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¡ß I went nearly to fighting with a native Mongolian who owns Russia-made jeep.

The Nadam Festival, one of the most important traditional events in Mongolia, is nowadays held for tourists in the large plaine in Undrdove, two hours' ride north of Ulanbator.
Though a down-scaled event was specially held just for the visiting tourists on that day, the Mongolian grassland covered with 10 cm high plants from the Nadam camp to the nearby hills was so big that I wished I had brought my Galloper jeep with me.
[ * The portrait of Chingis Khan is seem on a bottle`s brand of Mongolia Vodka .]

I also thought how nice it would be if the Korean peninsula were reunified, so I were able to drive my own vehicle to here from my home by land (it is much easier to come to Mongolia from North Korea by land than from the South via the sea).
...Some smoke rising above from chimneys of tops of a few gels at the foot of a far away hill attempte me to rush toward them immediately.
Suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by a crowd of about 200 Mongolian horse riders comprising olds and youngs, men and women, and small boys and girls.
They seemed to come forward from nowhere.
[ * The young horseman (children) are riding skillfully at the horse race during the Nadam festival.]
They rode toward us slowly in various groups such as a family or a tribe from nowhere, soon forming an army of Mongolian horseriders.
I wondered where they came from because I could hardly see anything but a few gels scattered far away along the small foothills rising at the end of the big grassland.
...The great army gathered around us reminded me of the one of Chinggis Khan which might have rallied around him from everywhere in the great Mongolian steppe.
I thought the source of the power that conqured more than half of the world at that time was like this gathering of the army from every coner of the Mongolia.
Together with about 100 onlookers consisting of the visiting Korean and Japanese tourist groups, the Mongolian horseriders formed a large crowd in the central part of the great plain as if it were a large market place.
In the prelude, 30 young boys and girls in various costumes and caps rode around us making a circle.
They formed five or six groups, each of which had 5 or six members.
After that there were three games of wrestling, riding and shooting with bows and arrows.
The unique costumes of small children and girls draw our attentions.
Mongolia is well known for its sunset, rainbow and stars in the night sky, which I wanted to take some pictures of.
But on that day I decided to engage myself in focusing on human creatures instead, because it was cloudy and rainy.
After the Naadam festivities, we enjoyed barbecue of lamb roast for lunch.
Until this time, I could hardly resist my desire to run over the big Mongolian grassland, when I saw an old Russian jeep standing in my neighborhood.
I cried out with joy in mind.
I walked over to the driver on the jeep and asked him, with gestures using my hands and feet, if he could kindly give me an opportunity to drive his jeep for a while.
I told him that I was very anxious to drive a little around there, showning him my (domestic) driver's license.
He gladly offered me with the driver's seat, moving himself to the side seat, so I seated myself behind the wheel.
The vehicle was so old that I had to press a small button in order to start.
All of the gauages in the car did not seemed to be in order. [ * The Mongolian 'ma-yu-ju' (korean language, lit, wine made from male`s milk), which is similar to Korean strong rice wine, tasted too sour for me to drink.]

