Wednesday 11 July 2012

Nadaam



Managed to get to Sukhbaatar square in time for the collection of the 9 yak tail banners. It started a bit Benny Hill/ Black Adder but they soon settled down and it got quite interesting with lots of colour and lots of fanfares and strutting. Apparently, there were also three men dressed as Gestarpo officers, complete with black uniforms and swastikas  but fortunately we didn't see them. Weird though. We got quite close despite the police cordon.


Then off to the Naadam stadium. Got tickets and good seats easily. Definitely worth seeing, again lots of colour, noise, traditional dancing and costumes. A speech by the president. Then the presentation and parade of the Mongolian olympic team bound for London.



Then the opening rounds of the wrestling competition. Spent and interesting couple of hours watching men strip down to nothing and adjust themselves, but then got bored and heading off to lunch.


We're off to see the archery this afternoon. Then off to the horse-racing tomorrow followed by knuckle-bone shooting - knuckle-bone shooting is a bit like tiddlywinks for carnivores.







And on Friday we really must do our Chinese visa's or else we're done for. No amount of pleading or sob-stories ever works with Chinese officialdom. We know this from bitter experience.