This Sunday marks Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian New Year.  To celebrate, our new friend and rally mechanic adviser, Muugi, from Seattle Mongols put together a traditional wrestling tournament at the nearby Bitter Lake Community Center last weekend.  With a little help from our friend Glenn Bell, we acquired a wrestling mat from a local high school to help Muugi put on the tournament. 

The local Mongolian community turned out to celebrate with traditional music and treats before the tournament began.  Urtaa treated us again by playing some morin khuur before he joined in with the wrestling.  Tom wrestled too, and represented team Baatar Hero well.  He went up against the eventual champion of the day… which means that he did hit the floor, but not before impressing everybody by holding his own for several minutes! Way to go Tom!

We got to meet Urtaa’s family and got a lot of advice on our route from several people… including these kids who thought we were crazy.

Video coming as soon as I rip it from the camcorder.