Life abroad: As Robert sees it

Meeting the Eagle

robjkentjr — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:47:01 +0000

27 May 2010 | Deluun Sum, Mongolia (47.8677, 90.6981)

On our second day, after suffering a tea hangover from our welcome meals, we finally met the eagle. Although she did not have a name, she was as much part of the family as any one of the kids (not even the dog slept inside!).


	The hunter introduces us to the eagle, which sleeps in the bedroom with the family and was definitely not happy about us waking her up.


	We all enjoy a meal together with the eagle. From this, I learned that when an eagle begs for food, you give it what it wants. Hanging on the wall, you can also see some of the 44 foxes she caught this last winter.


	The eagle-hunter as he gazes lovingly into his pet’s eye.


	These talons can do some serious damage if given a chance to clinch the flesh, which she tries on me in a bit.


	I am desperate to make friends and cuddle with the bird but she wants nothing to do with me.


	I finally get to hold her, and sure enough, she digs her talons into my arm.


	The hunter is mounting up to bring his eagle for a horse ride. She was about as excited as a dog when pulling out the leash for a walk.

It was amazing to see how the eagle is literally a cherished part of the family and earns her keep by hunting for precious meat during the winter. Sadly, this ends our time in the Kazakh area of Mongolia and now we start our two-week drive to the capital, Ulaanbaatar.

Daily life with an Eagle-Hunter

robjkentjr — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:38:17 +0000

25 May 2010 | Deluun Sum, Mongolia (47.9828, 90.6611)

The reason we came to this remote corner of Mongolia was to visit the eagle-hunter. But before playing with the giant bird we had to take care of some household chores and drink vast quantities of salty milk tea.


	Arriving at the nomadic eagle-hunter’s home, we noticed the satellite dish and solar panel. It powered his portable TV and mobile phone so I guess that is keeping with his namesake.


	As honored guests, the mother fetched us some fresh milk. She just mixes the goat, sheep and yak milk together for extra flavor.


	We also needed some water so we drove down to the local creek and scooped some up, careful to keep the floating bits of sheep dung out of it.


	Finally, we were ready to make some salty milk tea. We each drank about eight glasses of the stuff that day.


	Our guide had to make a phone call so we walked up to the top of the hill to get one bar of reception.


	You might have noticed there are no trees around to use for firewood. This is why there are piles of dried dung (behind the goats), which gives everything a nice smoky flavor.


	As the Mongolians say, I am taking pleasure in the great outdoors toilet. Cannot imagine doing this when it is -40°F out, you might lose a vital appendage.

Spending a day helping out with chores has again reaffirmed our respect for these people who live through the harsh winters here (if you wanted to see for yourself, check out Kelin, a great movie depicting Kazakh culture that has not changed for centuries). Now that we have partaken in the ritual tea drinking, we are ready to meet the last feathered family member.

Blocked in China!

robjkentjr — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:58:47 +0000

Hello Everyone,

I have to write and tell you this. Currently, I am in China and have no access at all to any of my website social activities.

What does this mean? Well, so far I have discovered that Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, and Plaxo are all blocked by China’s Great Firewall. On top of this, I cannot access any pages that say what exactly is blocked in China. But even worse, my website has been blocked by China!

I have no ftp access to upload photos so all of you are going to have to wait a month for the next blog post. Sorry.

Going for some duck!

Robert and Rasa

A glimpse of nomadic life: The ger

robjkentjr — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:03:35 +0000

25 May 2010: Altai Tavan Bogd National Park, Mongolia (48.5583, 88.3998)

After the family left their winter camp, we drove ahead to where they would be setting up summer camp and waiting for them to arrive. It actually took us longer to drive the 40 km (27 mi) there then it did for them to set up two gers but I think they were this quick because we were helping them.


	It is always fun unpacking after a trip. Here these nomads have to separate the possessions from three different families.


	The first step in setting up a ger is to clean all the accumulated dust off the parts and then tie on your ceiling decorations.


	After the ceiling decorations are in place, it is time to erect the wall and place your front door, which should always face towards the south.


	After raising the center mount into place, each support rod needs to be inserted and tied off. Rasa is a natural sailor when it comes to knots.


	Once the supports are in place, it is time to put on the weatherproofing. This is an under layer of plastic that keeps water out.


	Then there is the insulation. In this case, it is a blanket of wool felt that makes these homes so comfortable in the cold.


	Here is the final product; a postcard perfect homestead.


