My newfound Nomadic family

I am writing this on my 41st birthday, almost 3 weeks after this day happened but I can honestly tell you it is still fresh in my memory as it was the best trip of my life so far. Before I went to Mongolia, I did mentioned to Bek that I would love to contribute a goat/lamb for a feast, something that Zalika and her friends did a year earlier. In Ulgii, I reminded Bek again and during the trip I as observing all the places we stop and thinking where is the best place to do so. 

Before I write more about it, I would like to share more why I love to do this kind of contributions. It not something that I want to boast about but more to share the reason behind it and who knows it would encourage you guys to contribute, in your own ways. When I graduated, it was during bad economic downturn (1998) and it was really hard to find a job and I finally was hired by a small firm in JB. Whilst there, I was close to the firm's messenger and we normally have lunch together. During lunchtime, we always fought on wanting to pay for the meal. Imagine, a messenger always arguing with you on who's paying for the meal 😅. I observed and it somehow strucked me to do the same, though at that time I was earning a mere RM800 whilst my other graduate friends have a basic starting salary circa RM2,000.  It made me believe that in each of our earning, there is a part which belongs to others and I started doing the same and also trying to find other means to contribute, not worrying whether I have monies left for me or not. Well, 18 years down the road and here I am. I have ups and downs but monies are never a main issue and although when I was travelling to Mongolia I have not secured a job and my savings are diminishing, it doesn't stop me from the thought of contributing a goat/lamb for a feast. Three weeks later and here I am writing and confirming that I have secured a job and will start in my next career 1st December 2016. This is a form of zakat my friend. Contribute and InshaAllah you will be repaid in one way or another 🙏🏼.

Anyway, after discussing with Nurlan about the weather pattern, observing how we were becoming very close with Erbolat's family and hearing the crazy Noli craving about Beshbarmak (5 fingers), we decided that this is the best place to do the feast. 

After the fishing trip we informed Erbolat about it and today the whole family works together to prepare for the feast to be held that night. It started with Erbolat capturing one of the lamb, before sacrificing it. He asked me the honour to do so but I told him I had slaughtered chicken before but not lamb and its better to let the expert to do so. He did the slaughtering and followed by skinning the lamb and cutting it into pieces. We all watched in amazement his speed and skills on skinning and butchering the lamb. He was later helped by his wife and Balapan, all knowing their specific roles and doing it like a coordinated orchestra. The whole process only lasts 45 minutes! Oh ya, Noli and Pzah was amazed at Balapan's skills as well and they talked about how lucky a man would be (or perhaps how chubby a man would be) if managed to capture her heart 😝.

 Erbolat slaughtering the lamb with myself watching over

Skinning process 

Husband and wife performing in an orchestra 

 

Efficiently done

 My heart will go on..

During the whole process we did learnt about few things. Amongst others, they burned the lamb's head first to burn the fur at the head and what would be left would be the skin, intestines being used to cook cheese, creams etc. 

The wife then started to cook Beshbarmak (it takes hours) and whilst waiting for it to cook, they started to make pasta and some other finger foods. Gosh they really are a good cook. We on the other hand helped to clean the space, arranged the rugs etc for the big night.

That night the neighbours came and we all gathered around for the feast. Kids all in one corner having their own Bershbarmak and we all sitting at the floor enjoying it together. You can see Noli eats like a lioness having caught her meal. Even the others enjoyed watching her eat (I surely believe she has a hantu raya eating for her). Oh ya, traditionally the goat's head will be given to the eldest, out of respect and it also believed that it is the tastiest part. Being one of the oldest anyway, I was amongst the first to eat it and yes it does taste good. Noli was given a different part where there are more fat and the part that the locals believe is good for one who wants to have a baby. I didn't eat much as I was suffering from toothache at that time and at the same time perhaps deep down I was already 'full', watching in satisfaction how sacrificing a lamb brings all of us together.

 

 

 

 

After the meal, we were served with tea and then Erbolat started to make some speech, telling us how happy and grateful they are in having us here. I took the chance to make my own speech indicating how happy we are, how amazed we are and how we already felt like we are part of their family and hoping that they do not forget us. They later started singing a few songs; about motherhood, about the mongolian landscape, about how proud they are of being a nomadics and gosh, all of them have a very good voice! All of them! They asked us to sing but all of us chickened out, something we later regretted. 

The whole feasts lasts until late at night and whilst the neighbours later went home, we continued playing cards together. We certainly bonded well.

I now have a Nomadic family!

 

 

Fishing and hammock

I always wonder where does the lady of the house goes early morning. This morning, rather then sitting inside waiting for our next activity, I decided to take a stroll outside myself and there she is, milking cows! I watched how she effortlessly milking the cow and when she felt that the volume decreases, she just look at her husband. The husband would then releases a calf and it will milk from i guess her mother cow. Erbolat would then pull the cow back and his wife will then continue milking and you can see immediately how fast the milk flows. I told Erbolat tomorrow I want to try it and he nodded with a Mel Gibson smile.

