Tag Archives: Mongol Rally

Don’t spill the milk or walk over the lasso pole

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A Brief Guide to Mongolian ger etiquette….

A typical Mongolian ger

If you’re lucky enough to be packing your bags for Mongolia this summer, the likelihood is you’ll be spending a night or three in a ger, the traditional felt tents of the nation’s nomads. Ah, the magic of sleeping in one of these fabulous constructions, the bittersweet taste of Airag (fermented mare’s milk), the sight of a million glittering stars peering through the ger roof. But beware! Whilst Mongolians are legendarily hospitable, they are also extremely superstitious, and life in the ger is bound in a complex web of beliefs and traditions. So you don’t offend your hosts or the Gods, here are few pointers as to how to successfully navigate your first ger experience.

  • When you first approach the ger, call out “Nokhoi khor” which literally means, “Hold the dog”. This is the Mongolian equivalent of knocking on the door, and will save you being savaged by the resident guard dog.
  • Go to the left hand side of a ger when you enter; the right hand side is the domain of the family.
  • Be respectful - don’t take photos without asking, don’t touch things in the ger and don’t have long conversations in a language your hosts can’t understand.
  • The first thing that will happen is you’ll be offered food and drink, most likely dairy products (dried curds), salty tea or airag. As gastronomically unfamiliar as this may be to you, never refuse. Even if you touch the tea to your lips and take a tiny bite of the curds, do try something as flatly refusing will cause your hosts offence.
  • If you are male, you may well be offered the snuff box by your host. If you want some, empty a little bit onto your hand and inhale. Even if you don’t want the snuff, just say yes and go through the actions of taking and inhaling some. Occasionally, the snuffbox may be empty. In this case, pretend there is some and again, go through the motions of taking some and look appreciative. Snuff boxes are carried by almost all Mongolian men in the countryside.
  • Every ger will have an altar at the back. Don’t sit with your back or feet towards it.
  • If you have sleeves, keep them rolled down so as not to expose your wrists, particularly when shaking hands or taking food or drink. If you have short sleeves, pretend to pull them down as a symbol of respect.
  • Always accept food or drink with your right hand (or with both if the dish or cup is heavy), with the left hand supporting the right elbow.
  • Take off your gloves when shaking hands.
  • Sit cross-legged with your feet underneath you.
  • Leave a small gift, other than money, for your hosts.
  • If you accidentally kick a Mongolian’s feet, immediately shake their hand. This is not refined to gers - you should do this even if you are walking down the street in Ulaanbaatar.
  • When offered some vodka, dip the ring finger of your right hand into the glass, and lightly flick a drop (not too much - vodka is also sacred) once towards the sky (for Tengri, the god of the sky), once in the air (to the wind), and once to the ground, for Gadzer, god of the earth. If you don’t want any vodka, go through the customs anyway, put the same finger to your forehead, say thanks, and return the glass to the table.
  • Don’t lean against a support column or wall of the ger as they represent stability. You might also confuse a column for the stove pipe, which will burn you terribly if you lean on it.
  • Don’t whistle inside a ger.
  • Don’t stand on or lean over the ger threshold.
  • Fire is sacred to Mongolians so don’t throw rubbish or water on it.
  • It’s disrespectful to walk in front of an older person, so try and avoid doing this.
  • Neither touch other people’s hats nor leave your hat on the floor.
  • Every family will have an urga, a long wooden lasso pole. It’s very bad luck to walk over one of these when they are lying on the ground.
  • Milk is also sacred to the Mongols, so endeavour not to spill any.
  • Don’t touch people (including children) on the head or hold their shoulder, it’s believed to take away that person’s good luck.

However, if you do spill milk, walk over an urga and pat the children on the head, your hosts will understand you’re foreign and won’t throw you out in disgust. But a little perceived effort to respect the nomad’s customs will get you a long way and make for an even more fabulous stay on the steppe.

