SME Agency Outing

On Saturday my host organisation, the SME Agency, held its annual Spring excursion. We went to a ger camp in the Bogdkhan Uul National Park, about an hour south of Ulaanbaatar.

The Ger camp and Lunch

Over the course of the day we ate a lot of food, including a lunch upon our arrival followed by dinner just a couple of hours later. Lunch was mutton dumpling soup, and dinner mutton barbecue. The latter was actually the most delicious mutton I've eaten whilst in Mongolia. I think it was more like lamb as it was much more tender. My work colleagues brought the sheep with them on the bus as an entire carcass, wrapped in a plastic sheet.

In between meals, we spent our time in the ger playing games, such as who could build the tallest tower out of apples, and singing competitions. We also worked off a bit of the food by hiking up one of the nearby hills, and venturing to see the significant Manzushir Khiid Buddhist monastery in the region.

With Otgo on the hike

Visit to the monastery

Games in the Ger

Dinner

After dinner, everyone sang and had a few shots of Mongolian vodka as both activities are considered to aid digestion. This carried on in the bus ride home. I really love the way that singing and music are such important parts of the Mongolian culture. Otgo told me that this stems from their traditional way of life as herders, and that as such, a person has a lot of time to themselves, so singing is a way of entertaining oneself to pass the time.

Home time