First acquaintance with Mongolia & my hostfamily

It was a great experience to stay with Begz family, my hostfamily in Ulaanbaatar. They live in 2 gers (yurts) in the suburbs of the city, called gerdistricts.
When I arrived in Ulaanbaatar, I was really surprised about what I came across: an enormous trafficjam from the airport untill the citycenter, a higher concentration of big, expensive 4x4 than I have ever seen anywhere, lots of fashionable young women (the youngest in extreme miniskirts and hotpants), cool guys with dark sunglasses even in the rain, drunkards laying along the street and no one who cares, elderly dressed in beautiful traditional clothing seeming to be totally out of place, huge modern buildings, unpaved roads with wholes, missing manhole covers and puddles, Hummers decorated for weddings, a horseman on the doorstep, a shoppingmall consisting of 6 floors that would fit without any doubts in any big European city concerning the supply, elderly begging along the streets, KFC and Pizzahut ...
How I could ever get behind this coulisses? How to find real Mongolian life?
... The few days with Begz and his family did offer me a first glimpse into this other reality. He lives with his wife and 4 childeren in one of the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, called 'gerdistricts', as they exist largely of traditional gers (yurts). In Mongolia there exists no land ownership. So people can pick a piece of land, put a fence around and build up their ger or barn. It's just now that the local government is introducing rules to get the enormous expansion of the city somehow manageable. Although the gerdisctricts are connected to the city electricity network they have limited watersupply (only distributionpoints) and no acces to the sewerage at all.
I followed the 'photostory' that I got by mail to find Begz's ger as the system of numbering the chaotic-looking gerdisctricts is incomprehensible for a foreigner.
Begz's ger is situated on one of the hills overlooking the modern city. In the territorry there is a big ger (living place, kitchen and sleepingplace for parents & guests), a small ger (bedroom for the children) and a wooden barn (former livingplace, now storage). Begz owns 6 cows, a bull and 4 calfs. He and his wife Sayumbo have got 4 children: one boy, Todo (14) and 3 girls: Manujun (12), Gadma (8) and Munglun (7). The 3 days I stayed with them I could get a glimbse of what the (suburban) Mongolian life is like. I did go to bring and get the 'baby-cows' to the 'mountains' which is one of the tasks of the 2 youngest, I assisted and observed Manunjun with her household chores among which making daily different kind of dairyproducts, I enjoyed the wonderful musicperformances of Todo as well as the lovely food that Sayumbo made, I played different games with the little girls, I collected and cover dry cowshit (= fuel for the stove) in the middle of the night when suddenly rain is coming, I discussed many interesting subjects with Begz and I met many interesting people ... It was a lovely experience! I hope to come back in between of in the end of my trips through the country!
Today I left them to travel to the North (Dharkad depression and Khovsgol lake) to visit the Tsaatan people (reindeer nomads) in the taiga. I found 2 French guys who want to join me, so we can share the price for the trip. I'm looking forward to travel to the countryside!
Before leaving I had the opportunity to join some readings in an international conference about sustainable diets - human nutrition and livestock. It was not so much the subject itself than more the chance to get in contact with interesting people for my reportage. I was introduced by Phyong, a Vietnamese journalist working for the UN, who attends the symposium.
The next 2-3 weeks I will be out of reach of internet and probably mobile. So you will hear from me when I'm back from my Taiga-adventure (on horseback!).
... still no photographs yet, guys, sorry! ....