Ants in Mongolia with a camel

This article first appeared on Wanderlust’s Insider’s Secrets blog.


Mayonnaise, pies and other novelty ways to raise buckets of bullion for charity…

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IF YOU’RE PREPARING TO CROSS THE STEPPE ON HORSEBACK OR CONQUER THE OCEAN BY KAYAK, THERE’S NO BETTER TIME TO FUNDRAISE FOR CHARITY. HERE’S HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR ADVENTURE FUNDRAISING EFFORTS…

Kazakhstan 2006, on route to raising £50,000 for mental health charity Mind

Fundraising through the medium of adventure has never been a more competitive business. Not only is the world recovering from an economic downturn, but the recession has fuelled a movement of people who want to escape and do something meaningful with their lives. And whether it’s sledging across the Arctic, cycling over the Himalayas or driving an ambulance to Mongolia, nearly all of them are raising money for worthwhile causes.

In such a climate, how can prospective fundraisers stand out from the clamouring masses?

Choose a cause that you can become an ambassador for

Before you even start fundraising, you need to decide what charity you’re going to support. By choosing something of personal significance, not only will you be more passionate about raising funds—people will be more inclined to donate. In 2009, a team of three recent university graduates raised a whopping $90,000 to participate in The Adventurists Mongol Rally. Their chosen beneficiary was a UK-based multiple sclerosis charity and it was the personal nature of the cause that gave them the drive to raise such an impressive sum. “Our motivation started when my sister was diagnosed two years prior to the event,” says team member Arthur Forbes. “Having such a personal reason to raise the money was a huge incentive to our efforts.”

Once you’ve chosen your charity, find out exactly how they work and how their money is used; the more you know about their projects, the better. And don’t forget that charities are professional fundraisers—if you enlist their expertise, your coffers will fill all the more quickly.

Make it personal

Personalizing your campaign is absolutely key to your success. Cold-calling companies, firing off blanket “Dear All” emails and sending a mass of bland, impersonal letters won’t get you anywhere. Charlotte Davidson, a 26-year-old from London, took part in the Mongol Derby, a gruelling 1,000-kilometre horse race across the Mongolian steppe, in order to raise money for London’s Royal Marsden Cancer Hospital in 2009. Davidson dedicated several days to writing personalized letters to hundreds of people she knew. “I explained what I was doing, why I was doing it and the fact that all of the money raised was going directly to the charity, rather than funding my adventure,” she says. By taking the time to appeal to her friends and acquaintances individually, rather than whipping off a generic email, people had a sense of personal involvement and as a result, she raised an impressive $24,000.

The Mongol Derby (photo courtesy of The Adventurists)

Pull out all the stops

Fundraising is no different from any other sales campaign. Success is directly proportional to the amount of effort put in, and the more innovative your efforts are, the more money you will raise. Sumana Rajarethnam demonstrated this perfectly when he raised $56,000 for Frank Water, a charity that builds safe water supplies for communities in developing countries. Not only was the basic premise of driving a tiny vehicle 5,000 kilometres across India in the Rickshaw Run an attractive fundraising tool, his team also came up with a unique method of netting donations. Disappointed by the lack of response from cold-calling local companies, they instead took their efforts to a grassroots level, baking hundreds of pies and giving them away outside shopping centres. “We didn’t put a price on the pies,” explains Rajarethnam, “we just told people what we were doing, gave them our website and asked them to make a donation for the pie.” Through selling pies alone, the team raised $20,000. Using Facebook and their personal networks, their other stunts included getting people to sponsor them to eat buckets of mayonnaise and tubs of soy sauce.

