Yakkity yak
So we went to the Yak Festival and it was...awesome. We rented a car and driver for the day and caravaned out with two other cars (peace corps, VSO, and some counterparts). It was located in a soum about 80k from our town. We had a little car and had to ford two rivers and one 2k section of lava rock field, no roads. We got stuck in one little river when we fell through the ice but we got out no problem and we didn't get any flat tires from the lava field either (nearly impossible I think).
So we pull up to this spot that has yak herds all around, a bunch of horses, motorcycles, and cars. They are setting up a bunch of gers to serve food and stuff. Each bagh (kinda like a neighborhood) had its own ger (maybe 5 total). Everyone was in dels and sporting their really nice stuff (fancy belts and the horses are all decked out too). Really beautiful. It was the first time that year that many had seen eachother, there was a lot of formal greetings. Us and some french doctors (who we told about the festivities) were the only foreigners so it was pretty authentically mongolian. Yak herders were there from all over our aimag (state).
The day started out cold and windy and progressed to cold, windy, and super dusty. By the end of the day we gross. Dirty everywhere. I can't over explain how windy it was. It was really tiring.
The first event was yak racing (they are not really high endurance animals) so it was kinda slow. The yak and rider who took second, the yak just stopped moving right before the finish line, the rider pretty much had to get off and push him over the line. Yaks have really long tounges and they were hanging out of their mouths as they panted their way to the end. It was pretty funny. We were almost run over by one that decided to run through the people rather than the course. I was taking pictures at the time so i didn't even see him coming. They took bets on the animals number 9 won, he was a champion yak, but I am not sure what for, he had medals hanging from his head. Then we were invited into one of the gers for tea and food. They made yak khushuur (the fried meat pouches) which were awesome! They tasted so good, like high quality cow, kinda. Then we had yak milk products, also good, this coming from someone who usually hides the arrol (hard milk curd) in her pocket and can't drink the airag (fermented mares milk) without feeling violently ill. Yak milk is really creamy and sweet. It made everything taste nice, especially the airag. Wierd huh? Who knew i heart yak?
We were introduced to some yak twins too. They were identical, and the mongolians were really proud of them. I think twins are rare. They were really soft and pretty calm. I wussed out and didn't get on though. They were giving me the eye. Jesse didn't either so i didn't feel too bad.
After the race and the animals had a chance to rest or get switched out they had yak polo. That was pretty funny to watch because they don't really like to go where you tell them. They played with a tennis ball and sticks. While we were watching polo a drunk driver started racing around the spectators and drove through the game. People had to run out of the way of the stupid a-hole. After he terrorized us for a minute or two he sped off into the countryside. The police chased him.
So those two events pretty much took all day. We were tired and polo was taking a long time because it was a tournament. We missed the official yak lassoing competition but we saw some informal stuff at the beginning. I took about 200 pictures. Here are some of my favorites.
So we pull up to this spot that has yak herds all around, a bunch of horses, motorcycles, and cars. They are setting up a bunch of gers to serve food and stuff. Each bagh (kinda like a neighborhood) had its own ger (maybe 5 total). Everyone was in dels and sporting their really nice stuff (fancy belts and the horses are all decked out too). Really beautiful. It was the first time that year that many had seen eachother, there was a lot of formal greetings. Us and some french doctors (who we told about the festivities) were the only foreigners so it was pretty authentically mongolian. Yak herders were there from all over our aimag (state).
The day started out cold and windy and progressed to cold, windy, and super dusty. By the end of the day we gross. Dirty everywhere. I can't over explain how windy it was. It was really tiring.
The first event was yak racing (they are not really high endurance animals) so it was kinda slow. The yak and rider who took second, the yak just stopped moving right before the finish line, the rider pretty much had to get off and push him over the line. Yaks have really long tounges and they were hanging out of their mouths as they panted their way to the end. It was pretty funny. We were almost run over by one that decided to run through the people rather than the course. I was taking pictures at the time so i didn't even see him coming. They took bets on the animals number 9 won, he was a champion yak, but I am not sure what for, he had medals hanging from his head. Then we were invited into one of the gers for tea and food. They made yak khushuur (the fried meat pouches) which were awesome! They tasted so good, like high quality cow, kinda. Then we had yak milk products, also good, this coming from someone who usually hides the arrol (hard milk curd) in her pocket and can't drink the airag (fermented mares milk) without feeling violently ill. Yak milk is really creamy and sweet. It made everything taste nice, especially the airag. Wierd huh? Who knew i heart yak?
We were introduced to some yak twins too. They were identical, and the mongolians were really proud of them. I think twins are rare. They were really soft and pretty calm. I wussed out and didn't get on though. They were giving me the eye. Jesse didn't either so i didn't feel too bad.
After the race and the animals had a chance to rest or get switched out they had yak polo. That was pretty funny to watch because they don't really like to go where you tell them. They played with a tennis ball and sticks. While we were watching polo a drunk driver started racing around the spectators and drove through the game. People had to run out of the way of the stupid a-hole. After he terrorized us for a minute or two he sped off into the countryside. The police chased him.
So those two events pretty much took all day. We were tired and polo was taking a long time because it was a tournament. We missed the official yak lassoing competition but we saw some informal stuff at the beginning. I took about 200 pictures. Here are some of my favorites.
posted by si @ 8:06 PM
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