Chinggis Khan Statue

No icon represents Mongolia better than Chinggis Khan. Mongolia is what he (Mongolia must be a he, if there's ever a gender for this tough and manly country!) is today because of Chinggis Khan!

It's not a wonder to see a humongous Chinggis Khan statue here! But it is a wonder that this statue was only built in recent years, completed in year 2008. Considering the people had worshiped Chinggis Khan for centuries, this almost real Khan really came a bit too late. But it's better late than never!

The stainless steel statue is standing 40m high at the historical place where Chinggis Khan found his golden whip. Chinggis Khan is symbolically poiting towards the east, his birthday place.

Humongous Chinggis Khan Equestrian Statue

The visitor center and museum are located at the base of the statue, which takes up 10m of the architecture. Visitors can climb up to the head of the horse, via escalators and stairs from the back of the horse. In other words, you have to climb up through the a**.

View of Chinggis Khan from the head of the horse

Honestly speaking, after a few days in Mongolia, I think I have enough of Chinggis Khan. Everything is Chinggis Khan here.

Chinggis Khan Airport
Chinggis Khan beer
Chinggis Khan Vodka
Chinggis Khan wine
Chinggis Khan Chocolates
Chinggis Khan ...
...
..
.

And the list goes on and on. During my last day, I couldn't take it anymore and I asked a waitress in Ulaanbaatar, if all the Chinggis Khan brands belong to a same company. The answer is no, they are apparently different companies but decided to use the same name. Brilliant!

The statue was located 54km away from UB, in Mongolia standard, this is pretty near. I can't recall what is the ticket price of this enormous statue. We got a bundle ticket for visiting the statue and 13th Century Theme Park (which I will blog about later on) for USD75. It can easily be a day trip, as long as you get a guide to drive you along.

Worth a visit for a day tour.

老外口中的家传秘方

我家有个老外姨丈曾经“警告”阿姨，我家新年的传统菜肴——炸肉丸，是千千万万不可以外传！因为，这是家传之宝，家传秘方！

传说中的炸肉丸

虽然，我们一家上下都不把这一番话认真地看待，不过我们心里都知道，这个炸肉丸确实是个宝！

从我有记忆开始，炸肉丸是大年初一不可少的。外婆稍稍迟把炸肉丸碰上桌，我们一伙人就会很紧张！是不是没有肉丸了？！对我们来说，那可是天大的悲剧。就如结婚当天没戒指，考试没有笔，烧饭没有米！

其实，外婆、妈妈和阿姨们肯定好累。因为炸肉丸在家实在有太大的魅力，不管每一年外婆说，比往年准备的更多了，肉丸还是供不应求。永远都是一碟满满地上桌，每人在最短的时间内尽可能抢了几颗就空盘回厨房。

外婆和女儿帮在厨房里，炸了又炸，一轮又一轮，直至所有肉丸都炸完了，才稍为满足精力过剩的一般孙子们。

这些年，外婆老了，妈妈和阿姨们就得扛下这个重任，确保炸肉丸如往常般的上桌。而妈妈青出于蓝，这些年已把炸肉丸的料理完美了！比外婆的更好吃！

为什么炸肉丸是个宝呢？

这些年在外头吃饭，不管是经济饭菜档，还是餐馆，抑或是煮炒摊，从来没见过炸肉丸在菜单里出现。

所以啊，对于在外婆家长大的我们，炸肉丸是实实在在的家传秘方。新年不回家，就错过了吃肉丸的机会。

要菜谱？
不行，都说了是家传秘方，不外传 :)

Grilled Cherry Tomatoes Bruschetta

I like bruschetta because it's simple to make, delicious to eat.

Cherry tomatoes bruschetta

I never really do research on how others make their bruschetta, I just put the ingredients together, and assume I've made one myself.

Ever since the trip to Spain, I realized cheese with strong pungent smell goes very well with honey! And I've tried a feta cheese with honey bruschetta in Cozy in The Rocket in Penang (will blog about it later on), it helps to prove again, this combination is heaven made.

So this is what I did for my own bruschetta:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. While waiting, wash and cut the tomatoes.
2. Spread some butter on the baguette.
3. Place the cut cherry tomatoes nicely on baguette.
4. Toast them in the oven for 13-15 minutes.
5. Once ready, sprinkle feta cheese, honey and herbs as much as you like.
6. Serve.
Oh wait! Asians At Work! Snap a picture and share it on Facebook :P

Nutella Brownies

话说我曾经两次尝试做Brownies都做不成。第一次做的虽然可以吃，但是成分的比例错了（我可是跟着食谱作的，到现在究竟是什么出错都不知道！），所以蛋糕干干的，不好吃。

第二次更搞笑，我摆了乌龙，竟然用bread flour做蛋糕。这就是我的问题了，总是没有做5S，东西爱收哪里就收哪里，没有标明，结果用错了！蛋糕弄出来，似糕非糕，似包非包，结果进垃圾桶去了！

几天前， 男人不知从哪里看见用Nutella做Brownies的食谱。只需要三种材料就可做蛋糕。那我尽管试试。（人生就是这样，明明是他看见，却是我做的蛋糕。）当然，我没照着三种材料的食谱，反而用了这个。我还是加了点牛油，没有牛有的蛋糕不会好吃。（注：我不加糖，Nutella本身已经很甜了。）

昨晚，我成功了！

Nutella Brownies

顿时为自己感到骄傲！哈哈哈！下次可以加点口味了 :)

Naadam Festival

Naadam Festival is one of the most celebrated festival in Mongolia. It is "the three games of men", which are wrestling, archery and horse racing. Nowadays, women take part in the archery as well, so Naadam is no longer just-for-men festival.

