Not a cloud in the sky!
Didn't play 'Go' last night as Lauren came back to the hotel pretty late. I think we will go to Naadam around 10:30am.
The opening ceremonies were pretty neat. First, a large marching band walked into the middle of the field while maybe eight horsemen dressed in ancient Mongol warrior garb trotted around the field, then each stopped at equidistant points from each other along the circumference of the field. Next, more horsemen in traditional royal garb entered, nine yak-tail standardbearers leading the way. The standards were placed in the center of the field, but more to one side. A fair number of women, dressed in traditional garb walked to one side, holding before them silk garments, like sashes. The first three went up the steps to the VIP booth, probably to give their gifts to Princess Anne. Yes, she was there. The president, dressed in a traditional golden dehl, came out and gave a nice, short speech in Mongolian. The archers that were competing formed two lines at each end of the field (I had wondered if they were going to shoot at each other). The wrestlers came down from the center stands on the opposite side onto the field to go around the yak-tail standards. They treated it like an obo almost. The archers did as well. While the competitors were giving their respects to the standards, three traditional Mongol singers began to sing in company with a group of Mongol Morin Khuur players. Finally, a number of the children horse racers burst onto the track and blitzed around. I forgot to mention that after the president gave his speech, the Mongolian National Anthem was played to a 21-gun salute. And the guns were artillery pieces just outside the stadium. All of this lasted for about an hour, then the first round of wrestling commenced while in a much smaller stadium, archery began.
Since a princess of England was there, Mongolia cut no corners to protect her royal person. So, wherever Anne went, her bodyguards were sure to follow. That is, black beret, black pullover, camo vest & pants, and your choice of AK or Czech automatic rifle/pistol or teargas gun! Very serious.
Mongols were all over the park where the competition was. There were concessions everywhere and I heard you could even buy airak, a hard to come by item in the city.
The day was very sunny and hot, even. When we returned to our hotel for lunch, Lauren and I decided to play Go. And, boy, did he beat me! He's good.
At sunset we went to the town square. Lauren decided to wear his dehl. He received many reactions from the Mongols. We started to categorize all the reactions and found most of them good-natured. It definitely was a conversation piece! We always had Mongols around us. A friend of Lauren and Penny's, a Mongol woman, met us and ended being Lauren's interpreter. One man was very upset with Lauren and did not hesitate to say so. But he was almost shouted down by the others. Unfortunately, all this commotion was making our Mongol friend very upset as well, so we walked elsewhere. He shouted at us one more time, then the police came and he didn't bother us again. The thing was that Lauren received many compliments too.
We went to the Buddhist Cultural Center again for beers. The Mongol woman and her sister came with us. They had mango juice. The woman's sister was eight years old and inside the bar there was disco music. She really wanted to dance and finally did, by herself. She was very cute, and a good dancer too.
We walked back to the square to see the fireworks. Quite a few people were still there. We watched for a while, then the Mongol woman and her sister had to return home. Eventually, we did as well.
On the way home we had conversations with several groups of Mongols, including the secretary to the Mongolian Democratic Party. He had great dislike for the communists and was going to visit the States in April of next year.
Finally, we arrived home and before going to bed I had some whiskey with my Aussie friends, Lauren and Penny.