Nadaam...

July 15, 2019

Nadaam...

This week went well, it was the national holiday so everyone was gone to the countryside. The roads are still empty from it actually. It's weird waking around and seeing no one around town. It's usually really really busy all the time everywhere, so it's starting to feel a bit more like a small town with everyone gone. But we lucked out with the weather this week. Last week it was super rainy and cold, but this year it was really sunny and warm. It felt like an actual Mongolian Naadam this year it was pretty sweet. The week was still really busy though with the festivities, meeting with people is next to impossible because they all take off to the countryside, so really the only thing is to do what the locals do.

So to get inside the Naadam stadium to watch the opening show you have to have a ticket but getting a ticket is ridiculous here. So 2 days before the holiday we had to wait outside this building trying to get a ticket for 5 hours. We just sat there as this guy who said he could get tickets for us was getting the tickets. He ended up ripping us off but we still were able to get in. It's pretty crazy though. People line up for this the night before so there is no chance of getting tickets by waiting. It's kinda frustrating because most the Mongolians who line up to buy them don't even go. They just sell the tickets for a super upcharged price, it's normally about $10 but they sell their's for $100. Pretty crazy. Luckily we only got upcharged by about 10 more dollars. But it was a pain. Just sitting outside all day.

The actual festival was pretty sweet. The whole country goes all out for it. The day before the opening ceremony there was a Mongolian deel festival. They held it at the city square, and people from all over the country came. They did a district by district deel competition. It was pretty cool to see all the old people in their really traditional deels. They had some shamans walk through too which I thought was pretty interesting. They looked very very native American. While we were watching this parade a couple news people came up to us and asked if we spoke Mongolian. When they found it we did they interviewed us for their TV channel which we figured out later is one of the biggest in the country. Tons of people we know asked us why we were on it haha. And one of the girls who asked us the questions is a huge celebrity here. We had no idea. Pretty wild. After we were interviewed we hung out some more and found some really cool Kazakh guys. One of them had 2 full fox pelts hanging around his neck I was dying, these people are crazy sometimes. After dinner this same day we were walking through a monastary to use it as a shortcut, and we saw all these girls dressed up in the traditional Mongolian queen clothing. It looked really cool to see in person. Mostly all you see are pictures of people with it on but in person it's nuts. I guess back in the day the women would sort of show off their money by buying more gold and silver pieces to put in their hair. So today its become kinda tradition to go all out with it. So these girls had over 15 pounds of stuff on their head while trying to do their photoshoot. They finished right when we walked by so we started talking to them and asked them about it all. They were doing stuff for the Miss Mongolia. But it's pretty cool that they still have their traditions and it carries over into the modern world.

For the actual Naadam we got up early and went to the city square to watch the military guys come in on their horses and pick up the peace flags. When they started marching to the stadium all the crowds followed right behind them all the way. This is a tradition they have been doing forever, so literally everyone in the city is walking behind these horses going to the stadium. We got there and there are tons of tents set up selling huushuur. It's the traditional food they eat during this holiday. It's a fried piece of bread with meat in the middle. I like it actually. But there were hundreds of them. In America we have rib cookoffs during the state fairs (or some sort of food) and they do the same here just with huushuur. So I grabbed a couple to eat and we went to our seats to watch the ceremony. It was really cool. They had horses running around the whole time which I really enjoy. It's cool to think they are doing it all about the same way they were as during the Mongolian empire. I love being in a place with so much culture and history, it's very cool to see in person. We actually sat right in front of some Malaysian women who spoke really good english. They asked us what the heck we were doing here and when they found out we were teachers from America they were blown away. They said "You Americans do things so young, we are retired and now travel, but you do it all when you are young. You are all so crazy." They actually got really in depth and asked about our credentials to teach, so thank goodness we did something haha. We had to kinda stretch the truth about our BYU course we went through. I made it sound crazy rigorous and stuff so they really do think we are the real deal (which we pretty much are).

Last year I never got to see the ankle bone game they do for Naadam, I watched the archery the whole time. So we found the ankle bones and it turns out it's just a bunch of old dudes in deel's who flick these bones about 15 feet to hit another little ankle bone. They are all pretty much aces and never miss. I loved watching it, these guys are super funny and it's honestly the most classic old man game there is. They all sit on their little stools and drink their berry juice and snack while playing for a national championship. I thought it was pretty sweet, it's hard to explain this whole thing, it's more like a huge experience you have to be there for. I wish you all could see it, it would blow all of your minds. I walked around some and found the strength competition dudes again. I got the same time on the bar hanging competition as I did last though. It was so tough. But the guy was happy to see me back haha. It was really fun though, Naadam is awesome. All the people lost their minds when they saw us walking around in the traditional shirts. It's cool to be a part of this culture.

So the last thing we did was there was a culture show we heard about on the last day of Naadam. We head down and find out it's a Korean night haha. So all these Koreans showed up and they had Korean food and music and shows. Turned out really fun, but we were in Mongolian clothes so we stood out like crazy. Normally when wear Mongolian stuff a lot of people ask to take pictures with us, so when this person came up to ask to take a picture with us we weren't shocked. But turns out she is Korean and she posted the picture of us and tagged us, so now we've got a ton of Korean people following our Facebook. But Seoul Korea looks pretty nice though, it definitely was put on my bucket list after this.

And that's the whole week, it was pretty awesome. The holidays here are my favorite, the whole country goes wild for them. Love ya guys

Austin

The Kazakh guys we met.

The competition field

Sheep Bone Game

Sheep bone game

One of the manly strength competitions. You had three tries to hit the nail all the way in. On my second hit the nail bent and snapped right in two. Faulty nail.

The hanging bar competition I didn't improve my time from last year, but at least I wasn't worse. Don't mind the guy picking his nose.

Hand painted plates they were selling.

Parade at the opening ceremony.

Mom, I knew you would love these babies in baskets on a yak.

Traditional costume of the reindeer herders from the North.

Miss Mongolia photo shoot.

Miss Mongolia. I went to stand by her and she went in for a full hug. Got a little handsy.

Military procession in the main square.

This couple is selling the fermented mares milk. They have it stored in the blue drums. You pay your money and they give you some milk in a little bowl. You drink the milk, give the bowl back and they wipe it out to use with the next customer. Pretty legit.

Huushuur tents. There were 100's of them.

Our new Malaysian friends.

I really liked this girls deel, so I had to get a picture of it.

More opening ceremony stuff.

This guy was nuts. He was throwing this pole around like it was nothing. Then some kids came out and sat on the ends and he twirled them around. It was crazy.