It was summer of 2004, when we all headed to the west north of Mongolia: “The Central Mongolia”. We never had any family trips throughout the Mongolian beautiful wide nature, as parents never had any free time from their busy carriers and beside of that they did not know yet the value of having special trip with their children.
From early morning dad and mom were tying all the baggage and suitcases preparing for the long trip and we kids were so excited that we had already prepared to head out.
Our first stop was the “Sand Dune” the very hot spot, which is the nearest desert like sand dune from the city, where we lived. That moment, I never imagined what was like the countryside and being in a wild nature. And on that time I was amazed by the environment of that desert as it had three conflicting scenery of the nature, the never ending expansive desert with cold and high mountain and between the huge sand dunes there was a lake which was surrounded by trees and a few green plants. We all were lying on sands which were heating our bodies from the beneath and we were playing around with the sand as it was silken soft with crystal and golden yellow color.
After spending first night on that unique sand dune, early in the morning we headed to “The Red Waterfall”, which is located to the central area of Mongolia the “Uvur-khangai”. I remember we had toughest road with up and down bumps and lumps jumping on our old rattling Toyota RAV-4. Nevertheless, father was extremely happy to go to that place, as his father and my grandpa was the native of Uvur-Khangai province. When we finally reached to our destination we were hearing the sound of water which was falling from impressive height of twenty meter. The waterfall was powerful and strong with large rock and stones, and when we were standing on the mountain of that waterfall watching down the waterfall cascading and pouring its fast moving water to the river of Orkhon, we have been crying out about the beauty of that creature. There were many travelers from around the world and having pictures on that beautiful waterfall and asking from each others to take their pictures and finally we also asked from one tall European man to take our picture. That person was happy to take our picture as he was one of the amazed travelers and he was saying you are lucky to be the natives of that country. That moment was my first time when I first felt pride of being Mongolian.
After the waterfall we have been tired and we were very hungry that we did not want to prepare the foods and wait until it will be ready to be served, we just went to the nearest Mongolian family to full our shouting stomachs. As the Mongolian people in the countryside are very hospitable and friendly, we had not any hesitation to visit and spend our night. Our house owners or the “ger” were very friendly people who offered us foods and they wished us to feel as we were at our home. The ger head or the father of that family had warm conversation with my parents offering them our traditional beverage or “the airag”. Our traditional beverage “airag” is made by horse milk and it has acid taste which can make one drunken if you will have it too much. As father was the most impressed person on that “ger”, he did drink the “airag” a lot and he was telling his entire life story to the owner of the ger”. After the long trip and hospitability we had wonderful nap on that warm and smelling ger. All Mongolian ger has one unique smell, which is mixture of milk, meat and “argal” smell. The argal is dried excrement of livestock, which we use to heat the ger.
Next morning, I was awaken by my brother, who was twelve years old, who wanted to go out with me and see the cattle. He was holding my arm tightly and running to one young goat, which was desperately sucking the breast of its mother goat. Brother was pointing to young goat and told me that he like the young goat more than any other kids of livestock. On that moment, I really understood the meaning of Mongolian ancient phrase: the most attracting kid of our five types of herd is young goat. Instantly, mom was calling for us, as all other members of our family were ready to head back to our home.
My parents left us four months after that unforgettable trip, leaving us with grandmother with a hope to make their lives one level upper in a foreign country the “United States of America.” Since that time, we really missed that moments and we never had warm family environment in our home and country. We wanted to go back to the moment, the moment, when where we are singing our songs in our old rattling Toyota RAV-4 and heading to the beautiful countryside of our Mongolia.
And now after whole five years coming to United States to my parents, I’m feeling the warmth of my family and my parents never changing love, which I have been missed for a long time and I do believe one day morning we will head again to our memorable family trip and will treasure that moment even more than we do now.