Last night the crazy Noli told us how she wanted to carry a kid and this morning she got her wish. Erbolat kindly brought us and let us choose..Noli, i guess being married to an Irish, chose a white kid for a photo session with her 😝

 Noli with her kid (haha i bet some of you thought I was talking about babies 😝)

 Our kids 😝

We then got into the goat pen and played and took photos with the goats (we haven't showered for few days now and what the hell, additional goat smell won't do us any harm 😀). It was a small goat pen but when it was time to release the goats for their normal grass grazing time, we were just amazed to see how many were they...try counting them here..

Fishing 

Uncle Musa then brought us to try fishing at Khovd river. Water was crystal clear but too shallow as the river is starting to get frozen as winter is coming. Tried casting for almost half and hour but we ended up spending time watching in awe the beautiful Mongolia landscape and as usual taking obligatory photos 😀

 Happy feet

 Left alone to fish

 Let's picnic here instead

Hammock

Failing to get any fish and not able to stand in the minus temperature anymore, we decided to head home instead.

At home, I decided to call Erbolat and his family out. As their family was so kind to us, I guess there is no harm giving them my precious hammock so that the kids can enjoy playing with them and Erbolat himself can use it when doing his nomadic duties. Guess what, when I show him the hammock and told him that I am giving it to him, his first question was can it fit in his wife and himself..salute! 

 Romantic couple

 Beishu and koyak having fun with their new toy

 

 Uncle Musa having a go as well..with style😎

 Err which one is Mongolian Kazakh?

All in all it was a very fun session and we even 'forced' the gradma to try it..she was laughing hard until she felt dizzy..am not sure whether dizzy due to the hammock or listening to Noli's loud laugh 😆...p/s: Kazakh ladies controlled their laughter to ensure its not loud, something which is not polite in their culture..but of course Noli gelak macam pontianak and they are fine with it 😂😂😂

Next - i have a nomadic family 👏😀

Becoming real herders

Horse riding

Mongolia never fails to surprise me. Today, the plan was for us to ride horses at this beautiful and wild place and so we did..but what surprise me the most is although the owner knows that we have never rode horses before, they guide and let us ride the horses on our own. For the girls, at first each horses is accompanied by either Mr Erbolat (I call him Mel Gibson) or Nolan but as for me, I rode on my own from the start. It was quite easy actually ie pull the head up to stop the horse from moving, left to turn left and right to turn right..of course kick the horse at the side with both legs if you want it to run or move faster...the girls later rode by themselves as well as they seems comfortable with it as well..

 Mr Erbolat (Mel Gibson), the owner of the home we stayed for 3 nights..

 The Mask of Zorro in the making

 Us three together with Nurlan

 

Ride to work

We rode along the beautiful landscape in temperature of about -10 (later at noon increased to about -2) for about 3 hours. Along the way we can see many herds moving from the summer place to the owner's winter place and after seeing that we can handle the horses comfortably, they decided why not let us experience something more...just watch the video and understand what i meant..

Yes yes yes..we really experience the nomadic life 😀 ..we became one of the herders (gembala)..we helped one Kazakh nomad to control and move their herds containing cows, goats and sheeps...funnily he trusted us and ran off or shall i say hop off to a house nearby for a quick bowl of tea (yeah they drink tea in bowl and using salt and one thing i also observe here is that they are very welcoming..they even entertain stranger who drops by their  house with tea, bread, cheese and cream). We continued migrating with the herds for at least half and hour before we leave the herds as we need to ride back to our homestay...along the way we caught up with another herds and we then helped to control the herd and move together with it..

 Awesome work site

 Leaked scene from Ice Age 7

 

Can you see my teeth 😬😀

Successful herders 👏👏..and we paid to work instead of getting paid 😅

In short, I never dream of this and never thought of doing this..I have seen this in cowboy drama scenes or natgeo and i can't believe that this can now be ticked off from my life to do list (as if I have one 😅).

We ended the day with a good bonding session ie playing cards..and the best part the Mr Erbolat and his wife, our guide Nurlan, the awesome cook Babalat and 3 of us played together until late at night..it was indeed a perfect day..

 

 Learning mathematics together 😀

Earlier - Russian Van, Ger and ...

Next - New found family

The Russian Van, Ger and..

The Russian Van

After 2 nights staying at the winter house of Mr Ekhee, we say final goodbye to them and the Altai Mountains. The plan is to travel 128 kilometres southwest to Borburus. Whilst it should meant a maximum of one hour drive on Malaysian road (I bet for most its 45 minutes drive), here it meant at least 3 hours on the road and we will be travelling in the Russian van.

The Russian van is also know as the 'Buhanka', which means a unit of bread. Produced in Russia since 1965, this 4x4 van is very popular as an expedition van. In Mongolia itself, when driving through the vast empty land you might bump into one or two such van daily, as its parts are easily available and many mechanics/drivers are very much familiar with it. 

