For many years I have had Mongolia’s Naadaam festival on my bucket list. Now I can check it off. After the lovely days in the valley we got into some wet weather. And unfortunately we camped overnight and woke in a crazy rainstorm. Tents, sleeping bags, clothes, shoes and all were soaked through….but it was off to enjoy the festival.
From Wikipedia –
Naadam (Mongolian: Наадам, classical Mongolian: Naɣadum, [ˈnaːdəm], literally “games”) is a traditional festival in Mongolia. The festival is also locally termed “eriin gurvan naadam” (эрийн гурван наадам) “the three games of men”. The games are Mongolian wrestling, horse racing, and archery, and are held throughout the country during midsummer. Women have started participating in the archery and girls in the horse-racing games, but not in Mongolian wrestling.
Our guides explained that the UB Naadaam is too busy so we decided on a rural festival But it then got cancelled due to foot and mouth disease in the area. We also thought of seeing one in the Gobi desert area, but weather has hampered those Naadaams too. So we headed back to the nearest festival in Zuunmod that was actually happening. As a result of attending a small festival we were right up front for the three events, the horse racing ( all done bareback by kids under 10), wrestling and archery. But the weather and cold made it a bit of a problem…cold wet kids never equals fun. They were troopers as we were still with our New Aussie friends and their boys helped temper the mood. After a few hours of Naadaam, we were told of our change in plans. No camping tonight and in a small hotel room with a shower ( it has only been 5 days since our last showers. To top it off – a sit down toilet and WiFi!