After much trouble we finally got tickets to the Naadam opening ceremony in the National Stadium in UB and the events of the first day, wrestling and archery.
After a very solemn start, part of which is shown in the picture here, the opening ceremony continued with a parade where local companies advertised their products and services. This seemed somewhat out of place, but I suppose it's a good way to finance (part of) the event.
I apologise that almost everyone in the pictures turns their back to you, but unfortunately our seats were on the "non-VIP" side of the stadium - all action took place facing the President on the opposite side.
The stadium suddenly transformed into a battle field with Mongolian warriors from different epochs, with some emphasis on the most glorious era, of course.
Some of the 999 horse-headed fiddle players. Impressive is a clear understatement.
Many Mongolians wore traditional outfits. Just look at this silver-ornamented hat!
No comment.
Many wrestling matches were going on at the same time on this first day. Even though I actually watched the finals on TV the day after (I didn't really mean to, it just happened that way), I can't inform you about the fate of these two gentlemen.
In the archery stadium the President, Mr Ts. Elbegdorj, shot the first arrow to open the competition. If he had participated he wouldn't have won.
The lady sitting next to me was going to take part in the competition. She let me try her bow. Her slightly amused and condescending smile says it all.
All participants wore traditional clothing, something which made the archery competition a true pleasure to watch, regardless of the athletic achievements.
The horse-racing took place in the countryside (of course). We were eight volunteers who met up early in the morning to try to figure out how to get there. We soon got on an incredibly crammed bus and after about a little less than two hours we reached the destination some 30 km outside UB. It was a very pleasant sunny day, and just being in the countryside was a enjoyable in itself.
It's children riding the horses, some with saddles, some without, some with helmets, some without.
The winner. This horse was way ahead of the others.
I hope the child who fell off didn't get too badly hurt. In the Arkhangai province there was a fatal accident of this kind during Naadam.
Going home proved to be extremely tiring. We took a bus, of course we got no seats, and the bus immediately got stuck in a traffic jam. It took four hours in all before we were at home. But we were happy to have seen all three manly sports!