We have seen this van for 2 days but never rode in it and from today onwards, this would be our main mode of transportation. My friend earliern advised me to bring a soft pillow for my backside as she said it would be a bumpy journey daily, in the van. I was expecting the worst but to my surprise, we felt comfortable in the van. It was really spacious and can fit up to 8 passengers (including driver) easily, albeit some would have to seat facing the rear; something not good if you tend to get headache easily. At the rear side, our experience driver Uncle Musa easily packed and fit in all ther gears, including the huge cooking gas cylinder, our backpacks, mattresses, sleeping bag, stoves, water, rations and ahhh you name it. Its like a moving house by itself and guess what, who knows somehow someday you would see one in Malaysia 😁..when you do, try and guess whose is it 😝

 Our ride for the next 6 days

 The place we called home for 2 nights

 Final word for a loyal guardian

 Group photo with Mr Ekhee and his wife

 Trust me, it is indeed comfortable

 Our reliable driver, Uncle Musa. At his age of 65, I am amazed with his strength and offroad driving skills

 Look at the view

 Mesmerising

We commenced our journey as planned, at 1000am, leaving behind the snowy mountains, towards Borburus, where we plan to stay there for 2 nights. The view along the way was just mesmerising as you can see migrating herds, vast lands blanketed by snow, cowboys, freezing river and to cap it old at times along the way you can see cute red cheek kids waving at you (and for the ladies well built tall, not dark and handsome men smiling at them as well). 

 Berhenti bagi kids coklat

 Chubby and cute

Ger

I told Nurlan (our guide), if we pass by a Ger please do stop by as we wanted to see the interior of it. As written earlier, we were supposed to stay in Ger for 2 nights but as the snowfalls came earlier then expected, we have to opt for plan B instead. We managed to find one, and Mr Sarai, the owner of the Ger, kindly let us in. True to the spirit of the local Mongolian Kazakhs, though we were uninvited guess, the lady of the house (or shall i say the lady of the ger), quickly boil some hot tea, prepare some cheese, bread etc and served us well. I am very much impressed with this and days later, I also found out that the herders, when feeling cold or tired, will just drop by any of the nomadics house and they will be treated the same as we did.

By looking at the interior of a Ger, you would know whether it is a Mongolian Ger. A Mongolian Ger would be simple and the roof trusses are all straight but a Kazakh Ger will be well decorated and its roof trusses will be bent inwards at the part where the roof joints with the walls (see video).

 

Customary foods  that the Kazakhs will serve their guests 

 

Me and Mr Sarai. I am turning into Mongolian Kazakh myself 😝

Run up the hill

 

Along the way, we reached a point where the van needed to do a steep climb up a hill and as it was icy road we were asked to step out and hike up instead.

The place itself offers jaw-dropping landscape and we took time taking obligatory photos before commencing our unplanned forced hike 😅. 

Pzah and myself was so focus on taking nice shots until we realised that Noli and Balapan had hiked far from us. I then told Pzah lets run to them; to beat the cold and be nearer to them. It was an error of judgement as we soon found out that with the thin oxygen level (this place is of high altitude), breathing was difficult and Pzah later fell sick and vommitted 😅. 

Breathtaking isn't it? 

 Long way hike up

Cheeky girl

The journey continues and after stopping to relief ourselves few times, the Russian van suddenly stopped in front of a winter house. Nurlan went down, had a quick chat with somebody inside, came out and we drove away. When driving away, we saw a cheeky cute girl smiling and waving at us. The ladies got excited and smiled back and all havocly chatted about that girl and felt like wanted to ask Uncle Musa to stop as we wanted to take some photos with her. We thought somehow Uncle Musa is an expert at telephaty as he did stopped the vehicle, Pzah then ran down and hugged the girl and we were busy taking photos with her and his brother, and later her grandma. 

We soon found out that Uncle Musa does not have that sixth sense but actually we have arrived at today's intended destination...and staying with this girl's family indeed 😂😂😅👍

 Macam dah lama kenal

How can you not adore them? 

Outside view from the home we will stay tonight

 

 See dah macam balik kampung je

 Sampai je Pzah terus pengsan..camnerlah nak jadi menantu..

Earlier - Our first experience as Herders

Next - Becoming real herders

Our first experience as Herders

We arrived at Ekhee's house at about 1:30pm and after lunch Bek departed back to Olgii and we remained for the night. 

In the evening, the lady owner asked if we can help collect and bring home baby yaks and I excitedly answered yes without realising that the baby yaks were wondering at the mountain itself. The ladies decided to follow as well and as we stepped out from the house, the view was mesmerising as we can see herds of goats, yaks and camels with the background of snowcapped mountains shined by the setting sun. We forgot about our duty and spent time taking photos again and again. Nolan had to warn us that the baby yaks are going further up the mountains and we need to be fast.

 Mesmering backdrop of the place we stayed for 2 nights..and the baby yaks are somewhere there 😅

We managed to catch up with the baby yaks and I got my first experience to be a herder..

Apparently the yaks can understand malay 😝

We then watched the herds home and then continued the unfinished business of playing snow..

PPart time traffic control 

The area being swamped by animals. Muat ke?

 Playing snow with the rising moon as the backdrop

Earlier - Trekking the Altai Mountains

Next - The Russian Van