Ice Festival | Hatgal, Mongolia
traditional mongolian music, colorful deels, harsh weather, and lots of mutton
When my plans for Mongolia came together, I was first planning to go to Hatgal to work on a farm. While communicating with the host, I learned that there was an annual Ice Festival the weekend I arrived. Perfect! I thought. He said I could stay at their “guesthouse” for the first couple of days and then I could go work on the farm. It had been a long process to even coordinate this much information while in Vietnam. Which later I learned of the difficulties of having service and not to mention the luxury of Internet.
But I thought, what the heck. This was enough information to get me there.
Stepping out of Vietnam I was ready for another adventure. I tried to plan for Mongolia, but I also didn't want to. I was tired of planning. I had spent the last month or two trying to figure out my next destination. I planned so much. I had plans to go to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, northern India - even debated about sneaking off to some island (seriously tho, if you need a travel itinerary for these locations just email me). Then I decided - none of this. I'm going to Mongolia. I'm exhausted of planning. All I know is that the land looks incredible and it's going to be COLD. I watched a 45 min documentary and it was more than enough to get me excited.
I left Ulaanbaatar in the evening on a night bus, Moron bound. The bus ride was my very quick and long introduction to the Mongolian culture. I had been running around since I arrived and left Otgoo in a hurry so I could buy my warm clothes and catch this bus. I was in a hurry to wait. Once on the bus, we sat in the parking lot for two hours while people loaded and unloaded boxes. The SAME boxes went on and off the bus multiple times. I didn’t seem to mind, I was busy crocheting my sweater vest.
The man next to me was very sweet and he spoke a little English. He was traveling to Hatgal to play music at the Ice Festival. We had a strange bond for the next 16 hours. He kept checking on me to make sure I wasn’t cold. I would find him reaching over me and feeling the side of my leg that was next to the window and asking if I was okay. As I type this, I know it sounds disturbing but what I learned is that there is no concept of personal space here. At this point, I hadn’t seen much of Mongolia. I had spent the last two days traveling through the night, leaving the scenery to be imagined.
I took the occasional naps and kept waking as the bus stopped for “restroom” breaks. I was just amazed how everyone would get off and all squat in the open fields, completely exposed. We made one longer stop in the middle of the night where people got off to eat. I had packed some food, but I got out to walk around. I don’t think I can stress how cold it was there. It hurt to breath the air. I tried pacing back and forth in the parking lot but after 10 minutes I was nearly frozen.
It was really beautiful out. You could see all of the stars in the sky. Moments like this, I realize how long it has been since I’ve seen the stars. It’s something that I’ve taken for granted during my childhood growing up in the country. Now, seeing the stars has become a special treat.
We arrived in Moron the next morning. The bus station was a dirt parking lot filled with cars and more Mongolian men hassling people for a ride. Someone was coming here to meet me and he found me quickly. I jumped into his van and we headed to Hatgal, after making stops all over the town. In the end, it was just me, the driver and a younger man.
The drive was incredible. As we left Moron, it started to snow heavily but the roads cleared up as we drove north. The driver started playing some late 1990’s American popular hits on the radio. This made me smile as I was taking everything in. Here I am, in this remote land, herds of sheep in the distance, him dressed in his deels and this music.
When we arrived, we drove straight to the Ice Festival on the frozen lake. This was the first time that I’ve been on a frozen lake like this. It was incredible, we drove for a long distance passing other cars and people on motorcycles. We even passed a couple of huge ships that were frozen in the ice.
I was instantly thrown into this experience and didn’t have much time to gather myself mentally for the entire transition from Vietnam to Mongolia. It had been such a long and fast transition. Here I was, with all of my stuff on this frozen lake realizing that I was not prepared for these temperatures and snowy conditions. I hadn’t had any time to settle since I got off the plane, still wearing the same thing I came in (two days prior) plus my new jacket.
It’s difficult to express how cold it was in Hatgal. It was hard to take any pictures because I couldn’t bare to remove my hands from my pockets. I met Tomas, a man from Czech Republic and later Sophie and Guillame, the two other volunteers on the farm. We spent some time walking with each other, all trying to stay warm. We ended up tucking into a ger to enjoy a hot meal and meeting more local Mongolians. The festival was a great way to see so much of the Mongolian culture. Everyone was dressed so nicely in their traditional deels and fur hats. I loved watching this and listening to the music.
A big snow started to come and it was hard to see anything. Me, wearing my glasses, my hood up and scarf covering every surface of my face, I could hardly move around. This was a moment of weakness and right when I wasn’t paying attention and was flustered because of all the conditions, I got my entire wallet stolen. I had been warned of pickpockets in Mongolia from many people, but I had been warned of this in every country I had been to and never had any problems. I always kept my belongings in a smart location, but in this 5 minutes… I wasn’t aware and got everything was stolen!
Back at the house, there was a lot of confusion. The first two nights Sophie, Guillame and I slept outside in a wooden hut. They had already been here for a week or so, helping work around the house and later traveled to the farm. I was supposed to join them there, but after a couple of days and some very strange encounters we learned that there was no more work and we all decided to leave together.
It was a difficult situation to manage, every night we were fighting the cold, temperatures would drop below -20F, there was no work and then we were expected to pay for things that had been agreed upon prior. It wasn’t a good situation and we were all happy to leave. Nonetheless, it was a really cool experience. I never thought I would be in this situation and even just the few days I spent in Hatgal, I learned a lot. It was not comfortable, by any means and I got to experience only a glimpse of the tough conditions that they deal with everyday.
Our little wood hut
Bathroom