However, starting was unexpectedly very easy, and the engine sounded soft and good.
I got embarrassed at the gear stick with no directions for gear-levels before the Mongolian owner helped me change the levels himself one by one according to my shouting, ``One'' by which I meant the first level, ``two'', and so on.
Eventually I was able to drive around the plain, horning sometimes with a lever gripped.
Despite its hard seat, which seems to be due to its bad spring, the vehicle rolled well toward the field.
As almost foreign tourists and Mongolian riders had gone after the festival event, there were scarce people left on the plain ground.
So it was great fun for me to drive over the big grassland.
I enjoyed the driving much. But suddenly I realized it was time to return when I drove for 500 meters forward.
I stopped and tried to give the car owner a tip or a rent-a-car fee, saying to him, ``Many thanks.''
Remembering our tourist guide's warning, ``Be careful not to show them your wallet or purse full of money,''
I turned back to pick a 1-dollar bill out of my wallet.
I used to tip a dollar to horse owners after riding their horses.
In order to hand over a dollar to him, I turned toward him again, but there stood another sturdy big Mongolian man, who faced me to receive my money instead of the car owner, insisting 10 US dollars.
Before I came here to Mongolia, just the word ``Mongolian'' has reminded me of Chinggis Khan the Conqueror, whom all Mongolians may look like -- mighty, strong, sturdy and tall. However, most Mongolians I have seen here are not so big or mighty.
In fact, they look like Koreans, not so big, not so tall, not so mighty as I had imagined.
But, now, this guy in his early 40's was so big, tall, sturdy, and strong even with a forcefull face that it seemed to me as if he were a real descent from Chinggis Khan.
I was so intimidated by him that I might have given him 10 dollars or even 20 dollars.
However, I, not only brave and courageous but also tall as much as he, could not forgive his rudeness and unfair request.
Perceiving that my friends and fellow tourists were watching me, their Don Qhixote, and a hostile Mongolian fighting, I decided to oppose him.
30 to 40 people began to gather around us to see this international fighting.
Under the circumstance, I thought it would be disadvantageous to me, a foreigner,to stand before the police someone might call if we should make more troubles.
So I thought I'd better compromise with him. I handed out 2 dollars, which he threw out on the ground.
I got so much angry that I stepped close to him with face to face and started to curse him with my eyes as wide as possible in fighting gesture.
[ * It seemed to me that this old man may be pressed with the sight of Korean tourists, who might have reminded him of the glorious olden times when his ancestors had conquered and ruled Korea long, long time ago..]
I tried to say to him, ``It charges just a dollar to ride on a taxi around the whole city of Ulanbator.
How dare you charge me 10 dollars for such a short ride.''
But it was only in gesture because I can't speak Mongolian and he may understand neither English nor Korean. But I added loudly in Korean, ``What a thief you are!''
Frightened at my words and fearing we were going to fight with fists shortly, on lookers started to step backward.
Even Miss Sergey, a local tourist guide, who was usually kindness itself, got embarrassed, and her face told about troubles.
At that moment, a couple of Mongolians interfered with us and tried to tease him to stop the trouble-making.
They seemed to be from the host committee of that day's event.
Making use of this moment, I picked up the two dollars dropped on the ground and put them into a pocket of one arbitrator who seemed to be a good man.
And then I left the place immediately to avoid any more trouble.
Later, I heard they made fierce quarrel between them.
[ * The portrait of Chingis Khan, the Great Conqueror, on the front side of a Mongolian bill equivalent to US$ 2.00. His large-scale carriage shown on the back of the bill seemed to be magnificent and outstanding.]
On my way to hotel by bus, I thought he might be a local influential man. which is proved by the fact that he has his own car in a remote countryside where few transportation means are available except horses.
I felt sorry for my behavior and wanted to go back to him to make reconciliation with him.
But I didn't. I thought I was able to avenge my forefathers who served for the Koryo Kingdom but fell to the Mongolian rule.
Mongolians had ruled the kingdom for more than a century in the 13th century.
¡Ú Epilogue: The Mongolian tourist guide Mr. Barker's real name is Badilaah.
He was born to school teacher parents (both parents were school teachers) in a small town near to the border with the former U.S.S.R., 1,200 kilometers north of Ulanbator.
He was their eldest son. He is now a student at Ulanbator National University majoring in the Korean language.
During the lunar New Year holidays next year, he visited Seoul at the invitation of a Korean businessman.
He stayed at a hotel in downtown Seoul, located not so far from my apartment in Pundang, Sungnam City on the outskirts of Seoul.
During his stay in Korea for a month, he spent one night with me at my house, enjoying Korean traditional food and fruits.
By the way, my family were surprised at his misunderstanding on the Korean War (1950-1953).
He was thinking that the South had started the war by invading the North first, which is not true.
It was the North side which broke out the war by crossing the border to attack the South.
I still wonder how he had wrong idea about the war although he was a major in Korea and shared his room in Ulanbator with a Korean exchanging professor from Dankook University in Seoul.(end)