Final thoughts

Good Morning:
We’re “safely” Ensconced back in our sin city hotel in Wonju. I called my mother this morning to let her know we were safe and she advised me not to watch too many porn movies:-) Mom’s are always good for advice! I’m sitting here at Jeff’s computer with the laundry being done and getting ready for our week here in Korea , but Mongolia keeps rolling through my brain, so I thought I’d exorcise the demons by writing some final thoughts.
It’s more cultural shock coming back to Korea from Mongolia than it was coming here from home. I almost caused an accident this morning when I inadvertently stepped into the zebra crosswalk and cars came screaming to a halt in both directions. I have to remember that I’m not in UB anymore.
We probably saw more cars on the three hour journey here to Wonju from Seoul than were in all of Mongolia. We were speeding down the highway trying to keep up with Korean traffic at 75 MPH, whereas we never went above 50 in our two weeks in Mongolia. Big four-lane paved, smooth highways were quite the change from the dirt tracks of Mongolia. The mind does funny tricks when it tries to make sense of sudden changes. On our last day in Mongolia we sat in an outdoor café and watched as horsemen clopped past us on the sidewalks. Several times it happened, not just a onetime shot. We waited at a stop light and saw a herdsman bring a dozen or so cattle up the street, and unfortunately, the light changed before we got to see how he was going to get them across six lanes of UB traffic. That would have been interesting - and all this in a city of over half a million people. God only knows how many animals there are in the UB. We were always fascinated at how road savvy the animals were in the countryside. We honked and bounced our way past them, whizzing ever so close. Bulga never slowed down nor did the animals scatter in panic at having this behemoth bear down on them.
Carol and I went on a shopping binge the last two days in UB. Not as big as intense as the one that Melissa and I did in Dublin on our “Power Shopping” day but there were still lots of things to buy. We thought there would be a dearth of things we’d be interested in buying, but just the opposite was true. For example, we bought a dozen or so cashmere sweaters. They were incredibly cheap. The only person who didn’t get one was me because as my daughter says: “Anyone who doesn’t care whether his socks are turned inside out can’t wear cashmere. It’s a rule of the universe. ”
Special memories keep cropping up into our brains: For Carol the closeness of the people to their animals and the connection between them and the land made it a special place. For me, the old yak lady representing the old, traditional Mongolia, and Divaa representing the new, brings out the contrast of the country. But with the Buddhist thought inculcated in the society, both coexist in a harmonious way. There doesn’t seem to be any friction or conflict between the two ways. I found it unusual to see a society that blended the past, present and future so smoothly.
An interesting sidelight to Mongolian society was the fact that after 70 years of Soviet control, there are thousands of Russians who were born and raised in Mongolia and who know nothing of Russia. In many cases, the families have been here for several generations and other than family names and language, they have little in common with the native land.
In the Baltics it was a constant topic of conversation. On the TV, in the news, on people’s minds the Russian presence was a constant source of angst and irritation to the Balts. But it never came up in Mongolia. I asked Anya, whose very sweet mother was a KGB doctor, about it and she just shrugged. No problem, she said. Again, I think the Buddhist influence is a very tolerant one. The very nomadic spirit of the people, where most of the 2.5 million people can, and do, just pick up their ger and move, literally, to greener pastures has made for a people who have retained their independent spirit, and no foreign domination could ever affect that.
It’s funny how a country that I hadn’t even considered visiting has become such a special place. When we decided to go back to Korea and see Jeff and Anjin we tried to figure out where else we could go while we were there. Carol was quick to respond with her ever-present fiber mind at work: “Mongolia.” “Mongolia?” I foolishly asked. “Why Mongolia?” “To see the yaks,” she replied. How silly of me not to realize that something fiber related would be top priority. Like going to Alaska in December to see the musk ox, fiber is never far from the top of her list.
Anyway, this place has become really special to both of us, but to me even more so because it was such a bonus in my life. Just another thing I would have missed out on if Carol wasn’t part of my life. Or if Jeff had married someone else. It’s always the unexpected treats that work their way into your heart.
The country is just a magnificent place to visit. Incredibly wide vistas and that ever present blue sky. They do call it: “The land of the blue sky.” You can often see for hundreds of miles off into the distance. No smog here in the countryside. The people are amazingly friendly, always ready with a smile and an open heart. It was wonderful to be a part of it. I do hope that we can return someday.
We went to Anya’s mothers’ house the last night in UB. Traditional Mongolian hospitality was offered. Vodka, Buutz (Mongolian dim sum) and plates and plates of food offered to the guests who she had just met, and who had just finished a big dinner. No matter, that’s Mongolian hospitality. Just like in the countryside, a guest is an honored event. Strangers appearing a ger will always be offered food and drink. It just reinforces my firmly held belief that the all around the world, the people who have the least are the most willing to share what they have, whereas in the west, we try to keep what we have and gather more than they need. The herders who have all their earthly possessions, other than their animals, in a 12 foot circular home can be so content with their lives while home shopping networks continue to make the mind feel that we need more and more of everything. My life has so much clutter in it why am I so unwilling to part with it?
There’s very little I would change about our trip. It was time to come back to Jeff and Anjin, but still difficult to leave such a magical place. Maybe the knowledge of how difficult it would be to get back weighed into that. We went to a folk show the last night and there was a woman there who was doing her fourth trip to Mongolia. She had a group of students with her. Maybe I’ll harass Carol into organizing a fiber trip for adventurous people so I can come back myself.
Back here in Korea, there are a lot of things to do before venturing off. Mundane travel things need to be attended . Laundry needs to be done, money has to be changed, get more film, mail the key back to Mongolia since I walked off with it. It’s time get my head back to where I am, not where I was. But for now my heart will remain with the people and places which so affected my thought processes. Mongolia has become part of who I am, and how I think about my life. A statement I could say about every place I have visited, I suppose, but not to this extent.
I know that my mind will continue to drift back there, even as new stimuli enter the brain. Even as I try to close off this letter, the vision of being down in the Gobi and seeing a huge cluster of animals off the road which we drove over to see. There were a couple of hundred goats crowded around a water trough where men pumped water from a well the government had drilled in the desert. This vision comes so clearly to me. I can see the little goats jumping on the backs of the adults trying to get to the water instead of waiting their turn. A little four-year-old threw rocks at a hundred or so camels to keep them away until the goats had their fill. The camels will drink 10-15 gallons at a time and can go for weeks without drinking. The goats have more immediate needs. Just that whole scene a hundred miles from anything we would call civilization pops back into the brain without any prompting. That and a thousand other visions will continue to fascinate me for a long time.
But for now, Korea awaits.
Love to all, C and J