Welcome to the great country of Mongolia! Leah and I arrived dead tired from the overnight flight to arrive in the middle of the biggest, manliest, festival of the year. That would be the Nandam festival. A 2-3 day event, crafted around the three manly sports. Horse racing (done with 5 year olds), archery (with old world bows at 75 meters), and wrestling. The wresting was what we ended up watching for hours. Why hours? Well, there are no weight classes, there are no time limits, and you have to fight everyone to win. These guys are mostly sumo wrestler size, they wear spedo outfits, and there arms are covered, to win: just throw the other guy to the ground. Very cool and very Mongolian. (the guys in the swimsuits are there to kick some butt, however they have to dance before and after the match, or at least the winner must dance)
That was the good, but that night the bad happened. Leah caught something in Thailand, most likely a small case of Dengue fever, and was flat on her back. Totally unable to do anything except drink water, eat a bit, and sleep. But don't worry folks, it has been almost four days of R&R and she is doing great, with the fever gone. Just weak.
As for the Ugly, check out the picture of me, wearing my Del (Leah doesn't think I am Ugly but it goes with the story). The Del is the traditional, Mongolian riding coat, and Leah and I both had them made up. So you will all be seeing lots of them in the future.
As for the future, we are away for connection for at least the next 30 days. Then expect stories with lots of horses in them.
Millionaires at last! Leah in bed with 2.5 million Togrog, or just under 2 thousand US dollars. No ATM in the mountains folks, so we carry around 3 inches of cash, just in case.
No comments:
Post a Comment