Departures (2008–…): Season 2, Episode 6 - Mongolia: Tribes and Tribulations - full transcript

(projector clicks)

(soft music)

- [Scott] Mongolia is a country

that we know very little about.

It takes up a huge amount
of space on the map

but it seems to avoid the news headlines.

- [Justin] We planned a
couple of really epic trips,

and the first is going up
to see this reindeer tribe.

- [Scott] We wanna learn
about the nomadic way of life.

We wanna see Mongolia's extremes

but sometimes just
getting to the destination



is the adventure.

(soft music)

- [Scott] After traveling
the world for a year,

Justin and I, we were charged
with a whole new energy.

- [Justin] As I got further
away from my old life,

I started to realize that
this is where I need to be.

This is now my lifestyle.

(soft music)

- [Scott] One day I hope to
say that I've seen the world

but that day is not here yet.

(upbeat music)

(soft music)

- [Justin] On the way to Mongolia,

we had some airline issues



which put me and Dre on a
different flight with Scott.

Andre and I are stuck in this airport

because of the weather,

and God knows where Scott is right now.

- I am currently stuck in Seoul, Korea.

Justin and Andre are now
more than a day ahead of me.

- [Justin] I'm behind some coffee stand

and this is where I'm sleeping.

- The most frustrating
thing is having a layover

that's four or five hours long,

not long enough to go out and do anything

or see a bit of the city or the country.

(soft music)

- Cappuccino, large.

Can I get caramel on it?

- [Barista] Yeah.

- Caramel.

- Hopefully, after all of
these connections and delays

and flight cancellations,

here's hoping my bag
shows up on the other end.

- This is what happens

when Scott doesn't organize our flight.

We could get these in
some like five star resort

and sleeping somewhere nice and peaceful.

(upbeat music)

(soft music)

I'm in the city of Ulaanbaatar

and right now I'm one person short,

Scott is on his way.

It's just a matter of time

before I meet up with
him in the major square.

(soft music)

You can definitely tell that
there is a Russian influence

but they kind of came
together there for awhile,

the Mongolians and the
Russians during World War II,

and that's what this monument is for.

Mongolia is known for nomadic people,

people that are always on the go

and that's pretty much summing up my life

over the last year and a half.

We're trying to get out and
experience that firsthand,

and we have a couple bigger treks

instead of these smaller adventures,

we're going to some rally big adventures.

(upbeat music)

There's warlock.

Warlock!

- So you're in Mongolia,

and I'm in Mongolia.

Guess it's that's all that matters.

- 60 hours in transit.

- Remember Cook Islands?

- [Justin] Yeah.

- Yeah, no bag,

somewhere between San
Francisco or Seoul, Korea.

The journey wears you down.

Getting separated,

having to travel by
yourself wears you down

and then to show up on the other end

and the only things that you own,

the only things that
give you a home are lost.

I now have only the clothes I'm wearing,

so no change of underwear,

no socks, no warmer clothes,

no cooler clothes, no tent,

no ground mat, no sleeping bag.

- Looks like you'll be
living out of our packs.

You can use everything
except underwear, dude.

That's personal space.

I'm glad you didn't lose the other camera.

That's a good thing.

As soon as we ever part
ways, things go awry.

- [Scott] Yeah.

- I think it's just best

that we never leave
each other's sight ever.

- Anyway, Mongolia.

- I guess this is parliament or something.

That thing says Genghis Khan.

It's not, that's not how you pronounce it.

Genghis Khan.

Everybody calls it Genghis Kahn, it's not.

That's a North American,
you screwed it all up.

We'll pronounce it the
way we wanna pronounce it.

- [Scott] Yeah.

- Mumbai, we'll pronounce it Mumbai.

It's not Mumbai.

What is it again?

- Mumbai.

- I'm that typical guy (laughs).

- [Scott] We're going to Mörön,

and it's only about an
hour and a half flight

and this'll take us
right out into nothing.

A lot of Mongolia is nothing.

I'll pick up Scott's
spirits once we get there.

