Behind the Scenes
TALES FROM MONGOLIA AND TIBET
Life on the road filming travel documentaries isn’t as glamorous as
Hollywood makes out. Local film maker Mark Houghton reveals some of the hardships
faced during an arduous 9 week shoot across China, Mongolia and Tibet.
replace them and as a result body odors were less prevalent than here (I didn’t say nonexistent).
Travelling vast distances overland often meant being cramped up for hours on end packed into old Russian jeeps like sardines. Mongolia and Tibet’s road system is far from the bitumen network we take for granted here. With no official public transport we were often left to negotiate rides with families to get us from town to town. This was made all the more difficult being a group of eight.
I recall our longest single journey was from Lake Hovsghol in Northern Mongolia to the town of Olgii in the far west. The 30-hour journey was the longest paddock bash ride
ever. There are no roads – just never ending grasslands. How drivers don’t get lost is beyond me. There are no trees, no hills or landmarks to obtain bearings from. You simply just head in the direction you want to go and hope you eventually get there.
The journey through Tibet was even more extreme. Imagine driving from Cairns to Melbourne without a single petrol station along the way. We had pre-organised our jeep and needed a
Most nights were spent in simple tents, wind blown on the flat open plains. At such high altitude there is little to no vegetation meaning no trees for firewood and rock hard ground for sleeping on. One night we arrived in a small Tibetan village and were given the local school to use for the night. It was basically four walls made of concrete and no glass in the windows allowing for blizzard like winds to race through. We were above
Altitude sickness seems to strike at random and has no bearing on physical fitness. That night it was my turn. I had a thumping headache and couldn’t stop shaking from the cold. I was sandwiched between two others in the group as I tried to get warm. Here was an ideal opportunity to film a local village and their lifestyle but missed it due to the hardships of the environment we were in. Apparently I got off lucky and managed to hold off the more unpleasant symptoms of nausea and fever.
Being on the road and away from modern amenities meant sacrificing creature comforts such as bathrooms. Most of us have at one time or another stopped on the side of the road to answer the call of nature. But what happens when there are no trees or bushes to hide behind? It felt like taking a dump in the middle of a golf course with a full gallery of spectators all watching your game.
I remember taking a long, long hot shower when we arrived in Lhasa – it was heaven! Over the course of 9 weeks we managed only 5 showers with the longest drought being 2 weeks. It wasn’t as bad as you might imagine. We were all in the same boat so didn’t stand out from one another and besides – it was normal for the locals. At home we wash everyday and strip our bodies of natural oils. When you stop doing that the body naturally stops trying to
