Please exile me to the most beautiful time

Chapter 10 Mongolia: Between Ideal and Grass (2)
Through the rustling forest, we rode our horses "deer deer" in small steps, and waded through shallow streams. I was bumped up and down on horseback, always unstable, constantly It collided with the saddle, and the body swayed from side to side involuntarily, as if it would be thrown off in the next second.The master who also trots the horse can sit on the horse's back like a clock and as steady as a pine, which is really infuriating.When the horse was trotting, I was bumped into a mess again, and it would be fine if it was a big trot.Out of the forest, into a vast and boundless prairie.The horses couldn't bear it any longer, quickened their pace and began to trot, as if they had finally found a place to have fun.I grabbed the reins tightly like a life-saving straw, my heart beat faster, as if my life would die anytime, anywhere.In fact, the horse at a gallop was surprisingly smooth, almost panning, not jolting at all like it was at a trot.In order to prevent injury, the master did not dare to let the horse run wildly, so we had to slow down.In fact, at this time, we were also blocked in our hearts. We wanted to ride for a while, but we were afraid that the horse would run fast, we wanted more excitement, and we were afraid of getting hurt. It was too difficult to serve.Women, that's it. There are many things, you are timid, and you have endless little desires.

Horseback riding during the day and stargazing at night.Deserts, lakesides, forests, and mountains are the most beautiful places far away from the city, and the grasslands are no exception.Sitting on the grass in front of the yurt and looking up at the starry sky, they are so bright at this time, like thousands of small light bulbs embedded in the night, a majestic map of the starry sky hangs above my head.It's a pity that they can't be found in the city. Those distant stars appear dim and almost disappear under the neon lights of the city.You can’t have both, if you choose neon lights, you are doomed to say goodbye to the brilliant starry sky. Only the brightest stars in twos and threes are left in the sky above the city, so that urbanites will not forget their existence.

May you also be able to go to the fields to watch the stars in your spare time.

Unknown pastoral life

We met a young Mongolian Gobatu who was building a wooden hotel.Most Mongolians have big faces and narrow eyes, and the distance between the eyes is relatively long, which is probably not good-looking in the aesthetics of the Han people.But Batu does not look like a traditional Mongolian. He has a thin face and a straight nose. He has deep features, clear outline, and a strong figure. With thick eyebrows, he is full of masculinity.Batu, who speaks simple English, invited us to his home with a few friends. "Jia" refers to a big yurt where the whole family lives together.The silver-haired grandma Batu was milking the cows, and I did my part to give it a try.

Milking a cow is a technical job, it seems that it is not difficult, but if the strength and direction are not well grasped, the milk will not be milked.I picked up the two nipples of the cow, pulled and loosened them like grandma, and opened the bow with my left and right hands in turn. The milk splashed into the bucket, and I succeeded!

"Well done, you are a Mongolian woman!" Batu said.

Relatives and friends sat around in the yurt drinking hot milk tea, and tasted the steamed mutton dumplings made by Grandma Batu.Batu brought a bright red Mongolian robe for some friends to try on. For some reason, I wore it with a full sense of ancient costume, just like the heroine in a martial arts movie.Everyone chatted one after another. At 6 o’clock in the evening, when the lights in the city were brightly lit, it was already quiet outside the yurt. The grassland without street lights looked dark, and only a small stream not far away could be heard. The sound of trickling water.Relying on the dim light from the hotel, we headed back to the yurt in the dark for a new challenge: building a fire.

The temperature on the grassland is lower than that in Ulaanbaatar. It is cool during the day and cold at night.Therefore, making a fire has become an essential skill for survival.This is not an easy task for someone who grew up in the city.After Sugar failed to start a fire several times, I decided to study this knowledge alone.For a while it was tearing paper, for a while it was adding firewood, and for a while it was fussy and blackened people, but the flames stubbornly refused to obey, and they just refused to dance.It was later discovered that just throwing the lit paper into the stove was not enough to ignite the firewood, and it was necessary to find a good angle to fan the flames, and the flames really burst into flames.I suddenly realized that this is the so-called "fanning the flames".

Riding horses, milking cows, and lighting fires, these wild life can bring endless fun to a person in a city, but it is much less interesting to a herdsman.Of Mongolia's population of less than 300 million, a quarter are nomadic herdsmen who have lived on the grasslands for a long time, and the other quarter are semi-herdsmen. They will return to the village in winter and go out to nomad after the ice and snow melt.The remaining half of the population lives in cities, mostly in Ulaanbaatar.People on horseback cannot resist the offensive of modernization. Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer nomadic people, and people are gradually flocking to cities in search of a better quality of life.For a long time, the proportion of nomadic population will continue to decline.

Undoubtedly, when the primitive life is squeezed by modern life and has no living space, it will be abandoned and forgotten by the times, and the way of life that has been passed down for thousands of years will never return.Perhaps, one day, people can only remember those lost primitive lives in the discovery program.

cabin in the desert
Mongolia not only has grasslands, but also large areas of Gobi and deserts, of which deserts occupy one-third of the country's land area. In addition, there are large coniferous forests in the north near Siberia.When we started thinking about whether to go north or south, we even had the idea of ​​going to Russia.To be honest, going to Siberia this season is asking for trouble, not to mention that I still wear sandals on my feet, and I don’t have a thick coat.Thinking of the scene of being woken up by freezing inadvertently at night, I decided to go to the desert in southern Mongolia.