(upbeat music)

- [Scott] So begins the great nowhere.

You feel like kind of
flying over the Arctic

or the Antarctic or something.

It's vast empty space everywhere.

There's no telephone poles.

There's no roads.

There's no anything.

(upbeat music)

We're pretty much perched
at the edge of civilization,

and this is our last
stop to pick up water,

to pick up a few limited supplies

and for us to be able to hire a vehicle

and a driver and a guide to
get out into the real Mongolia.

(soft music)

I get to live the next week of my life

as a true Mongolian nomad.

I'll borrow some clothes from Justin,

and we'll figure out
the rest along the way.

And we just need some,
buy some warm layers

and a place to sleep every night.

(soft music)

Beep beep.

Beep beep.

(child laughs)

Wanna race?

Can I see?

Ready?

(soft music)

Okay, you know what?

You're much more in shape than I am,

so good work.

Beep beep.

(soft music)

This is Sarah

and Sarah is our passport into
the real Mongolia, all right.

- Yes, hi.

(Scott laughs)

- [Andre] Is that closed?

- It's Soviet closed.

(upbeat music)

- [Scott] We've got
about three hours or so

we're gonna going to put in

on some pretty sketchy roads this evening

to get to this first base camp.

(soft music)

We've arrived at our first camp.

I'd like to see that?

- Trust me, it's cold.

(country music)

- We drove this far out,

I just had expected it to be like,

okay, here's your slab of wood.

This is like a hotel room.

- You look like a Jedi.

Do I look like a Jedi?

- [Scott] Yeah.

- Is that the nomads you're looking for?

So they're gonna, 'cause their nomad,

they're gonna move all
this to our next campsite,

this whole building, right?

That's what I'm assuming.

- [Andre] Yeah.

- Make it happen.

(upbeat music)

(soft music)

- The sun's up now and it's
time to hit the road again,

and this is about as far as
most tourists end up coming

is the edge of the lake here.

It's gonna be at least
a 12 hour drive today

to get to the spot where
we even pick up our horses

and get going.

We wanna go out and see the
actual reindeer herding people

which don't live near the lake.

They live out further, a lot further.

- You covered everything.

I got nothing to say.

(mumbles)

(laughs)

Why don't you tell me what
you had for breakfast?

- I had a sausage and I had.

- [Andre] That's compelling television.

(laughs)

- We do need some supplies

before we go any further than this place.

The next little town is just
a little bit further down.

The first stage we're gonna
give a few helping hands,

so we're gonna give a few free rides.

(child giggles)

(child singing)

♪ Pull, pull, clap, clap, clap ♪

♪ Point to the (indistinct) ♪

♪ Point to the floor ♪

♪ Point to the window ♪

♪ Point to the door ♪

♪ Clap your hands together 1,2,3 ♪

♪ Put your hands down on your knee ♪

- Yay!

(claps)

Well done.

- We made it to the final outpost here.

It's called (speaking Mongolian),

and we need a bunch of stuff.

Scott needs everything
when it comes down to it.

The lady that we gave a ride to,

she said that we could
borrow some stuff for Scott,

so he's picking up a tent, a
sleeping bag and a ground mat.

- Oh, thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

You have no idea how
much this means to me.

I'm all set now.

- This is definitely the biggest trek

we've gone on all year.

Here's the city,

here's where we're going.

We're going here then going here

and then taking horses,

and then we're going away over here.

- We're at the only local market

and the last chance to get anything,

so we have some essentials.

Not an essential.

We need to get matches.

We need to get vodka,

and what else do we need to get?

- Pointed hats.
- Some food.

- Pointed hats.

- That is pretty good.

(upbeat music)

Some toilet paper.

How many do we need?

A week's worth.

- A week's worth.

I'll take a roll.

- Yeah, I'll take a roll.

Do you want a roll?

- [Andre] For two.

- No hole, see that, more toilet paper.

Genius.

- Can we get the blocks of chocolate pies.

Okay, some chocolate pies.

- Dust them off.

- [Scott] Genghis vodka,

I assume that this is Mongolian vodka.

