Traditional hospital in Ulaanbaatar

When we arrived in Ulaanbaatar, we met some French couch surfeurs who had stayed with Begs, like us and they had been to a traditional hospital that cures different problems in a preventive manner, so here we go...

When we got there, in force (we had recruited 3 other couch surfers), we asked for Nara, begs's aunt who is a doctor in that hospital.

In her office, we try to explain, half in English, half in Russian (Ok more 10% in Russian) that we want the same as the other french guys - a full diagnostic

One after another, in front of her, she takes our wrists in her hand, her eyes closed, she takes our pulse for 2 minutes, while writing down notes on a booklet.

Rather sceptical when we started, we are impressed: she can feel pains and diseases that we have had for a while. Staight away she can see that Thomas has got allergic asthma even if he hasn't got any when she does the diagnostic, his liver is not in a good shape (too much coffee and beer in London ;-) ), she can see that I have stomach pains and my balance is not perfect, but we won't detail more as too many bad things!!

So there we go, ready for an intensive 3 day treatment period (2hrs a day).

On the first day, quite impressive, we are all in a big room, separated by curtains and we start to get different treatments by specilaised nurses (or so we hope!):

Acuponcture, sometimes added with dry herbs at the end of the needle, vaccuums on the body part that has been diagnosed as 'cold', massaging table (very painful according to Tom), vigourous massages that rip off everything (ouch!), bleeding at the end of the fingers to liberate bad energies, etc.

Anyway it was not a great relaxing moment (as the marks can testify in the picture above) but it taught us that we needed to take care of our body - not too many excesses!!! :-)

Already been a week ... Ulaan Baatar

After a week in Ulaan Baatar with Begz family, we feel refreshed.

Thanks to couchsufring we ve just spend a wonderful week in a Ger (Yurt) 5km north of the city center in ger district with Begz, Soyombo and their 4 children - Todo, Manujia, Gaadma et Munglun. Other couchsurfers were there too (Alex and Nelly from France), also on sabbatical.
Together we particpated to the daily life of this mongolian family. They live together in a Ger of 20m2 and all sleep on the same bed, on the ground which is protected with Sheep blanket.

They have 3 cows that needs to be milked everyday and they have just started a small garden with the help of the red cross. In Ger district, it is very dry and a bit of green will help with the polution and give a bit of a color in the district.

Despite difficult conditions compare to Europe, all of them are full of joy and happiness, every occasion is good for a laugh and to share a great moment together.

We have laugh a lot with the children who love playing (card games, bone games, football etc.)
The children are great, adorable and always smilling, they share the domestic tasks with a word:
Manujia is responsible for washing the dishes, Todo walks the cows in the mountains.
They are so nice we want to stay longer with them and get more kisses from the little one.

We love it !!!

We cooked with Soyombo who is passionate about it and loves discovering new recipies and new way of cooking. She does a lot of vegetarian cooking which is good in a culture where meat is very important (beef, horse, goat, sheep etc.).
Below on the picture she is doing some butter milk which is then applied on sort of Mogolian Crepes.
Here in Mongolia, you need to eat ... everything, bowls are gigantesque but for us it is easy, we love food and food is great.;-)
Again ... this will be hard to start a Diet ...

We have discussed a lot with Begz who loves to share his culture, he is very tolerant in regards to foreigners like us and other couch surfers who don;t always do what needs to be done (eg. always holding food with right hand, wash 3 times hands before diner, leaking bowls after each meal (no need for washing ;-) etc.))

Begs woks all day at the library in Ulan Baatar has the it specialist to feed his family, wakes up very earlier in the morning to milk the cow, get water from the spring (2km away and 130L tank, Tom tested twice), remove bad herbes in the garden and then go to work, no time to be bored and nights are short.

Soyombo is responsible for domestic tasks, cooks and looks after the kids - same as Bergz, she wakes up at 6h et go tgo bed at 1h...

This experience is great lesson for us, happiness has nothing to do with owning things but how do you appreciate what you have and every moment ... this is what we will do for the next 7 months and after ...

L'hopital traditionnel de Ulaanbaatar

A notre arrivee a Ulaanbaatar, on a rencontre des francais qui etaient restes chez Begs - comme nous et ils etaient alles a un hopital traditionnel, qui traitait les maux divers de maniere preventive, alors nous voila parti...

Arrives sur place, en force (on avait recrute 3 autres couch surfeurs), on demande a voir Nara, la tante de Begs qui est docteur dans cet hopital.

Dans son bureau on essaie de lui expliquer moitie en anglais, moitie en russe (enfin 10% de russe!) qu'on veut la meme chose que les autres francais - un diagnostic complet!

A tour de role, assis en face d'elle, elle nous prend les 2 poignets pour prendre le pouls les yeux fermes pendant 2 minutes, tout en ecrivant des notes dans son cahier.

Plutot sceptiques au depart, on est impressiones: elle voit des maux qu'on a depuis pas mal de temps. Elle voit tout de suite que Tom fait de l'allergie qui lui donne de l'asthme alors qu'il n'en a pas au moment du diagnostic et son foie n'est pas en bon etat, elle me voit differents problemes comme maux d'estomac et equilibre...

Resultat, nous voila parti pour 3 jours de traitement intensif (2h par jour).

Le premier jour est le plus impressionant, tous dans une grande salle separee par des rideaux on subit les soins prodigues par des infirmieres specialisees dans chaque soin:

Acuponcture, quelques fois agrementes d'herbes seches qui brulent au bout de chaque aiguille, ventouses sur la partie du corps qui est froide (eg pas en forme) (preuve en image), table massante (super douloureuse selon Tom...), les massages vigoureux qui arrachent tout sur leur passage, saignees au bout du doigts pour liberer une energie negative, etc.

Bref pas une partie de plaisir mais ca nous a parmi de nous rendre compte qu'on a besoin de repos et surtout de faire attention a notre corps - point trop n'en faut :-)