In my wildest of dreams, I never had imagined that I could land up in Mongolia. Mongolians are a very daring community and during Chenggis Khaan period, they invaded most parts of Europe, China , India etc. I was told that most of the Sumo wrestlers are from Mongolia. I was surprised. Can you imagine that for 2.5 million human population in Mongolia there are almost 2.7 million horses. Almost a horse per person ! Ancient warriors in Mongolia used horses to fight wars. Mongolia has a unique culture, but I could hardly see anything on religion. Some people say that they are buddhists. May be ! But I haven't come across one pagoda or a buddhist monk during my stay. Disintegration of Russian Union had a lot of impact on Mongolia.
To my surprise I found lot of Indian restaurants in UlaanBatar, Mongolia. Taj Mahal is one of them. Even Los Bandidos is also good.
Being a land locked country, they depend a lot on China / Korea for imports through sea route. Commodities are quite expensive.
I travelled Ulaan Batar during February and it was quite cold. Temperatures was -25 degrees and even to stand outside for couple of minutes was just killing. However, a young Mongol could jolly well play in a field covered fully with snow.
Small circular tent houses are often found in the country side and people stay there. In the centre of the tent house, there is a chimney and tea is continously boiled there. They have a unique dress and it helps them mount on a horse easily and even protect the toughest winter.
Mongols normally eat Meat of Cattle and Sheep. I am surprised that not many eat Pork or Chicken. No wonder the Pig population is about 0.2 million while cattle and sheep put together are about 17 million. Tasted horse milk and curd made of horse milk. Yaaak!!
People are very hospitable and hard working. I loved that place.
Bhargav