- [Sarah] Yeah, Mongolian vodka.

- [Justin] Is it the best vodka?

- The best one.

- [Andre] Put me down for two.

- You want a bottle?

- [Andre] Yeah.

(soft music)

(screeching)

- I'm just annoying everybody.

I'm annoying everybody.

(screeching)

Tell her I'll take a dozen of these.

(soft music)

- This is yak and this is sheep.

Okay.

- How much for the horsewhip?

- 10.

(soft music)

(Justin laughs)

- She thinks it's funny.

I bought this unique
looking whip for the horse,

and it's made out of a leg
of a deer or something.

I give a one deer leg up.

- All right, I gotta pick this up

'cause I'm probably gonna need it.

- I bought the last whip.

- We've pretty much got all
the supplies we need now

including a nice new pair
of horse riding boots.

Justin's got himself a pair as well.

Andre's got himself a pair.

We're all set.

Unlike my hiking boots,

these have almost no tread at all,

so if you get in trouble,

especially for rookie riders like us,

you're just gonna slide into the stirrups.

You're not gonna get caught
up in them and snap an ankle

or get dragged behind a
horse for three miles.

(soft music)

- Mongolia,

I didn't think in a million
years would look like this.

I don't know if it was
every atlas I've ever owned

or every map I've ever owned,

but Mongolia is always brown.

It's just this brown chunk
of land in the middle of,

pinned between Russia and China,

and to come here and see how green it is,

it's completely different

than anything I could ever imagine.

- The people here and their faces,

they very much look like the
Inuit of Northern Canada.

You really start to
put the pieces together

of how that history happened

and how they would have
come across a land bridge

across the Bering Sea
and the Bering Strait

and into North America.

- Who is this?

- This is a camera man, Andre.

We go all around the world and
we film people, everything.

- Why?

(speaking in Mongolian)

Smile.

- Why smiling?

Whenever he smiles, it
means I'm doing a good job.

Do you wanna say something to the world?

(chuckles)

Now, you know how hard my job is.

How do you say thank you in Mongolian?

(speaking Mongolian)

- How do you say thank you in Canada?

- Thank you.

- Oh, thank you.

(speaking Mongolian)

- [Scott] It's such an ordeal

just trying to count this money

'cause it's in such enormous denominations

like you're paying $50,000
for some groceries.

Five.

(exclaims)

- He's gonna move now.

- Justin, you owe me a hundred.

(soft music)

- Just add a bit of water to the rad.

So many of the places we've traveled to,

we just noticed how wasteful
we are at home with cars.

Everybody gets a new car
every like four years.

It's like, ah, lease is up.

Trade it and get another one, junk it.

And everywhere else we go in the world,

people just seem to run
their cars into the ground

because a car is such
an enormous investment.

On the road again.

(soft music)

- Yeah, van keeps on overheating.

It's pretty hot out during the day,

and hopefully we can make
it to our destination

- Once the sun sets, I don't
think we'll have much problem.

(soft music)

We stopped just to get more
water out of a nearby stream

in order to feed the rad.

(soft music)

(lively music)

I've been on some tough
roads throughout our travels

but this has got to be among the worst.

They aren't even really roads.

They're just sort of two track cow pads.

You're doing nothing all day

except looking at beautiful scenery

through the window of a van

and getting bounced around and car sick

and getting gas fumes,

and it's tough.

(soft music)

We've just come to one of a couple

of different river crossings on our drive.

This one in particular is tricky

because you come to the
bridge that's been blocked off

and there's a guy who lives nearby here

who built the bridge himself,

and he operates it as a toll bridge,

so you have to pay him 5,000 Tughrik

and then he'll come and unlock it.

I don't think he was
too pleased in the fact

that we're coming through here
at like two in the morning,

but if you wanna build a toll bridge,

you gotta pay your own
toll of having to come out

and unlock it anytime
somebody comes through.

(soft music)

- Made it to base camp two,

it's like 3:30, 4 in the morning,

and we gotta get up early.

