Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Note that there are two trails to the base camp. One starts from the end of the road in
Tsagaan Gol valley. From here it's a 14km trek to the base camp. The trailhead has a
ranger station and a place to camp. Across the river are some gers occupied by an exten-
ded family of Tuvans. They rent horses (T10,000) and one of the younger family mem-
bers can guide you up to the base camp (for around T15,000 with horse).
The other trail to the base camp begins in the Sogoog Gol valley (north of Tsagaan
Gol); from here it's 13km to the base camp. This trailhead also has a ranger station.
KAZAKHS
Ask anyone in Kazakhstan for the best place to find genuine Kazakh culture and
they will most likely point to a small plot of land, not in their own country, but in
western Mongolia. Bayan-Ölgii, thanks to its isolation for most of the 20th century,
is considered by many to be the last bastion of traditional Kazakh language, sport
and culture.
Kazakhs first migrated to this side of the Altai in the 1840s to graze their sheep
on the high mountain pastures during summer and returned to Kazakhstan or
Xinjiang for the winter. After the Mongolian Revolution in 1921, a permanent border
was drawn by agreement between China, the USSR and Mongolia.
The word 'Kazakh' is said to mean 'free warrior' or 'steppe roamer'. Kazakhs
trace their roots to the 15th century, when rebellious kinsmen of an Uzbek khaan
(king or chief) broke away, and settled in present-day Kazakhstan.
Kazakh gers are taller, wider and more richly decorated than the Mongolian ver-
sion. Tush(wall hangings) and koshma(felt carpets),decorated with stylised anim-
al motifs, are common. Chiy(traditional reed screens) are becoming less common.
Kazakhs adhere rather loosely to Sunni Islam, but religion is not a major force.
This is because of their distance from the centre of Islam, their nomadic lifestyle
and the suppression of Islam during the communist era. Islam is making a
comeback in Bayan-Ölgii, thanks to the lifting of restrictions against religion, aid
packages from other Muslim countries, the construction of mosques and the an-
nual hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. The main Kazakh holiday is the pre-Islamic spring
festival of Navrus, celebrated on 21 March.
Kazakhs speak a Turkic language with 42 Cyrillic letters, similar to Russian and a
little different from Mongolian.
