Happy Nadaam Everyone! This has been a week of celebrations and resting, friends and good food.

On Wednesday we attended the wedding reception of a good friend’s daughter. The bride was gorgeous, the food delicious, and the vodka flowing.

The wedding party.

We were especially impressed by the numerous, and quite frankly, famous singers on hand to entertain us. The first singer was Hongorzul, Mongolia’s most famous long song singer.

We were also entertained by 3 Butuun, or the Three Fat Guys,

and best of all Lkhagva, the lead singer of Haranga which is one of Mongolia’s oldest and best long haired bands.

This song is Mongolia’s rock anthem and in my opinion a great example of how to incorporate horse races into rock music.

Thanks to free tickets from Brian’s employer we attended the opening ceremony of Nadaam in Ulaanbaatar on Thursday. Even though we have been here for years all of our past Nadaams have been in the countryside or hiding in our apartment and so it was our first chance to go to the big show. We were very impressed by how well organized everything was from the registered food booths to the crossing guards and the cast of 3,000 was impressive.

The most people I have ever seen in one place in Mongolia

Hundreds of dancers.

Hundreds of solders standing in the shape of Mongolia.

Gotta love the tiny riding helmet.

Thanks to a program funded by Oyu Tolgoi, Mongolia’s biggest mine, 8 museums in Ulaanbaatar and Omnogobi were free over the Nadaam holiday. Darkhuu, Handarmaa and I took advantage of this and visited the Bogd Khan Winter Palace yesterday. You can’t take pictures of any of the displays but the outside of the Palace had some lovely paintings and architectural features.

The southern gate.

Door detail.

In between all our activities we have also managed to read,

Reading with cats.

visit world famous dinosaurs,

and eat asparagus. Here’s to vacation time!