Naadam Plans

Tomorrow officially starts the Mongolian national holiday of Naadam, or the festival of the "three manly sports" (wrestling, archery, and horse racing). There are Naadam celebrations all throughout the country beginning and ending at different times. The black market has been especially busy and the street traffic has gotten worse as everyone leaves for the holiday. Most Mongolians get their vacation during this time and venture out of UB to visit friends and family in the countryside.

Our plans are as follows:

Fri - we are going to see the opening ceremony of the Naadam in UB followed by some archery and wrestling competitions
Sat - we are going to take part in "Culture Naadam" a sort of fair put on by the Arts Council of Mongolia... this is also where some of the horse races take place so we will watch some of that and then head out to the Bulgan City in the countryside to visit Gaana, our language teacher from Pitt last semester
Sun-Tue - we will be visiting with Gaana and then see the opening ceremony of Bulgans Naadam before returning to UB

Love, Emily