Naadam Festival, Horse Racing

Some of the racers coming to the finish line.

The crush of the crowd.

Trick riders and the Mongolian flag.

Beautiful traditional dress.

Doling out mare's milk.

The huge parking lot. Some people came prepared to camp.

One of the competitors.

All the archers gathered around the targets to support the last competitors.

The winner holding up his bow.

The big screen outside the arena.

Grab by the shorts and try to throw him down.

Like that!

I think this was the winner of the horse race.

The archery winners parading around the arena.

Buhuu will be coming to Toronto in September for the G Stock conference.

Thursday, July 12^th.

After breakfast we loaded up in a mini van for the drive out into the country to see the end of the horse race. The traffic was horrific and the frustrated Mongolian drivers, because of the awful traffic, do things on the road that we would never do: the drive on dirt shoulders to get around others, they take over the oncoming lane(s) if no one is coming; if there are two oncoming lanes they will take over the closest one; they will take well worn two wheel dirt tracks through fields, that run more or less parallel to the main road to get around intersections; they will constantly changes lanes to gain even a few feet. I couldn’t believe the skills our drive had in doing all of that while manoeuvring a large van through the chaotic traffic. At one point he navigated left over the two lanes that were supposed to be for the opposite direction and onto the dirt shoulder there, and then all the way back over all four of the lanes and onto the dirt shoulder on the right; all in about ten minutes over maybe a kilometre.

Eventually we arrived at a huge parking lot in a field. Obviously, they had had issues with cars stuck in mud in the past as the field had well marked two lane concrete parking pads for each parking spot. This also helps to keep the cars in some sort of neat order. Then we walked up the hill over which we could see where the race was. There was a long six row high bleacher stand that was already full of people, so we stood along the roped barrier in front of them. In front of us was a line of police and military soldiers who were always watching the audience. We had to stand and wait for over an hour and as time got nearer the area became more and more crowded and people were pushing and trying to force their way closer to the rope, so they could see, or their kids could. At one point, Bukhbat had an argument with a woman who was trying to squeeze in front of us. She got mad, punched him in the back and lef

The race we were there to see was the 25-kilometre bareback race where the jockeys are young people between 5 and 13 years old! Buhuu was watching the start of the race on an app on his phone and kept us up to date on its progress. We could see them come over a gap between two hills, but they were still about 5 kilometres away and it started to get even more crowded. Finally, the lead riders came galloping past us on their way to the finish line about 100 metres to our right. We stood and watched as most of the riders ran past and then the crush and pressure eased. We stood in a group until most of the crowd left so we wouldn’t get separated. All of that time driving there, standing there and being squished, for about two minutes of action. Amazing that all these people came out when they can easily watch it at home, but I guess that is not the point.

When we left the stands area we walked through an area of little tent restaurants, souvenir shops, fermented mare’s milk sellers and a playground for kids including a pool full of little boats, large inflated slides and the like. We also watched a team of acrobatic horse riders. Then we walked back to our van and drove back to the city. Again, the traffic was crazy as we tried to work our way out of the parking lot anyway we could. It got better as we got further away.

When we got to the city we went to the Mongolian Grill Restaurant where we could either have the buffet, or select raw meat and vegetables and have them cooked for us. They had a special table in the restaurant inside a ger that you could reserve.

After lunch, we drove back to the main stadium to watch the finals of the men’s and women’s archery. The man who won hit the small square block target on the ground 37 out of 40 times from 75 metres. The women shoot from 60 metres. Then I went out and wandered around the outside of the area watching the people, taking some people shots. Eventually I went back into the stadium to watch more wrestling, which takes place inside the centre of the soccer field and is a long way from the stands.

At 4:30 we had the option to stay and walk to the final dinner restaurant by ourselves or take the van back to the hotel for a break before dinner. I opted to go back to the hotel to organize myself for tomorrow’s departure. When I got there I packed my stuff and watched the wrestling on TV which was much better because the cameras get much closer.

Then, I walked to the upscale Blue Fin Cuisine D’Art Restaurant with Bukhbat and a few others for our last dinner. Dinner was great, I had a rack of lamb and a couple of beer. I thanked Buhuu on behalf of the group and thanked the group for travelling with me on my final tour. Then we headed back to the hotel for the night.