The most direct manifestation of a country's economic development is the level of infrastructure construction, especially road construction.There are no highways or transportation networks in Mongolia at all, and most of the deserts and steppes have no roads at all, except for a small stretch of asphalt road near the capital.The boundless desert is vast. From Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad in the south, it takes more than ten hours. Except for a short road when I just drove out of Ulaanbaatar, the journey thereafter is nowhere to be seen. Did not hit the road.The wind and sand are blowing, the dust is flying, the east, west, north and south seem to be carved out of a mold. During the day, you can vaguely judge the direction according to the sunlight, but you can’t see anything in the grassland at night. I admire the drivers so much. I really don’t know how they identify them. direction.

I have been to Namibia, the country with the second lowest population density in the world. It is so sparsely populated that you can dance Yangko on the main road.Mongolia, which has the lowest population density, is even better. Although its area ranks 19th among all countries in the world, it has only one big city, and then there are grasslands and deserts, or deserts and grasslands. Large areas of land are uninhabited. .The long-distance vehicle is running in the desert, and it is very lucky to occasionally see one or two yurts and a few horses from a distance.If the tire is punctured somewhere, I don't know how long it will take to wait for a passing car.

The desert can be said to be an absolute fortress against the enemy.

I chose to go south not only for the desert in the south, but also because it was in the same direction as the motherland. I naively thought that I could go back to the country by going south along the road.From Ulaanbaatar in central Mongolia to Dalan Zadegad in the south, it seems on the map that there is no doubt that it is getting closer and closer to the northern border of China.I also comforted myself when my bones fell apart due to the bumps on the dilapidated long-distance bus: It’s okay, it will be much closer when I return home.However, when I came here, I found that it was just a distant dream, and the cruel reality is that there is no public transportation to go to the border.

Either become a lunatic or become a poet
The traffic situation in Mongolia can only be described in one word: appalling.Not only are the roads badly built, but even basic intercity roads are missing.Ulaanbaatar is the only transportation hub in such a huge landlocked country. The long-distance passenger transport network radiates to the surroundings with Ulaanbaatar as the only core. Every place is only connected to Ulaanbaatar. Almost impossible.It's like you can go to Beijing from Shanghai, and you can go to Beijing from Wuhan, but there is no communication between Shanghai and Wuhan, and you have to transit through Beijing.I have worked so hard to get to the southern part of Mongolia. I thought I could go to the border and return home, but because there were no long-distance buses, I had to return to Ulaanbaatar the same way, and then take the train going south to the border between China and Mongolia. This is like traveling from Beijing to Hainan. The island walked 3 times.Touching my sore waist, I was about to vomit blood.

South Gobi Province is the largest province in Mongolia, but its population density is incredibly low, only 0.3 people per square kilometer.The province with the lowest population density in China is the Tibet Autonomous Region, with about 2.4 people per square kilometer. The population density of South Gobi Province is only one-eighth of Tibet, almost no man's land.Imagine how desolate this land must be.Dharamzadgad, the capital of South Gobi Province, is a mini "city" that can be visited within ten minutes' walk.If you walk in one direction, you will soon come to the border of the city, and then you will go out to the unspeakable Gobi, with only a faint horizon in the distance that is too far away to see.Someone was riding a motorcycle speeding past in the distance, leaving behind a long line of dust and smoke. This line drifted from the far left to the far right in the field of vision until it was out of sight.

The climate in the Gobi is harsh, hot during the day and cold at night. When the sun shines directly down, the ground without a single green grass is unsheltered, rotten sand and dry rocks, just like the surface of the moon. It is very impressive to say that this is the end of the world. Convinced.I watched a program about treasure hunting before. It said that a group of people came to the desert to search for the gold buried by the ancients. They walked and walked, and walked far, far, and finally found the Golden City under the deposited sand. Everyone was very happy. Happy, scrambling to use the bag to hold the gold.But at this time, the problem came, because the transportation of gold almost exhausted the backup water source, and the sun was exposed, the temperature of the sand was high, and the way back was very long. In the end, all the treasure hunters died of thirst in the desert.Leaving aside whether this story is true or not, I find it incredible just to go to the desert to hunt for treasure.Whether it’s a desert or a desert, I’m standing in front of the desert at this moment. The vague dust makes people stand in it like being boiled. Not to mention close contact, I get goose bumps all over my body when I look at it. How can I have the courage to move forward? a few steps.Therefore, for those who have ideas about desert exploration, everything is useless.

I never saw the sea when I was a child, and I always wanted to see the sea in my dreams. Later, I finally saw the sea. I was very excited at first. After walking on the beach seventeen or eight times, I began to wonder why the sea is so wet, sticky and fierce. The sea breeze does not nourish people at all; later I wanted to see the grassland, and when I saw it, I missed the crowded and lively place; I imagined going to the desert for a walk and playing with the small sand, when it really appeared in front of my eyes At that time, she looked beautiful but didn't have the guts to take a step forward.Is it really because women have so many things to do, or is it because women are born unable to make choices?In short, when all wishes come true, you will start to feel sad again, and you can't stop it.

Outside the small town, there is nothing but a desert.Under the cover of this desolation that is big enough to engulf the world, I suddenly feel a little sad, and I want to cry.Just like the current self, exiled here by the world, like a small boat in the ocean, floating day and night, a little pitiful and sad.Not only are they sad for themselves, but also for this poor desert. They stick to it day and night, and can only let the earth burn, unable to walk or run away. It has been like this for 1000, 1 years, without any change or fun.

If you live here for a long time, you will either become a lunatic or a poet.Unfortunately, until the day I left Mongolia, I was still nothing.

(End of this chapter)