- From here, we'll get on
horseback in a few hours

and head further into region.

(soft music)

Oh my god.

- Ow!

- It's like sleeping on the boards.

(chuckles)

That's not good for the back.

(soft music)

(upbeat music)

- [Justin] You guys head bangers?

You wanna go see the (indistinct)?

These heads will fall off.

You need a shirt today, ay?

- Rock and roll.

- He's all rock and roll

now that he's got Justin
Lukach's clothing.

It's all about the shirt.

It's the shirt that makes
the man, am I correct?

(laughs)

Barely.

I guess not.

- Guess not.

Oh yeah, but he agrees.

(upbeat music)

We're heading over to a small camp

where we're gonna load up with our horses

and head out finally for the last stretch,

which should still take us
about a day and a half or so

of horseback riding,

but to get there, we've
gotta cross this river,

so we gotta put the van

on a bit of a makeshift ferry boat here.

(upbeat music)

(lively music)

- [Scott] This is the end of the road.

This is where we'll leave the van behind

and switch to horseback

for about another day to day and a half,

so you're talking remote,

this is remote.

- When our horses pulled up,

we looked at both of them

and this horse right here looks like Slash

'cause you can't even see his eyes

and then Scott pointed
out the one behind him

looks like Billy Ray
'cause he's got a mullet,

business in the front, party in the back.

So I'm taking slash and
Scott's taking Billy Ray Cyrus.

(upbeat music)

- Horses are all packed up.

We will hopefully soon to be on our way.

We'll put in as many hours as we can today

until the sun goes down.

We've been lucky enough to connect

with one of the last 44 remaining Tsaatan

or reindeer herding families,

and we're gonna travel with them

for the next two days by horseback

to get to their summer camp

at the edge of the
Russian-Mongolian border.

(upbeat music)

Oh man.

(upbeat music)

Got my horse here, Slash.

Easy, buddy.

I'm not gonna let anybody
touch your hair, man.

I know it's like, you don't
want anybody touch it, okay.

It's crazy.

You wanna take a look at my saddle?

Slash, show him.

(laughs)

Ow! There's nothing.

- Billy Ray and I are ready to head out.

He's a little bit country,
a little bit rock and roll.

(soft music)

- Stop chewing on that.

(soft music)

Stop.

(soft music)

(upbeat music)

(laughs)

(mumbles)

(laughs)

He's provoking me.

(soft music)

(horse neighs)

(soft music)

Easy.

You're not easy to control.

He's wow.

(horse neighs)

(soft music)

- [Scott] Seeing a country on the ground

is by far the best way to see it

and getting outside of the
vehicle and getting onto a horse,

you step it up yet again.

(soft music)

(lively music)

(horse neighs)

- Yeah.

Eat grass, no.

Grass!

I think this is as far as we're
gonna make it for tonight.

The sun had set about half an hour ago,

so we decided to stop by this water here

so the horses can get something to drink.

I just can't get over
how much of a journey

it's been so far,

but I've got a tent so
I'm not complaining.

(soft music)

(upbeat music)

I woke up this morning,

and with all my
sophisticated campaign gear,

and sleeping bags and all that stuff.

I slept pretty good,

but when I came out here,

I noticed everybody here,

all the guys that were riding horses

were just like on mats on the ground,

and that's it.

No sleeping bag, no tent,

just the blankets that are on the horses,

that's all they had.

These horses must see people like us

that come up here and
be like, oh, here we go.

We carry about 700 pounds
of just useless crap.

(horse neighs)

(soft music)

(horse neighs)

The final stretch,

and then I can relax and you can relax.

- We're just coming into the last valley.

and I can finally see the camp.

It's a pretty fantastic site

'cause it's been four days in the making.

This is the final ride.

(upbeat music)

- [Scott] The horse ride was something

that I was a bit concerned about early on.

I don't have a ton of riding experience,

but it was more the amount of time,

the number of hours that
we were gonna be spending

on a horse.

It wasn't as bad as I thought

(upbeat music)

(soft music)

- We have made it.