Tomfoolery on The Rickshaw Run (photo courtesy of The Adventurists)

Harness the power of the media

Local press are always hankering after unusual stories and a strong campaign could rapidly earn you followers, and more importantly, donations. In the same vein, celebrity endorsement will aid and abet your cause. Research which personalities support your cause and write to their agent asking if they will endorse you in some way. This could be anything from a quote for your website to a talk at a charity dinner. British adventurer Alastair Humphreys, who was named one of National Geographic’s Adventurers of the Year 2012, has raised $150,000 through his adventures. However, he doesn’t find the trips themselves the most effective way of raising cash. “Doing big trips is hard because everyone forgets about you when you are away,” he explains. Instead, Humphreys puts on “A Night of Adventure,” a series of events where well-known adventurers and explorers speak about their experiences to a paying audience. Humphreys says that the “star appeal” of these events not only exposes people to charitable causes, but also offers attendees “something decent in return for their money.” And, of course, it doesn’t hurt that the local press always covers the events.

Perseverance pays…

Ultimately, there really is no secret elixir to the art of fundraising. With the right approach, a large dose of gumption and unwavering determination, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to raise buckets of cash for your chosen charity. And don’t forget to thank the people who donate; if it weren’t for their generosity your campaign would never get anywhere.

This article first appeared in Verge Magazine.

The next Night’s of Adventure are Edinburgh (18 June) and London (25 June) - for more info tap your digit here.

How to make a rollickingly good adventure film

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MAKING A FILM about your own adventure has never been so easy. With the size of cameras shrinking daily, editing software so simple your granny could use it, and an ever-multiplying array of video content outlets, the climate is ripe for even the most technophobic adventurer to create their own film.

To avoid your Emmy-winning hopes ending up unwatched and unloved somewhere in the dark recesses of YouTube, have a gander at these 10 simple tips to self-filming.

1. Get the right kit for your environment and familiarize yourself with it before you go. Something small, robust, easily rechargeable, and able to withstand extremes of temperature is ideal.

2. Adventures often take place in remote locations devoid of power sources, so you need to consider how you’re going to charge your kit. In-car power inverters (for vehicle based adventures such as the Mongol Rally) and solar chargers are two options.

Doing The Adventurists Mongol Rally in style

3. Don’t shoot hours and hours of footage. Sixteen hours of fast-moving tarmac isn’t interesting for anyone and when you get home you won’t want to trawl through this to find the only three decent shots.

4. Create a story. A 10-minute film, cut to music, with no dialogue and no engagement with characters, is boring. Create a beginning, a middle and an end and as much as possible use piece to camera dialogue and voice over.

5. Film the bad bits. Jeopardy and adversity are what makes a good story. Film yourself being sick, crying, arguing with your companions…anything with a bit of drama.

6. When doing an interview or shooting something static like a view or a sunrise always use a tripod. If weight is an issue then try the Gorillapod. As well as making a sunrise look fabulous it can also be wrapped round handlebars or strapped to backpacks.

7. Keep it simple — get your subject in the frame, hold shots still, and avoid crash zooming, panning, and tilting. Unless you’re a professional or have a dolly track, anything but a still shot will generally look awful.

8. General views are always useful for editing. Get shots of scenery, clouds, sunsets, people, villages — anything that illustrates your experience and the place you are traveling through.

9. Don’t forget the sound. This is a classic amateur film-makers faux pax and can render even the most beautifully shot film useless. How are you going to record sound? Can you use a radio microphone? How good is your camera’s inbuilt mike? If you’re using something simple like a Flip, with an inbuilt mike make sure you’re out of the wind, in as quiet a location as possible and as close to your subject as possible. If you want broadcast quality sound, be prepared to invest a bit of money in it.

10. Shoot from lots of interesting angles; shoot wide, medium and tight. Get high shots, low shots and panoramic views. This will make for a much more dynamic, visually interesting film once you cut it all together. Whatever angle you are shooting from, though, make sure the camera is as still as possible.

Once you’ve filmed and edited your adventure the next step is finding an outlet for it. Getting broadcast commissions may be harder than crossing the Darien Gap, but there are a growing number of excellent adventure film festivals out there clamoring for quality content.

You never know, you may even win a prize.

Filming the tuk tuk action in Kazakhstan

A version of this article originally appeared in Adventure Journal