O.R. Melling's Blog, page 12

A Great Book About Mongolia

Just finished reading this in bits and pieces at night before konking out after many a busy day. (Being Rinpoche's attendant is not unlike being part of a travelling road show. Sometimes I am carting about a huge amount of things and I call myself his temee or camel, lol.) Kohn writes of Mongolia, Mongolians and ex-pats in Mongolia with great warmth and humour. He also gives you a galloping whirlwind tour of Mongolian history, geography and politics which is a terrific introduction to the country. Bit outdated, mind you, as he's writing about the early 2000s and the fact is everything changes radically here in the space of a year, i.e. government, economy, landscape (UB is a boom town with buildings going up everywhere in the blink of an eye while the countryside may or may not be affected by extreme weather conditions). Well worth a read whether you are coming here or not. Sometimes laughed out loud he's so funny. Love the joke about Brezhnev, Mao and Tsedenbel. Will tell next time. His website is www.michaelkohn.us.

Mongolian Panorama

The heart of Mongolia is a vast breathtaking freedom of sky and plain. I spent the day with thousands of riders and their horses racing into the Guinness Book of Records as the largest horse race ever held. Last count I heard was 4,900. I have pics of the race but haven't figured out yet how to access my own camera. Here's a photo from Stephanie, the young volunteer English teacher from Singapore, who was born in Canada (but left when she was one year old, though she sounds Canadian to me nonetheless!), i.e. she's teaching English to Mongolian children, young adults and monks for ASRAL. After the horse race our driver Naranbold took us to his family ger up in the hills. (click on the pic and you'll get a better view) And if you want to see me in Mongolian dress switch over to my regular blog. There you will see from where the Star Wars costume designer swiped Queen Amidala's head-gear! (Photo credit: Stephanie Ng)