Nomad land blog

For UEFA winning team?

No. For my team. Like learning to build my website, I got to learn to build my team, I guess. Does somebody know how to do it fast?

Project ideas are big. But I am always behind schedule.

When I studied the kanji ‘blue’ I was surprised to see it also means ‘green’. I thought how crude this language is that there’s only one kanji for 2 different words. Grudgingly accepting this unlogical kanji made using it awkward and grudging. One morning when I went out to jog, I was standing near a high bushy tree with green leaves. The sky was blue, clear. Then suddenly a breeze made the branches and leaves wave before my eyes. At this moment green leaves waving to left and right with blue sky background created a mix of color which was neither pure blue or green. I could not tell it was blue or green. Perfectly 2 colors were at the same time at this angle. Just experiment it. So, this kanji has no problem of being wrong.

kanji “blue, green”. Its components are:

life, growth, new shoot of plant springing up from ground (this was the bush with green leaves, in my case) and

moon which is still in the sky in the morning in many cases. The fact that moon is visible means the sky is cloudless, clear.

It seems like I made some progress in my study of Japanese. I have been studying Japanese for years often setback by the unyielding kanjis. Still I barely can utter one complete sentence.

But some deciphering has been helpful for scratching my way ahead. Here’s an example:

This is a kanji meaning, look back or review.

Its components are:

hire, employ, plus head or neck.

The way I learn this is: when somebody is hired, the boss has to look back at his work and review its quality. Nobody leaves a new, untrained recruit unattended. Employer’s head looking back to employee’s work. Thus the meaning ‘look back’ comes. Right or wrong, this is my way of tackling this. Hopefully I am not wrong. I looked at other authoritative sources where I could not agree with explanations.

While traveling on bumpy roads I was reading books and now a light at the end of the tunnel seems to glitter.

Sometimes people ask strange things through our shop website. My brother worked on an email and here’s a Mongolian boots design he ended up arranging for a buyer. Mongolians don’t use black and red color combination in boots design. Or it must be rare that we have not seen it before. The result is this: simple 2 colors.

Winter is a slow time for most tourism companies in Mongolia. Except Ice Festival held on Huvsgul lake and Camel Festival in Gobi, both organized right after the White Moon or Lunar New Year Celebration, not many tours take place. Dog sled travel is organized by a company. In general the activity is uncomparable to summer’s.

What we did was to use the potential of our online shop http://www.mogultravel.com/artscrafts. Certainly it helped pay the rent. Established big companies owning fleets of cars may not feel pressure during this harsh time. But we did better this year thanks to this diversification. Seems like a way to weather out the cold financial low time is up.

Here is a somewhat belated post after months. Every year the Ministry of Touism organizes Tourism event at Misheel Expo Center in March or April. This is a time when tour camps, hotels, restaurants gather to show their offers. Folk performance bands show their plays, throat singing, contortion and mask dances. These bands, ensembles, and artists also benefit from the tourism season. Here are few pictures:

Throat singers group performing on the stage while boys’ team donning yellow hats waits to play the horse headed fiddle.

Presentation of a ger camp in Gobi.

After a long break I am posting a picture from the last trip to Altai mountains where Eagle festival was organised in October 2007. Our arranging of the tour may have been quite squeezed as a lot of time was spent on driving. Personally I enjoyed the tour very much. The following picture was taken near Mt Huiten (Mt Cold), the highest peak in Mongolia, the westernmost point on Mongolian border.

Just during our ride the sky became very clear and we even had to take off some of the jackets and coats. The previous day some adventure mountaineers could not reach the place as it snowed heavily. After us other people also did not reach the glacier. But all tourists met at the Eagle Festival at Sagsai soum and later at Olgii town, sharing our stories. I wondered how come that the most spoiled of all people, us, not the tough mountaineers, reached the best of the spot in Altai mountains. When we returned to UB, the weather became increasingly worse. Did we steal the best of the Altai show?

Eagle Festival takes place in Bayan Olgii province, Mongolia, around October. This time 2 festivals took place at the same time, one near Olgii town and the other in Sagsai soum.

With 2 travelers from London, we took part in the latter. Our tour included visits to Lake Hoton and Hurgan, Potanin glacier in Altai mountains, Lake Tolbo and Mt Tsambagarav in addition to Eagle Festival. Here are some pictures:

Lake Hoton: driver in the middle

The car we drove: Russian jeep

Horseback ride to Potanin glacier

We made it: Mt Huiten and Mt Malchin, 2 highest peaks in Mongolia in the background. The Potanin glacier takes place from these mountains. The 2 travelers and the wrangler.

Sending the eagle down to test its skills: spectators and lunch gers are seen below the hill

Eagle hunters: Kazak people

Kazak gers we spent night in on the bank of Lake Tolbo

The ger of Kazak family near Lake Tolbo where we spent one night with the family

Lake Tolbo

Return flight to Ulaanbaatar