- I had expected to see the gurs,

the round style tents
that we've seen a lot of

but here it's basically like
North American style teepees.

They're smaller but they're
gonna be a lot warmer at night,

and I'm really looking
forward to one of these

versus our tent,

(horse neighs)

but right now I'm just
happy I'm off the horse.

(soft music)

No, this isn't Santa's village.

This is the first time I've
ever seen real reindeer.

The reason that they
have them in this area

and the reason that they
stay out in these areas

is because the lichen and the moss

and stuff that they eat
is prime right here,

the valley of the mountain,

so that's why we had to
trek so far to get here,

and that's why this particular
group of nomadic people

are so unique.

Is there like a particular
side we should stay on?

- This teepee is yours.

- And so it doesn't matter.

- Doesn't matter.

- But if we were to
stay in another teepee?

- In another teepee, you should
stay this side, left side.

- When you come in the door,

the left side is for the guests.

- [Sarah] Guests, yes.

- We're gonna go meet the hosts,

the actual Tsaatan family that lives here.

Thank you.

(speaking Mongolian)

You should say, it means hi.

(speaking Mongolian)

- Is this milk?

- Reindeer's milk tea.

- [Sarah] This is reindeer's butter.

- Reindeer butter?

Wow.

- Like a cream.

- Okay.

Not to be disrespectful,

but stuff like this, is this
why we brought the vodka

just in case it doesn't
agree with our stomach,

is that right?

Okay.

All right.

- This even bothers your
stomach when you eat it,

you said right?.

- [Sarah] Yes.

- And you're used to eating it.

- It's like a cheese more
than a butter, isn't it?

- Yeah, it tastes like cheese.

(upbeat music)

- I rolled into the camp

and the first thing I
thought was, okay, what now?

What should I do

and where do we have to go?

And should I be stocking up on this supply

or where does the horse go or whatever?

There's always been a goal,

and there's always been keep
going for the last four days.

Now that we're here,
it feels like now what?

And the reality is this is what we wanted.

We're here.

Relax, enjoy it.

Soak it in.

We'll spend the next few days living life

the way the Tsaatan people do.

(upbeat music)

(soft music)

These reindeer aren't
just for milk and meat,

they're actually used for
practical purposes too.

Apparently we're in need of more firewood

for tonight for the
wood stoves and things,

so we're actually gonna
saddle up on a reindeer

and give 'em a hand.

- Whatever we can do to help
the family out, we're going to.

We have reindeers making eggnog.

- When you get on the reindeer,
you don't use a strip,

only you like jump it.

- Okay.

- [Sarah] Softly jump it.

(speaking Mongolian)

- I understood what he said,

he said once that reindeer
fly over that mountain,

I think that's what he said.

- No.

If this man ride reindeers,

it is possible to reach
high mountains top.

- [Justin] Oh, okay.

(soft music)

Attempt number two.

(soft music)

Not like the horse at all.

(laughs)

(upbeat music)

(mumbles)

- Don't you watch the
Christmas shows, dude?

You gotta call 'em by their name.

Dancer,

Prancer,

Stripper,

Lancer,

Turbo,

Viper,

Oprah.

(laughs)

And you wanna to be a pilot?

- Well, see if it was a
flying reindeer, no problem.

(upbeat music)

Oh god.

Please, Joe.

That is a hell of a lot more
difficult than it looks.

- Thought you'd go in the
water there for a second.

- So did I.

I thought I was going
straight in to drink.

Thing is, is like they ride them

from camp up into the woods here.

It's not like they use them

in place of horses for transportation.

They'll use the saddles more
to strap the wood to them

and use them as cargo carriers
to bring the wood back.

(soft music)

Cool thing is, all this wood is dead wood.

It's like fallen wood.

They must come into the woods

and you can see here,

they've taken the Deadwood
that's been laying on the ground

and leaned it up against
the tree so it can dry out,

and then they come back
to salvage it later.

(upbeat music)

After just being in Cuba

and having some of the
finest cigars in the world,

I'm now trying this Mongolian cigarette.