	After a hard day’s work, we all relaxed inside with some tea and biscuits.

These last two days were an amazing experience for us; so much so that we would love the opportunity to one day bring our kids back to spend the summer here with this family. Excited to move on though, we had to leave early the next morning to reach the eagle-hunter before dark.

A glimpse of nomadic life: Packing

robjkentjr — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:01:39 +0000

25 May 2010: Altai Tavan Bogd National Park, Mongolia (48.6670, 88.7242)

After driving on what seemed to be one of the worst, never-ending roads ever (averaging about 50km every 90 minutes), we finally arrived at our camp. This turned out to be a serendipitous day because this family was in the process of packing up their home and the next morning would be moving from their winter camp to summer camp and we were invited to join them!


	As we arrived in camp, this herder rode up on his majestic looking horse with its mane blowing in the wind.


	As the full moon rose, I climbed the mountain to look down on this family’s winter camp home, nicely sheltered by the mountains.


	After suffering enough in the cold, I retreated to the warm interior for dinner and some more salty milk tea.


	The next morning, the family was awake at 4am to start packing their ger and belongs for the move to summer camp.


	Even the family cat needed to be packed up, but it did not seem too happy about its treatment.


	Getting to summer camp involved crossing a major river. It reminded me of playing Oregon Train in school; kind of scary if you think that your entire life could be washed away in an instant.


	Then they rode off into the sunset towards the lush valleys of grass recently uncover by the melting snow, satellite dish and all.

We followed along as they encountered each obstacle and got a real feel for what is involved to be a nomad (funny enough, comparing our lives to theirs, Rasa and I feel like modern day nomads). The next task was to set up the new home, which Rasa and I happily helped with.

Altai Tavan Bogd National Park

robjkentjr — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:47:09 +0000

The National Park was our first stop on the tour prepared by Blue Wolf Travel. We ultimately spent two months in country but touring Western Mongolia with Canat was the highlight for us and I do not think anyone could have done a better job of showing us the true culture and character of this region; a once in a lifetime journey.


	As I approached the herd, all the camels watched me with indifference. I was definitely more excited about seeing them than they were me.


	The snowcapped Altai Mountains reflected in Hoton Nuur (Lake). Just on the other side of those peaks is China.


	An ancient Trukic stone face statue. It is also a marker for a grave. Its poor head fell off and it took three of us to lift it and put it back in place.


	These kind gentelman were nice enough to catch us lunch. They were pulling arm-length fish out of the lake by the half-dozen.


	During lunch, this absolutely amazing and wizened character just appeared on horseback, asked us for our fish guts, put them in a plastic bottle, tasting them first, and then rode off into the distance. Surreal.


	The wildlife was also interested in our leftovers. This Kite dove for a piece of fish lying in the water. For this one shot, there are 1,000 great attempts of just grass and water.


	An ancient petroglyph of a horse and hunter that might very well have been a portrait of the man we just encountered.


	Since trees are a finite resource, dung is the fuel of preference for cooking. The only problem is that everything cooked with it is left with a very peculiar aftertaste. Let’s put it this way, Rasa could’t finish her tea.

Entering the park was just the beginning of our amazing encounters. The real highlights for us are coming next week, especially helping the nomads move from their winter home to summer camp.

Bayan-Ölgii, Mongolia

robjkentjr — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:24:40 +0000

Glad to have escaped immigration, we arrived in Western Mongolia to discover that the dominate culture here is Kazakh and probably what Kazakhstan used to be like before it became rich and modern on gas money. It is a shame that their traditional culture was scrubbed from everyday life because it is really amazing to think that Bayan-Ölgii is one of the last places on Earth where you can hold a Golden Eagle or help a nomadic family move but mostly we just did a lot of driving these first couple of days here.


	This was our first view of Ölgii Town as we flew in by plane from Kazakhstan. At first, we thought it was a village, not the provincial capital.


	This is one of the main streets. Cows are a serious traffic problem here but they are also great garbage disposal units.


	This is the road out of town with a sign showing the route distances. It was a nice effort but as soon as we were over the hill, there was no road to follow and hence no way of knowing if we were going the right way.


	We were lost and met a river that could not be crossed. All those great road signs in town did not do us much good out in the countryside.


	Go that way! But we just came from that way and did not see a single road where we could cross the river.


	This is the way to travel here. We have seen many camels in the Middle East but these two humped beauties were a first.


