Just after midnight (so it is technically today), we had fireworks going off just across the street in the square (we think...we didn't go to investigate). We could definitely hear them and if we stuck the phone out the window we could see them.
Then it was to bed for a good night's sleep.
We headed out to the countryside this morning to the horseracing venue. The hillsides in the area were covered with the gers of families who had come in from all over the country for the festival. Many of them had horses with them. And there were cars everywhere. Massive parking lots full of cars and trucks. Hillsides covered with cars and trucks.
We were eventually dropped off and had to walk quite a ways through the crowds. There were lots of gers, food stalls and milling crowds.
Some festival goers on camels.
And the organizers didn't forget the children.
We eventually made it to our viewing stand. We are right at the finish line for the races. Eventually we saw many young children heading out to the starting gate on their mounts. This race is for two-year old horses being ridden by kids aged 5 to 13. Most looked to be on the older end of this age range. Kids in the country learn to ride as soon as they learn to walk. The horses heading out to the registration area.
The race had about 100 registrants. However, about 20 were disqualified (didn’t hear the reasons). Paul headed up to the top of our bleachers where he could see the starting area where the horses were checking in and gathering together. Nearest we could tell this was the registration and assembly area.
At about 9:30am he saw them heading out from the registration area, either starting the race or someone said they were heading over the hill where the actual starting line was.
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Video of start
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The huge crowds attending the races.
A little after 11:00 the crowd became excited as they could see a cloud of dust coming over the hill…the first racers.
The officials sprang into action to prepare for the racers.
Water trucks were out sprinkling down the track before and after the finish line to help control the dust.
There were also a number of men who came out in costumes on horses and waited for the racers to come in.
And the racers started coming in...with both horses and riders looking pretty exhausted.
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Video of 1st and 2nd finishers
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Video of 4th place finisher
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Video of 5th place finisher
This rider finished just in time,
he looked pretty ragged.
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Video 1 of other finishers
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Video 2 of other finishers
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These were guards who paired up with the finishers, grabbed the horses reins and then powered through the masses of people waiting. The Mongolians believe that the sweat from the racing horses is good look so they would swarm the horses trying to touch them so they could rub the horse’s sweat on their face for good luck. It was the job of these guards to keep the horse and rider from being bottled up by the crowd.
Some of the horses around the festival grounds,
and there were cows hanging around.
There was only one race that day. We didn’t stay around to see the last finishers…it looked like it would be a long time before the race ended. We did see a large garbage truck heading out. Apparently, they send out the garbage trucks to pick up any horses that died during the race. How heartbreaking.
A fun t-shirt seen at the race. Had to go online to find a better shot of it. Exemplifies the Mongolian spirit.
From there we headed back to the giant ger in the middle of the festival grounds and waited for Miga to find us and take us to the car. The parking lots were huge and the hike to the car was long.
The traffic jam trying to get out of the parking lot and then to our nearby resort was a nightmare. Only one exit for hundreds and hundreds of cars, emptying onto a street that all the other parking areas emptied onto. It ultimately took us 4 1/2 hours to get out of the traffic mess to our hotel, which without the horse racing was only 1/2 hour away.
And to complicate things more, the road that Miga usually took to the resort was blocked off. He had to drive a ways farther down, and took an unfamiliar road. After stopping for directions, we did make it to the resort.
Our resort was visible from the festival grounds…a circle of
white gers high up on a nearby hillside.
The gers are very large and opulent. There was an anteroom leading into the ger.
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| Front Door |
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| Door into the main area |
We had a huge living area, a huge bathroom and two large beds.
The food, service and dining facilities were excellent. One of the dining rooms in the resort’s restaurant is in a huge ger. Menu selections were western and Japanese. Turns out the resort is owned by a Japanese company and caters mostly to Japanese.
The views from the breakfast/lunch room.
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