Dublin won the All Ireland football last night 1-12 to Kerry's 1-11, with the winning point scored with the last kick of the game! Managed to read it live, game finished about ten past midnight local time.
First day in UB was superb. We all had a huge lunch (great value), though Jake and Andy were challenged by their mixed grill. First sight was Gandantegchinlen monastery, a complex of temples and prayer-houses. Mongolian children fed and chased pigeons, people turned prayer-wheels, and there was a giant statue of Buddha.A great sense of peace permeated the whole place. It's a Mongolian belief that one should never turn one's back on the altar, and it was odd to watch people enter and leave the main temple, all while facing the one way.
Little conflicted about using the prayer-wheels - is it disrespectful to Buddhism for a non-believe to use them? Is it an insult to my Catholicism to use them?
From there we went to main square, again containing a Buddha statue. We were scoped out by two little kids who were obviously checking if anything was protruding from our pockets.
Then we had a traditional Mongolian show of song and dance. The instrumental playing was superb, and the dancing also - elements of Indian style. A true Mongolian skill is throat singing - a unique style which sounds like a cross between a frog's mating call, and a guy with a voice box. It was great to hear though. We also witnessed a superb contortionist, so spineless that it seemed unnatural and creepy. There was one pseudo-modern dance, a 'fusion', that was full of energy. Some of the group didn't like it, I really enjoyed it. The show was rounded off by a Buddhist dance, involving lots of masks. It was obviously some particular story, but in the moment it just looked like a bad LSD trip.
We stopped at an Irish pub for dinner, where they didn't know what the All Ireland final was. The Guinness was pretty atrocious. ON the way back to the hotel, we had our first encounter with street crime. A small child, about five years old, went for Dom's pockets in a rather aggressive manner. He went rather quickly through the group, grabbing a couple of people's waists. Someone said he was going for bottles of water, but I'm not sure. He was rather filthy looking, and obviously not well looked after. If he was really after the water, I feel rather bad. But it was impossibly to tell at the time.
Went for a couple of beers in another Irish pub then, called 'Dubiln', where they didn't serve Guinness! A couple of drinks, and back to the hotel so the lads could watch the footy (Man Utd 3-1 Chelsea). I was trying to get online for the Dublin-Kerry game, but Internet was ropey. Got news of the win, huzzah!
Aside: life is great right now. Mongolia is amazing, and the group is, to a man (woman), friendly and fun people.
First day in UB was superb. We all had a huge lunch (great value), though Jake and Andy were challenged by their mixed grill. First sight was Gandantegchinlen monastery, a complex of temples and prayer-houses. Mongolian children fed and chased pigeons, people turned prayer-wheels, and there was a giant statue of Buddha.A great sense of peace permeated the whole place. It's a Mongolian belief that one should never turn one's back on the altar, and it was odd to watch people enter and leave the main temple, all while facing the one way.
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| Dom, Jake and Lukas |
Little conflicted about using the prayer-wheels - is it disrespectful to Buddhism for a non-believe to use them? Is it an insult to my Catholicism to use them?
From there we went to main square, again containing a Buddha statue. We were scoped out by two little kids who were obviously checking if anything was protruding from our pockets.
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| Myself and Brigitte at Sukhbaatar Square |
Then we had a traditional Mongolian show of song and dance. The instrumental playing was superb, and the dancing also - elements of Indian style. A true Mongolian skill is throat singing - a unique style which sounds like a cross between a frog's mating call, and a guy with a voice box. It was great to hear though. We also witnessed a superb contortionist, so spineless that it seemed unnatural and creepy. There was one pseudo-modern dance, a 'fusion', that was full of energy. Some of the group didn't like it, I really enjoyed it. The show was rounded off by a Buddhist dance, involving lots of masks. It was obviously some particular story, but in the moment it just looked like a bad LSD trip.
We stopped at an Irish pub for dinner, where they didn't know what the All Ireland final was. The Guinness was pretty atrocious. ON the way back to the hotel, we had our first encounter with street crime. A small child, about five years old, went for Dom's pockets in a rather aggressive manner. He went rather quickly through the group, grabbing a couple of people's waists. Someone said he was going for bottles of water, but I'm not sure. He was rather filthy looking, and obviously not well looked after. If he was really after the water, I feel rather bad. But it was impossibly to tell at the time.
Went for a couple of beers in another Irish pub then, called 'Dubiln', where they didn't serve Guinness! A couple of drinks, and back to the hotel so the lads could watch the footy (Man Utd 3-1 Chelsea). I was trying to get online for the Dublin-Kerry game, but Internet was ropey. Got news of the win, huzzah!
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Aside: life is great right now. Mongolia is amazing, and the group is, to a man (woman), friendly and fun people.
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| The glass is half full I guess, but where's the rest of my pint?! |
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