Travels with Kathryn

It is now Tuesday, and my Intrepid Nadaam Festival tour officially started with the 6pm welcome meeting last night. This is an opportunity to meet the group which includes: two Brits, two Australian couples, one Australian lady,  one American lady and two men (both lawyers), a Chilean lady living in New York, a French lady living in London and a Moroccan lady also living in London (very popular place). A very well-travelled group, and we are being led by only my second female Intrepid tour leader (an English teacher most of the year and a tour guide for the summer season). Let us see how we get on.

This is the route (going anti-clockwise) for the next 3 weeks.

Today, we set off at 9 am on a small bus. There had been some confusion, and much of the luggage is travelling separately, so hopefully, I will be reuniting with the big yellow bag tonight. Quick stop on route at a Carre Four (seems to be the main supermarket around Ulaanbaatar) for 5 ltr water bottles to travel with us and then on to the Wrestlers Camp a couple of hours drive away where we’ll be seeing wrestlers (shockingly) and also staying overnight.

Wrestling is one of Mongolia’s national sports and makes up one of the three manly sports which form the Nadaam festival. Mongolian wrestling (bokh) dates back to ancient times and only men are permitted to compete as famously one of the granddaughters of Chinngis Khan Khutlun (referred to as Aiyaruk by Marco Polo) was so successful that now they have to wear the open chested jackets to prove they are men. 

On approach to the training camp, we turned off the main road right next to the giant silver statute of Chinggis. The group is actually going to stop here today, so had we known, we probably would not have organised our itinerary for Saturday to not include it, but oh well… It was then another 20 minutes on a rather bumpy road, probably the first of many, although this must be quite a good one as we are able to drive along it in our mini bus (just about) so who knows what will happen once we transfer onto the “Russian bus” (more on these later). We then pulled into a rather fancy looking “training camp” in time to see the end of the morning’s training session:

This training camp is for all the professional wrestlers from the Gobi – Alta province (one of the southern provinces of Mongolias 21 in total) and will run for 3 months leading up to Nadaam. These guys are aged between 17 and 42 and have all won titles in order to qualify for Nadaam in Ulaanbaatar which is effectively the annual national championships making them all professional wrestlers with who make a living from wrestling (both through winning titles and sponsorship). However, the older athletes, although they will compete in the Nadaam, are now more coaches (like the gentleman below sitting the session out on his camping chair).

There are no weight classes or age restrictions, and the loser is the first man to fall or if anything other than the soles of his feet or palms of hands touch the floor. Most of these young men are large and muscular, but there were a view more rounded bellies on show (which I put down to a diet of lots of meat and not much else). I also feel there is a lot of body positivity going on – good for them!

In rural areas,  matches continue until this happens, however, for Nadaam matches have a time limit – 20 minutes, after which the winner will be the first wrestler to hook his hands through the knickers of the other (with the judge giving who he thinks has performed better during the match an advantage).

During Nadaam 1,024 wrestlers will compete – for rounds 1, 2 and 4 wrestlers are listed and matched according to their rank from top to bottom (which seems rather unfair, but probably helps keep the competition interesting/big names in). Then, for rounds 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9, the higher ranking wrestlers can choose their opponents (again, giving them an advantage). As wrestlers progress through the rounds, they are awarded titles:

• 5th round – Falcon
• 6th round – Khartsaga or Kestrel
• 7th round – Elephant (by this stage, we are down to 16 wrestlers)
• 8th round – Garid (a fairytale bird)
• 9th round – The Champion (with special titles for repeat winners).

Two willing/unwilling volunteers were then dragooned into posing for some photos for the tourists and to give us a closer view of their ensemble. Poor lads. The costumes are always in red and/or blue (inkeeping with the colours of the Mongolian flag) in various shades, and a wrestler can choose his prefered combination. The shrug/jacket is called a Zodog and is made of either cotton or silk. It is very tight around the arms, making it difficult for an opponent to hook their hands under. This is then tied with a string that goes around the back and ties at the front, leaving the chest exposed. The tiny little knickers are called Shuudags. Finally, the boots are made of leather, tied with strings, and have an upturned toe (to protect the grass from being stomped on by these rather chunky young men). The inner wrapping is made of felt (in winter) or silk (in summer) to protect the legs. 

By now, it was 1pm and our first opportunity to sample traditional training/ger camp food. Well, I was rather surprised by the sheer volume of vegetables in this delicious soup served alongside steamed dumplings.

All was going well, as the heavens opened and it started to rain, then hail (we were glad to be inside). However, with my over enthusiastic attempts to open and then close the window next to me, a ceiling tile fell out onto my head, and I was drenched in various debris. I feel this is going to be a trip theme in that every three days, some accident will befall me. However, I escaped undamaged, just a little grubby. Luckily, I had already spotted the rather nice-looking showers, which I hope to avail myself of later. I am also pleased to report that the separate luggage bus has also arrived and I have been reunited with my bag.

Each ger sleeps four, and they have separated out the boys and the girls, including using a spare ger to protect the wrestlers from the female inhabited gers. As is traditional, in the run-up to Nadaam, the wrestlers avoid touching women (in case we pollute them with our filthy dirty habits). A Mongolian ger looks very similar to a Kyrgyzstan yurt, both the construction and layout. The only rather elegant difference I have noticed so far is that the beds are curved – which makes sense when one has curved walls.

One difference as explained to me by one of the Austalian ladies who has already been in Mongolia for two weeks, is the above rope, This is symbolic to connect the family (inside the ger) with the sky. Usually, the number of loops in the tail represent the number of children in the family. Evidently, I am in the correct ger. She also mentioned that somewhere we may see a favoured horses’ hair hung over the rope if the animal has had to be sold or if it has died.

Whilst some of the group headed to the giant statute of Chinggis Khan, those of us that have already been had some quiet time around camp. As it seemed that most of the wrestlers were doing the same (perhaps napping?) other than two lads playing basketball (probably Mongolia’s most played team support), and two children who seem to have adopted me (who I am entertaining with my mobile phone case, and counting up to 21 and a few rounds of the Chicken Banana) whilst writing this entry.

Its kind of an odd set-up, as it has holiday camp feel with the little huts, the shower/toilet block, the basketball court, communal dinning and car park – without the gers it could kind of be what I imagine a 1960s Butlins may have looked like! I can not imagine professional footballers in the UK agreeing to a similar set-up for their training camps, particularly not right next to a random group of tourists who have moved in for the night. The landscape is unmistakenly Mongolian, though, and this feels a rather special experience to be allowed this insight pre-Nadaam.

Its now 8pm and I have showered (boiling hot and excellent pressure) and had another meal including vegetables. This is not quite what I had been led to believe.

However, tomorrow we have an early departure (7.30am) to head to training camps for archery and horse racing. It may only be 8pm, but as the temperature has dropped and the rain appears to have set in, I have brushed my teeth and am in my pjs ready for bed. Another learning day awaits us. Goodnight.