no time.

What a first day in Mongolia!

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