July 9, Mörön and Deer Stones

In the morning, I joined Mo at the lake for a swim. Remarkably, getting into the ice-cold water is not that bad, and it is even nicer to get out with the air being much warmer.  After breakfast, we got on the road toward our next destination. We were relocating closer to the deer stones near Mörön because the following day we would be flying back to Ulaanbaatar.

Our first stop was a really cool place marking the intersection of 50° North latitude and 100° East longitude. The opposite point with the same coordinates is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The site itself is really nice. There is a large "50/100" sign visible from the road, and an alley lined with somber-faced stone sculptures of local animals. As we were leaving the entrance, a ticket lady suddenly materialized and collected the entrance fee. We grabbed ourselves some ice cream on the way back to the car and kept going.

Fast-dry construction

Eventually, we arrived at our camp for the night. It is called ViaVia, and it is a really amazing facility. They have two greenhouses, a chicken and duck coop, beautiful gardens, and a lovely ger camp overlooking the river valley. The whole place sits on a small plateau with hills surrounding it, and they really picked themselves an amazing location.

There are also two resident dogs. One is a little one, the same breed as Sugar, that wasn't quite brave enough to come say hello. The other is a huge and friendly puppy, probably some kind of Anatolian shepherd mix, and likely less than a year old. He came over, licked both of us, hung around for a bit, and then happily wandered back to the family.

Before lunch, we took a short walk up the nearby hill. The views were beautiful, looking down over the valley and the camp. There were millions of grasshoppers everywhere. Every step you take, loads of them take off to get out of your way. One thing I noticed was that some of them would suddenly take off and hover, almost like little drones, while making a buzzing sound not unlike a cicada.

After lunch at the camp, we headed to one of the places we had been looking forward to the most: the deer stone complex called Uushigiin Uver, which has one of the most amazing collections of carved stone monuments. We saw replicas of them at the Chingis Khan Museum earlier this week; the originals are even more striking.

The deer stones were fascinating. Dating back roughly 3,000 years (around 1200–700 BC), they are carved granite monuments covered with beautifully stylized flying deer, weapons, belts, and other mysterious symbols. Archaeologists believe they were connected with important people and ritual burials during the Bronze Age, although nobody knows their exact purpose. On this particular site, there were many animal sacrifice remains found, but no humans. Standing among them reminded us a little of Stonehenge. Unlike Stonehenge today, though, this site still feels remarkably untouched. It really deserves even more protection and infrastructure because it is one of Mongolia's true national treasures.

The site was completely empty. We walked through the entire archaeological complex by ourselves, and as we were leaving, a man on a motorcycle materialized out of nowhere to collect the entrance fee. Same story as earlier today. They probably have eagles secretly monitoring these places and sending a live feed to wherever the ticket collectors are hiding.

Our next stop was the provincial Naadam Festival in Mörön.

This was a much bigger production than the local Naadam we had attended a few days earlier. There was a proper stadium with large grandstands, a large market outside, and thousands of people. Mörön itself has around 47,000 residents, and it felt like much of the province had gathered there. Foreign tourists were definitely a minority. Altogether, we spotted maybe four Europeans and one Australian.

Just like at the other Naadam festivals, families turned out here in all their finery - a lot of beautiful deels, some families wore matching ones. Young girls wore traditional tops and fluffy skirts; older people wore their medals pinned to their deels. There were multiple processions of boys and girls on their horses.

We found seats on the bleachers in time for the archery awards and then settled in for the second half of the wrestling competition. Mo told us that the provincial wrestlers would be even bigger than the local ones, and he wasn't kidding. Some of these guys looked like American football players. The tournament with these next-level athletes was fascinating. We thought the matches would last longer, but that was not the case. The final match lasted maybe thirty seconds before one wrestler managed to pick up the other and then put him flat on his back. It was over almost before it started.

Leaving the stadium was probably the least pleasant part of the day. There were very few exits, and thousands of people were trying to squeeze through a single doorway. For a while, you weren't really walking—you were simply being carried along by the crowd. It was especially scary seeing small children caught in the middle of it.

Afterward, we walked through the center of Mörön. The main avenue still has a distinctly Soviet feel—a broad street, a Soviet monument, apartment buildings lining the street, smaller monuments, and open squares where families spend the evening. In the main square stands a monument to the region's local hero on horseback, and that's where Almaz caught up with us before we headed to dinner.

The restaurant was what Mo described as the hottest place in town. It definitely looked the part. There were animal-print chairs, lots of glass, bright lights, groups of police officers having dinner, local girls out for Friday evening beers, and krutye local guys at the neighboring tables. It was like the Soviet restaurant in a small town. Mo and Almaz suggested getting a private room, but we really wanted to sit in the main dining area and watch the action, and we're glad we did.

We sat, having our dinner and watching the action in the restaurant and on the big screen, which was playing Mongolian pop songs. One thing we noticed about modern Mongolian pop music in general was how often it featured the country's own landscapes. Mountains, lakes, horses, grasslands, and Naadam festivals kept appearing in video after video, and it was fun recognizing places we had already visited. Some of the songs even featured the Naadam opening ceremonies, which made us look forward to seeing them in person.

As we sat watching, Dan announced that he'd figured out how the queens' headdress had been invented. The traditional Mongolian queen's headdress is incredibly impressive—very tall, elaborate, and unlike anything we've seen elsewhere. We'd admired it in the museums throughout the trip, and tonight, several music videos featured women wearing versions of it.  Here is how it happened: someone accidentally bought three boots, got home, looked at the extra one, and thought: "Well... I guess I'll wear it on my head." Brilliant!

Bigger athletes here

When we got back to our camp, the sky outside was incredible as a thunderstorm built in the distance, so we spent a little while watching it before heading back to our ger.