Naadam Festival is being celebrated nationally, in the whole of Mongolia. But, the largest festival is held in Ulaanbaatar. Festival in other rural areas are held before or after the one in Ulaanbaatar, so that the people could celebrate at both their hometown and capital.

Our host insisted we must watch Naadam Festival, because it's really huge for them, and because we've never experienced before. Before we actually reached Ulaanbaatar, our host family went to queue for the entrance tickets for the opening ceremony in the stadium. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I'll explain later), they didn't manage to get the tickets. They're sold out!

So, instead of watching Naadam in the capital, we witnessed the festival in a small small town, called Jargalt Khan. I tried to google this place after my trip, I can't even find anything about it. This small!

The first game we watched was wrestling. The first impression I had for the game was, what the hell were they doing, it's so unfair?!?!

First round in wrestling

Then, my host explained to me. The wrestlers have to go through 9 rounds of eliminations. And the more famous wrestlers got to chose their opponents, therefore, they always chose the smaller ones in the first few rounds to ensure they have the continuation in the game.

Eagle dance before the game, it's a ritual

Judges of wrestling

I'm not quite sure about you, I personally don't like wrestling. I lost of my interest pretty fast so I moved to the other stations. I turned to archery, imagining Robin Hood doing that.

Archery

She's pretty "you yeng" isn't she?

Very cool!~

At the end of the day, it's the event that everybody is waiting for. It's the horse racing. Horse racing in Mongolia is different from the ones we watch normally. It's not a sprint for short distance. The racers and horses have to march to the starting point which are 20-40km away, then, race their way back.

There are few categories in horse racing, from age 2 (the horse age!) to 7-8years old. And the riders, they're all young kids! So young! Age not more than 10 perhaps! And imagine, some of them race 40km without saddles, because saddles add weight to the horse and could slow them down in the race.

First two horses are back

Close fight

It is believed that if one managed to touch the champion horse's sweat, it'll bring luck for the rest of the year. Also, the dust from the horses while racing will bring luck too! However, it was raining for two days during Naadam Festival, there wasn't any dust, therefore nobody was chasing behind the horses.

Well, why was it fortunate that we didn't manage to watch this in Ulaanbaatar? To be honest, I like the local settings of the small town festival. It is so much more closed knit than the city. And not so commercial too. We are the only tourists in the town! And, I managed to touch the sweat! I will be lucky for the rest of the year! I'd love to believe this :)

Kids I Got to Know in Mongolia

It's a very different travel experience for me, during the trip to Mongolia. I've been backpackers that stayed in youth hostels; I've been with my husband on leisure trip that we stayed in good hotel and traveled leisurely; I've been with my big family and traveled like a mini tour group. But, I've never stayed with a family, and attached to them for entire trip. Did whatever they did, stayed wherever they stayed.

But because of this, I've got to see how the Mongolians life are. And, I've got to know some Mongolian kids too.

Mogi, a girl I met at Naadam Festival

The Mongolian family that I've stayed with couldn't get tickets for Naadam Festival at Ulaanbaatar. However, I felt good that they didn't manage to get, because it's so much more fun to join Naadam Festival in the rural place. Even though it's a much smaller scale, but we got to see everything much closer. And it's not as commercial, as I'm pretty sure we're the only foreigners there!

We've traveled to Jargalt Khan for Naadam. A place that I can't even find to pin on my travel map. Kids are generally curious about us because we're obviously foreigners that don't understand them. However, there was this particular girl, Mogi, who was exceptionally brave. While we were watching wrestling, she asked with a timid voice:"Where are you from?" We continued the conversation, a bit here and there. Her English wasn't good, but for a 13year old girl, in such a rural place, and carried a good few minutes conversation, I salute her! The next day, we met again at a local party at community hall, she's much confident the second time, and approached me again. We've exchanged email address to add each other on Facebook, but somehow, I couldn't find her. I guess, she couldn't find me too.

Banbo and Iso

Banbo is the grandson of a friend of my host family. Iso, the happy girl in the picture, is a mysterious girl in the house, that I have no idea of her relationship with Banbo, most likely they're not really related but just family friends who happened to be there when we were there. Iso started conversation with us, but we have no idea at all. She asked the adults and understood that we're from Malaysia. Then, we started some sign language and some nonsense conversation. The only thing we understood each other was the name. But still, it's fun.

After Iso left, Banbo was stuck with us for two days. Because we stayed with them for 2 days 2 nights. The longest conversation I had with Banbo was when we watched Mongolian dubbed Cars. When McQueen is out, we'll say McQueen! McQueen! When Mater is out, we'll say Mater! Mater! He's the little teacher who taught me animals in Mongolian with his book. I've forgotten most of them, but important ones like cows, camels, sheep etc, I can still remember. I learned that cars are called "machine" in Mongolian, from Banbo too!

Banbo never know how to smile for camera

There is a picture of Banbo in long hair, being tied up in the living room, that I mistakenly thought Banbo has a sister! Apparently, boys in Mongolia do not cut their hair until they're 4. They'll have their hair shaved. As for girls, I can't remember the age, probably 3. And, something odd, before they shave, the hair was very light brown in color, almost blond for some. But after they shaved, the hair is darker brown.

I don't understand, but it's really cute.