Page 30 - QARANC Vol 17 No 1 2019

28 QARANC THE GAZETTE
Army Polo in Mongolia
It is not often military personnel travel to the Mongolian Steppe which is why I was incredibly delighted when I found out that I had been selected to form part of the British Army Team that would travel to Mongolia as part of a wider MOD defence engagement with the Mongolian Armed Forces.
We flew into Beijing where we were met by embassy staff who drove us to the Kerry Hotel where it was clear that no expense was spared. That afternoon we visited Tiananmen Square and Jing Shan Park and had a local Chinese hot pot at a Hu tong. That evening we played tourists and wandered the streets of Beijing, sampling some rather interesting and somewhat peculiar cuisine.
The next morning, we flew to Ulaanbaatar where we were met by the Assistant Defence Attaché and staff from the Mongolian MOD. We checked into the Shangri-La Hotel,
Inside a Mongolian ger – the traditional Mongolian residence
Polo on the Mongolian steppe
had a quick lunch and then went out to explore the city. We visited the Lama Temple, the Main Square and a number of museums. That evening we had dinner with embassy staff and received a brief on the next day’s activities.
The following day, after a wonderful breakfast at the Shangri- La, having attracted much attention from the rest of the diners because we were in military uniform, we were driven to the Mongolian MOD where we were met by the commander of Foreign Relations. We delivered a number of presentations and received reciprocal presentations by various Mongolian MOD personnel.
The focus of the Mongolian Armed forces is the usual homeland security but also to provide troops for UN missions. They have been all over the place, to Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and many more. Their strength is mainly made up of their reserve force and therefore there is a much higher ratio of Reservists to Active Service personnel.
Presentations and photos over, we were joined by other embassy staff to lunch, hosted by the Mongolian MOD at a Mongolian restaurant. The speed was amazing with lots of different meats and dumplings, including sheep’s heads complete with eyes!
After lunch we left Ulaanbaatar and headed from the city to its fringes. It was fascinating to see the different styles of architecture, and, apart from the gers, there seemed to be no theme to the building styles. Once out of the city fringes, we headed into the mountains and the scenery was truly spectacular. The MOD had arranged for the engineers to be around in case we got stuck during one of the three river crossings necessary on the route.
The Mongolian Army met us by the side of the road in a rather remarkable four-wheel drive where a herdsman happened to have a bunch of camels, so of course we stopped to have a look. They were beautiful animals with two very tall humps and gloriously thick coats; incredibly healthy-looking animals.