They just take old newspaper

and they roll some tobacco inside

and it's really harsh
which isn't a surprise

because there's absolutely no filter,

and I'm smoking newspaper ink.

I don't even know how you smoke this.

This is ridiculous.

Okay, I'm spilling all over myself.

This is a mess.

(laughs)

This is falling at the end.

Oh, this is a waste.

I've totally screwed it up

but it's probably for the best

'cause smoking as I've
heard is bad for you

and smoking newspaper
is probably no better.

(soft music)

- [Justin] It was such a struggle

to come all the way out here.

You say to yourself, is it
worth it doing all that?

And when you have that moment

where you're coming down

and you got a reindeer beside
you and you're pulling logs

and the sun is setting
right on your teepee,

and you're like that's where
I'm gonna be staying tonight.

Yeah, then it's totally worth it.

(soft music)

- [Scott] Felling trees

and bringing back firewood with reindeer,

that's pretty wild.

- Even if we left right now,

I'd be completely satisfied

and like that, I had my moment.

- Absolutely agree.

- And there's like a couple more days left

(soft music)

We just did Cuba

where Cuba was just kind of
like going back 50, 60 years,

and this is like going
back like 160 years.

It's been like 12 hours on these horses,

and my body is just sore,

like if I take off my pants right now,

I have bruises where I didn't think

I could possibly get bruises,

and I am chaffed in spots

where I hope I never
get chaffed ever again.

I feel bad for Scott

'cause he's still toughing it right now,

and I'm trying to give him what I can.

He's looking good though.

You gotta admit, he looks good.

(soft music)

(upbeat music)

- [Scott] We were just standing here.

- [Justin] We were just standing here

just minding our business.

- And all of a sudden,

these two kids that are
like from my knee down,

come along and start stacking wood,

and I'm like, oh, that's nice.

They're helping mom out.

And they start stacking
the wood into our teepee

for our wood-burning stove tonight.

- Good thing, I brought chocolate bars.

Chocolate?

Here you go, Snickers.

Chocolate bar?

(laughs)

He's so cute.

(child mumbles)

He's like, I'm out of here.

Look at him run, dude,
you gotta watch him run.

(Justin laughs)

Look how much wood they stacked.

That's enough to last through the winter.

And now we gotta have a fire.

I feel bad if we don't.

- Oh, I'm having a fire.

(soft music)

(lively music)

Just woke up and I'm getting
the fire going again.

I tried to keep it going as
much as I could last night.

(soft music)

It's kind of surreal to just wake up

and look out your door and
see reindeer running past.

- You wake up, you're like,

first of, where am I?

Oh yeah, I'm in a teepee, what?

(soft music)

I know you're not gonna believe this.

Nobody's gonna believe this,

but I just found Santa.

Justin, come here.

Do you believe in miracles?

Santa.

- Oh!

Where did you find him?

- He was on the ground.

I'm walking around, I'm like,
oh my God, that's Santa Claus.

I knew it.

- Coincidence, I think not.

(soft music)

- [Scott] Morning chore
number one, milk the reindeer.

And everybody's out milking
their reindeer right now.

(soft music)

- Just stay there.

There you go.

Stay still my gentle friend.

This is really weird.

How you doing?

You okay?

Oh, man.

That's a lot of milk.

I feel as awkward as he
does I imagine or she does.

- I hope it's a she.

- She's like a machine man.

In like 10 seconds, she's
got more milk than I did

and it took me like five minutes.

She's smoking the steer.

(upbeat music)

- So I guess, I better give this a try.

I don't even know, geez!

(laughs)

I don't know.

Hello.

- [Justin] Don't be gentle, man.

Get in there.

- Even the reindeer's
like what are you doing?

I'm like getting nothing out.

It's so funny.

She can obviously, from
a lot of experience

knows how to really milk this thing.

I'm sorry.

If I had to live off reindeer milk,

we would be dead by now of starvation.

I got nothing (chuckles).

- [Scott] That's how you milk a reindeer.

(soft music)

(upbeat music)

- Stop it.

