Renewed Memories of Mongolia

all of a sudden, and i’m not sure why, i was reminded of this song that i heard in the car coming back from a day trip to the Mongolian countryside a year a half ago (click the speaker icon in the top left to unmute):

And listened to the most epic song evar on the way back. Mongooolllll! https://t.co/VY6OcJGiHl

— Jonathan Khoo (@jonk) July 10, 2013

i tried doing a YouTube search for “mongolian songs” and of course there were a ton of videos about throat singing, but i came across this one which recaptured many of the things i loved about the country when i visited:

if that video doesn’t make you want to visit, or in my case, want to go back, well, it should 😛

the first thing i noticed was the colorful traditional clothing — which i was lucky enough to see worn about, i think because i visited around Naadam time, so locals were more inclined, i think, to dress festively, but it was also worn by the archery contestants of the Naadam games.

i also saw a few performances (mostly accidental, but always appreciated) of biyelgee dance that was in that video, too, like these children practicing for a big Nadaam performance:

they also showed many of the famous places, like Sukhbaatar Square, the Genghis Khan Statue, and the beautifully rugged (and yurt-dotted) countryside — which to me looked like Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, but i could be wrong.

while that video was posted by what appears to be a tour agency, i don’t think it was necessarily produced specifically as a tourism promotion video (but it could be; i don’t understand Mongolian). either way, it sure did the job for me and i would love to visit again. i was actually talking to my brother not too long ago about the salty milk tea…