An evening in a ger

Now this came unexpected.
Mongolian hospitality is famous all over the world. The concept of open house, or ger in most of the cases, means anyone is welcome anywhere anytime. Rather difficult to grasp for fairly reserved Germans, wary of their private space.
In Mongolia, this trait is vital to survival. Everyone is able to travel lightly, knowing that they'll find a place to sleep, will be offered tea and food before heading off to wherever they're going next.
Apparently staying in a ger is a must do when travelling through this country. We had a hard time imagining ourselves simply going up to a yurt and entering without invitation. Turns out, we didn't have to.
After a spectacular drive through a mountain massif and after that flat desert, we find a dried out stream leading behind a small dune, hiding us somewhat from the "street" (rather a small dirt road). Just minutes before we had passed a ger with goats and camels and thought we continued far enough to not intrude. Well, the family father thought differently. Shortly after we parked, we have a visitor. Ishten pulls up with his motorbike and admires our home. Despite the difficulty in communication (no internet connection hence no digital translation assistance), we show him around and he continues to show his excitement. Since Hans doesn't have that much to point out, we soon run out of topics and this is when Ishten invites us to his home to eat and sleep. We're tired after a long day of driving and are somewhat dreading the communication issues, but you don't say no to an invitation. So we pack up again and follow our host through the dunes to his ger. Inside, his family (wife, two daughters, grandfather 1 and grandfather 2 and a nephew) are eagerly awaiting us. We get little stools to sit on, are immediately offered tea, candy and camel cheese (everything at the same time which makes it hard to handle) and everyone wants to take pictures. The oldest daughter uses Google translate and her little English to at least make sure we'll exchange pictures through messenger once we have reception. Dinner is already cooking on the stove in the middle. We're trying to remember the dos and don'ts: receive food only with the right hand, don't lean on any beams, don't shake hands over the doorstep, don't hand anything through the beams in the middle neither walk through. Visitors sit on the left side, the right side is for the family. Surprised, we witness that grandpa 2 apparently doesn't care about the in between beam rule. Soon we relax and simply copy our hosts in regards to how to eat, drink and sit. Dinner is noodles in broth with small pieces of meat, everything we're being served is delicious. Luckily, no craziness like cooked sheep head or raw meat.
When it's time to drink vodka, Tom gets ours from the car, along with gifts for the kids (we brought some koala keyrings). We've come to a family of responsible drinkers. Dad stops after the first and grandpa 2 also stops after 1.5 shots as he still needs to drive. The second half shot is also only drunk as he starts singing. Another Mongolian tradition. Tom has to sing, too. Then grandpa 2 says goodbye and we, too, take this chance to not further stretch the family's hospitality.
But it's not over yet: outside, Tom is offered to ride the family's bike. No worries there! In return, we once again introduce Hans's features, take down our push bikes for the family to ride (Ishten instantly wants to trade them for a goat) and we all take turns on the hula-hoop. The mum turns out to be a natural talent!
Then it's really time to go. We say our goodbyes, shake hands and hug, appreciate the Mongolian hospitality and drive a few dunes away to set up camp for the night. How lucky we were! And how amazing of Ishten to invite two complete strangers to his house. Not having a common language didn't keep us from having a good time. We ate, sang, laughed and danced together. What wonderful hosts. Once again, we're left awe-struck upon the generosity and warmth that we've been treated with. Hopefully we can return the favor some time!Read more