Can I get some bug spray?

Mosquitoes.

There's about two hours of day

where nobody is anywhere outside

because these mosquitoes and
bugs and black flies and bees,

oh shit!

Crawling across the screen.

(upbeat music)

Yeah, I can't do this.

(soft music)

- [Scott] So we've been
invited back in again

for a morning cup of reindeer milk.

(soft music)

The Tsaatan obviously have
become really dependent

on the reindeer,

so much just comes from the milk

and there's different levels

and different timing of the boil process

that they know where and when

to get certain parts
of the milk as it boils

for certain products.

Obviously it would have been
a lot of trial and error,

and now they know exactly
how the process works.

- 90% almost of their
diet is from the reindeer,

so very rarely do they
actually eat the reindeer,

eat the meat

because the reindeer is so valuable.

- The Indi people and
these Mongolian people

respect fire is the stove.

- [Scott] For us, this
whole reindeer milk thing

is a bit of a novelty,

but for them it's a necessity.

We've been having a lot
of the reindeer milk

and reindeer products,

and obviously, our
stomachs aren't used to it,

so we decided we'd have
a little bit of vodka.

That's part of the many shamanism customs

that are observed here.

You pray to the sky

and you pray to the sun and you pray to,

what's the third one?

- Last one is mountain spirit.

- To the sky.

- To the sun.

- To the mountains.

- This is the last one, to the fire god.

That was a little more dramatic
than the rest of the gods.

- [Scott] I think he likes it.

- Yeah, here's some more, drink up.

- To the Scott god.

May I continue to be awesome.

One for the Sarah god.

(laughs)

- Thank you.

(soft music)

- We've done some of the
things that the men do

like felling the trees and
bringing them back for firewood.

We've done some of the
things that the women do

like milking the reindeer.

Now we're gonna do one of the things

that the kids love to do,

and that's reindeer riding up
to one of the sacred points.

(speaking Mongolian)

With shamanism, there's
many different sacred places

on mountain tops, streams,

and one of them around
here is a waterfall,

and it's also some of the best water

that you can get for drinking

and using for cooking around here,

so we're gonna go up there with the kids

and get some fresh water.

(upbeat music)

(lively music)

It's funny, for the kids,

this is just the greatest
play land in the world.

You ride your reindeer down
to this beautiful waterfall

to collect water,

and they're just sitting
on the bank soaking it in.

(lively music)

- [Justin] That journey
just to get the water

to me is just an amazing experience.

It's funny 'cause to them it's chores

and to us, it's something else.

We take everything for granted,

like you go to your tap

and you get your water right from there,

you open your bottle of water

and you just drink it.

These guys, they go
down to this waterfall.

It's like their own little
piece of heaven that they have

and they chose to live
out here off the land,

and I think it's perfect
way of living a life.

(upbeat music)

(soft music)

- This adventure out here,

and the experience of being
with the Tsaatan people

out here in the Taiga,

at first it can be a
little bit overwhelming.

It really hasn't been
as tough as I thought,

or as bad as I thought it was going to be

without all my stuff.

You get out here

and you realize it's a
much easier way of life

to just roll with it.

Their belief, the whole shamanism
thing is not hocus-pocus.

Instead, it's an enormously deep respect

for the nature that provides
everything for them.

This gorgeous surrounding

is not just a beautiful atmosphere.

Everything around here is the lifeblood

and they'll always have the
resources to keep living,

and I think that's really incredible

and really inspiring.

For now, I'll just focus on
spending the next few days here

and learning what I can

and I'll be on to the
next part of Mongolia.

(soft music)

- [Andre] We've seen so much
diversity in Mongolia so far.

- [Scott] The last few
days here with the Tsaatan

have been a real eye-opener

into a life that I had
no idea still existed.

- [Justin] Living off the land

and seeing how simple life can be,

I know I'm gonna walk away
from this a different person.

We still have a couple of days
here to play with reindeer

and learn more about this community,

but we will be moving on

and heading towards the Gobi desert.

(soft music)