The paths that criss-cross Mother’s back

August 25, 2008 by Karin.

Mongolians worship the blue sky as their Father and their land as Mother. And in Mongolia, we do not rip up our Mother to install highways, a convenient network of paved roads, or regular signage indicating direction and destination.It makes for some scenic rides…and very long ones at that.  In fact, it would 8 hours of scenic driving to travel the 360 kilometers (223 miles) from Ulan Bator to Kharkhorin. I used to pride myself on the ability to be rocked to sleep during airplane turbulance but rides in Mongolian vans were so full of bumps and side-of-head banging against windows that I just couldn’t sleep through the headaches.

  We cheered whenever our van found its way on one of these rare paved paths. Outside of Ulan Bator, this was the most comfortable kind of road to drive on.  (Think of this as “off road.”)

Above is a typical road in the countryside. (Coined by a member of our group as “off-off road.”) Every time another vehicle passed by, we had to close our van windows to keep the stirred up dust from entering. We often felt like we were in a safari, watching (and being watched by) herds of animals, field mice, and the birds that eat them.  

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