	We were just happy our Russian Jeep was working and not broken down in the middle of nowhere like this poor guy.

Gob smacked with the sheer desolation of the area (and the freezing cold) we just tried to keep clean without the use of hot water (baby wipes turned out to be an indispensible travel item in Mongolia). We could not wait to get into the Altai Tavan Bogd National Park to see the same landscapes but with lots more trees, water, snow and sheep!

Ust-Kamenogorsk

robjkentjr — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 04:45:59 +0000

This was our last town in Kazakhstan and it was interesting to see how different it was here compared to the rest of the country. Spending two days (almost three, thanks to immigration) sitting in the airport, we noticed that ethnic Russians made up over 90% of the population and there was no Kazakh culture here at all.


	Excited to see an old Russian mining town, we were met with a constant, freezing drizzle and spent most of our time watching it from our room.


	Our second and third days were spent in the airport waiting to see if our flight would go. We stacked our bags and made camp.


	After the first flight was canceled due to weather, the sun came out and we had one of the most beautiful days of the trip. Go figure.


	The square as you enter Main Street was vibrantly painted.


	Here are the older parts of town, dating back to the settlement days in the mid-1700′s when mining was booming.


	Just an apartment building but I guess the beautiful sky and sun impressed me so much I had to throw this picture in.


	Even the kids were out having fun after being cooped up for three days.

The day we finally did leave, immigration held us and the plane for 2-hours because they thought we needed a visa to enter Mongolia. It finally took a call from the US Embassy to clear the matter up and overcome that Russian mentality about needing papers to move on to our next destination:
Olgii in Western Mongolia.

Astana: Living a diplomat’s life

robjkentjr — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:07:03 +0000

The reason why we decided on the day-long train ride to Astana over Almaty is to visit our friends who recently were assigned to the US Embassy in Astana. It was an inspiring moment for Rasa and me to have a glimpse of diplomatic life.


	The blue dome is the home of President Nazarbayev and beyond is his legacy, which he built in the middle of nowhere all in the last 15 years.


	At the top of the Bayterek Tower, you can place your hand into a mold of Nazarbayev’s to hear music and a guiding light showing you the divine way. The security guards turned it off while I was there because I’m sure they are tired of continuously hearing it.


	Another surreal aspect of Astana is visiting all these fabulous buildings and then having a whole 5-star restaurant to yourself.


	The entire city is not a carnival. There is a great selection of cultural and art shows to choose from. Here is the travelling Buddy Bear exhibit.


	One of the strangest sights though is looking out at endless steppe and seeing all these world-class architecturally designed buildings and parks that just do not seem to fit in.


	Considering that Astana is one of the highest hardship posts (remember that winter averages -40°F), the life of a diplomat does not seem so bad while living in these fully paid luxury apartments.


	This state-of-the-art toilet is another perk of being a diplomat. It even has a heated seat that massages; standard in every FSO house. We heard Rasa shriek from across the house when she hit the red button.

It was a great week to spend with our friends, especially for Rasa who discovered the CLO position at the embassies (She will talk more about that in her blog). Next we flew to Ust-Kamenogorsk, which is the departure city for Russia, China and our next country Mongolia.

The 25-hour train ride

robjkentjr — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 08:30:31 +0000

Normally, you can buy your train tickets online but since Rasa and I are cheap we waited until arriving in Kazakhstan to get our tickets from Shymkent to Astana. Despite there only being 3rd class tickets left (and the cramped, stuffy beds) we really enjoyed the ride and having a chance to interact with the locals, especially getting to drink fermented mare’s milk.


	Rasa and I arrived at the station about an hour early and waited for the train and sunrise, while sneaking some pictures in between patrols.


	We were adopted by several families on the train. They made sure we tried their fermented mare’s milk and soggy pasta with sheep’s fat.


	This was the corridor for our 3rd class car. It was cramped and very stuffy.


	We could not even sit up in our bunks; they were only for horizontal use.


	The toilet drained right on to the tracks and the conductor would lock the door at stations so you could not flush. Very considerate I think.


	I was so happy to see the spring tulips blooming. It was like this for the first couple of hours out of Shymkent.


	It seems every Russian landscape worth photographing has to have electoral wires and pylons in it.

The biggest problem on the train was getting harassed by the police for taking pictures and then having to delete all my photos because of security concerns (thank you Scandisk for recovery software). Luckily, this was not so much of a problem in the Fantasyland capital of Astana while we were with people who have diplomatic status.