Mongolia Road | Looking for the Reindeer Herders: The Soap Opera (Part 1)

Mongolia Road | Looking for the Reindeer Herders: The Soap Opera (Part 1)

As I watched the drama unfold, I noticed a similarity in the miscommunication among our group to that in projects I worked with. We spoke English, used the same vocabulary and agreed to the same thing, yet we wanted completely different things.

Here is a quick summary of the situation. I met a German couple, Andy and Suzi in Kazan, Russia who planned a trip to Mongolia. They had already arranged for a driver, Mendee, a van and a translator/guide, Erdem and had a rough plan to travel for 18 days in the North and Central Mongolia. Their friend, Neil would join later. They needed three more to fill the van, with me, we only needed to find two more. We found the last two one day before the trip, Moran and Asher from Israel. The Israelis wanted to visit the Tsaatan people up the North. Andy and Suzi wanted to visit Lake Khovsgol. From the map, these two locations looked approximately close, thus we agreed on doing both.

Everyone was happy. We met, talked, made plan, made jokes, bought our equipments and began our 18-day trip.

The Tsaatan People

The Tsaatan or reindeer herders came from the Tuva Republic in Russia and settled in Tsagaan Nuur, Khovsgol province. Like the rest of Mongolians, these people lead a nomadic life in the taiga, thick coniferous forest. The Tsaatan, protected by UNESCO, is the most endangered ethnic group in Mongolia. There are only around some hundreds families in Mongolia. Leading a nomadic life is difficult, and it’s even harder for the Tsaatan as they must live in cold area suitable for their reindeers. The temperature can reach -50 C in the winter. Unlike other Mongolian nomads who live in ger, Tsaatan live in tepees which resemble those of native-Americans. The tepee is made of long tree barks. There is usually no bed in the tepee but only skins or waterproof material covering on the ground where the people sleep. The Tsaatan practice shamanism, worship and believe in the spiritual world.

The plan

We spent two days and a half to drive to Moron, the main town and a popular base for further exploration in the the North. But as we got closer to Moron and received more information from local people we realized what we thought “near” perhaps not so near. The shortcut from Khovsgol Lake to Tsagaan Nuur via Renchinlkhunbe was not possible by car, even with a 4WD Russian jeep. And we had a 2WD minivan. That road was only possible on horse. This meant we had to drive directly from Moron, an 15-hour drive to reach Tsagaan Nuur. From there, we would need to arrange for horse-trip to find the Tsaatan people. To make the matter worse, the tourist office told us that the Tsaatan had moved further deep into the taiga, thus it might take more days to find them.

Then the problem between the German and the Israeli camps began. Andy made a quick calculation and insisted the entire trip there and back would take 9 days using the worse-case scenario while Moram said it would ake only 6 days using the best-case scenario. He threw in other conditions like weather condition up in the mountain, road condition, etc to object the plan to go further. Both Andy and Suzi didn’t want spend more time there and rushed in Central Mongolia. The other German, Neil wanted immediate break after 2 days of driving and refused to drive more than 6, 7 hours a day. The Israelis, Moram and Asher came with us only for the trip to find the Tsaatan. I was in the middle and open to both.

Only then we realized what we agreed or thought we agreed in the beginning was complete different.

Miscommunication

They said
Germans: We want to see Central Mongolia.
Israelis: We want to see Central Mongolia too.

They meant:

Germans: We want to take time to stop, camp, hike and spent a couple days when we find something nice.
Israelis: We can stop for a couple of hours, taking picture, leave and drive further.

They said:
Israelis: We wanted to go to the North and look for the reindeer people.
Germans: Yes sure, it’s interesting, we wanted to do this too.

They meant:
Israelis: This is the only thing we’re interested in. We want to find these people no matter what, regardless of the situation.
Germans: We want to see them, but it isn’t our main priority nor only objective. If the situation changes, we have to change our plan.

They argued
Israelis: We don’t care about other places, we do what you want, we only want to do one thing which is finding the Tsaatan.
Germans: But to do your one thing, we have to cancel the rest of our trip and just drive to the North and look for them.
Israelis: You ask us to cancel our only thing while you can’t just give up any of your 8 things?
Germans: But these things are our trip.

Proposed solution
1)Drive to Khatgal, the entrance city at the lake and stay there 2 days. Return to Moron and drive to Tsagaan Nuur.
2)Drive to Tsagaan Nuur, look for the Tsaatan people and return to Moron in 6 days.
3)Drive to Khatgal. Split the group. The Germans, with the guide Erdem, take a 5-day horse trekking to Renchinlkhunbe. The Israelis take the car and the driver Mendee to Tsagaan Nuur.
4)Drive to Tsaagan Nuur, split the group. The Germans stay at the lake while the Israelis and I look for the Tsaatan people.
5)Split at Moron to two direction and meet back in 6, maximum 7 days in Moron.

Constraints:
1)We have 18 days for the trip. (time)
2)Shortcut between Lake Khovsgol and Tsagaan Nuur is impossible by vehicle. (road condition)
3)Drive from Moron to Tsaagaaan Nuur takes 15 hours with 4-wheel or Russian jeep. We have 2-wheel van (road condition, material and time)
4)It is much colder in the mountain and all of us prepare only for summer (weather, human)
5)The Tsaatan people have moved further into the taiga which requires more time to find them (nature)
6)Neil doesn’t want to drive more than 6 hours per day (human)
7)Andy and Suzi don’t want to rush later in Central Mongolia (human)

We didn’t make a bullet point list of daily activities what to do and where to go leaving it for improvisation and revision after feedback from everyone. It would have been possible if not for the two external factors we didn’t know before hand: road and the weather conditions. Two groups have entirely different ideas how they wanted to spend their holiday. We couldn’t find a common ground without one group sacrificing their interests.

How can we compromise when we were both fixed on their original objective and neither wanted to yield. No way we can reach a solution when we used strong, permanent words like (1) our entire trip and (2) the only thing we wanted to see.

The final decision from the Germans was to split the group permanently. The Israelis saw it as they were being kicked off the group. The Germans went on with their original plan while the Israelis would find a shared taxi to Tsagaan Nuur.

Prior to the split, there was a lot of arguments in the Gan Oyu guesthouse and the tourist office in Moron, but we still kept in civilized. We even had our last civil lunch for fifteen minutes. A verbal fight erupted between Moram and the Germans. We moved outside for another shouting match. The girls were shouting, hand on the hips and pointed fingers. It was hilarious and sad at the same time. I knew then I had to say good-bye to someone.

Lessons learned

I see it as another lesson learned that I can use in the future to accomplish any objective in group with diverse backgrounds. It can be applied to any work project. There is a clear objective of what we need to do, how to execute the plan within all the constraints: time, money, materials, etc.

Traveling with people you know is completely different from traveling with strangers. What friends might compromise, others might not.

…until part 2….