MARCI-l I APRIL 2015

SPRING STYL~ S-1M PL~ ALL MOD~RN CLASSICS ABOARD! TH~ N~W COLL~CTI BL~S THE EAGLE MOL TO H·u NTERS MILANO! o/ H~LLOJ L~TT~R MRS. FROM PARIS ~~RR~RA

INSID~ T~~ D~PARTM~NT P/u~ STOR~ RUSS~LL W~STBROOK ON SN ~AK~RS & CAS~

certain extinction. It has become his passion. only in 1990. The tarmac wa~ shrouded in The Kazakhs were- and many still are­ His Golden Eagle Festival now attracts hun­ ground mist, and as the sun rose, we saw ash­ Muslim nomads who emigrated into western dreds of people every October, along with colored mountains and white nomad gers, or Mongolia in the 1860s under pressure from curious visitors and voracious photographers felt tents. Two Land Cruisers took.us through the aggressively expanding czarist Russia. from the outside world. Olgii, with its decayed Soviet squares, through Their language is Turkic and thus unintelli­ "But then even most Mongolians could be immense flocks of goats mingled with red­ gible to Mongols, but they share with their said to be from the outside world compared to cheeked children on their way to school. On hosts an ancient steppe culture based on the Olgii," Jalsa said. "You'll see. It's one of the the far side, we followed the course of the horse, on archery, and on hunting. In Ka­ most remote places on earth. I mean, it's one dark-blue River, which curves through zakh, eagle hunters are known as berkutchi, of the most remote places in Mongolia." the desert steppes. Yaks and argali sheep me­ from the word for "eagle," berkut, and as with I would soon see what he meant. By five, andered along the river as well, shadowed by the Mongols, their falconry skills have been we were in the air, flying over the arid and ice­ saker falcons. Jalsa's temporary ger camp is honed over centuries. Genghis Khan himself bound steppes, over vast lakes with desert built by the edge of this river every October is reputed to have kept a thousand hunting shores. It takes about four hours to fly from for the Golden Eagle Festival and then dis­ birds for his pleasure. to Olgii. Looking down, I didn't mantled afterward. It lies several miles from Edelkhan explained that Turkic and Mon­ see a single road or even a single house. Ocher Olgii, in a wilderness of grassland and glitter­ golic peoples had been living in the Altai re­ and gray, the steppe stretches to every horizon. ing beech trees, the gers spread out along the gion for many thousands of years. (The fol­ Mongolia is a vast country of 600,000 square gravel banks. lowing day, indeed, I wandered for hours miles but contains less than 3 million people. across the steppe with a young guide and It has perhaps the lowest population density hat night, we made a bonfire by the found scores of prehistoric petroglyphs and on earth. Inside the Hunnu Air plane, how­ river under a steppe moon, and Jalsa ancient deer-stones, spear-shaped pillars that ever, the ruddy-faced Kazakhs in their enor­ told us how he had built the festival marked the possible sites of 2,000-year-old mous sable-fur hats felt like a crowd. We our­ with three Kazakh partners, who, as graves.) The carving on the rocks showed ibex selves were now a group of seven: Jalsa and if on cue, turned up in person to par­ and wolves and hunters armed with bows. mysel£ Ms. Rodriguez (the tough-girl star of Ttake in several rounds of Chinggis. They were But no one knew when ~hese people had

GENGHIS KHAN HIMSELF IS REPUTED TO HAVE KEPT A THOUSAND HUNTING BIRDS FOR HIS PLEASURE.

Avatar and the Fast and Furious franchise), three jolly and bibulous luminaries of Olgii: started to use eagles as a weapon. and her four companions: a former New Zea­ an archeologist named Edelkhan, specializing "It's a very ancient tradition," Edelkhan as­ land army officer living in Las Vegas with the in local ancient petroglyphs; a magistrate sured me. "It's widespread on the steppes. splendidly local name of Genghis Cohen; called Medulkhan, involved in local politics; However, it declined in the Soviet period." Euro-Nascar racing champion David Perisset and his attorney brother, Kazbek. (Mongo­ With a wingspan of up to seven feet and a (also living in Las Vegas) and his wife, Audrey; lians habitually use only one name.) Eventu­ maximum weight of 15 pounds, the golden and, from Paris, Hermine, the beautiful ally a famous local musician and gynecologist eagle is one of the world's largest raptors, an daughter of a former president of Gabon who by the name of Kugershan also showed up in animal that can hunt foxes and young deer in now helps run one of the country's top air­ traditional costume with his daughter, and the wild. Trained by humans, it can even run lines. Genghis Cohen, I soon learned, was not the two of them played old Kazakh tunes on down small gray wolves, though there is some Mongolian at all: His Maori father had simply a pair of mandolin-like dombra. Saturday dispute as to whether it can kill them. The admired the military genius of the 13th-cen­ night on the Khovd. berkutchi train their birds by dragging fox tury conqueror. The owner of a specialist "We started this festival at the end of the pelts behind their horses and calling the eagles shooting range, Cohen had always wanted to '90s," Jalsa said. ''And back then, in 1998, the to them as they canter at a fast pace- the birds come to Mongolia and try his hand at tradi­ eagle hunters had virtually died out. The swoop down at more than a hundred miles an tional archery. I wondered if they were typical young boys were moving away to look for hour and savage the pelts. During the two-day of the eclectic people that Jalsa took around jobs in Ulaanbaatar and elsewhere. There festival, each hunter rehearses this same move his ancestral home with his company Nomadic were just a handful of hunters left. Now we again and again, testing his eagle's killing Expeditions (nomadicexpeditions.com). I knew, for have dozens who come here for the festival. skills, and is subsequently graded by a panel of one thing, that he had twice taken Richard We have over 400 eagle hunters in the region judges. In real life, though, eagle hunters work Gere around Mongolia. He later introduced of Bayan-Olgii today. We've helped revive a in teams. They trek for days on horseback in me to a crown prince of Bhutan. whole dimension ofKazakh culture." some of the coldest regions on earth in search Olgii's airport looks like that of a Soviet The gynecologist and his daughter then of their favorite quarry: the slow-footed corsac border post, which, in a sense, is exactly what launched into a strange, lilting version of Rod fox, prized for its voluptuous fur. it once was. Mongolia left the Soviet Union Stewart's "Sailing." The vodka began to flow. On the festival's first day, we drove out

208

across open desert to the foot of a rocky out­ cookers) . One has to pluck_out one of the black Jalsa began work in his uncle's construction crop on top of which a flag had been raised. It stones and rub it therapeutically in one's business. He became a skilled carpenter, and was from this summit that the eagles would be hands- satisfYingly medieval. As we started an­ soon he was running his own company build­ released one by one. Below, surrounded by other round of ritual vodka abuse while han­ ing wood-frame houses. It became one of the lines of old off-road Russian bukhankas dling the mutton-greasy stones, Jalsa pulled out largest companies of its kind in the United ("bread-loaf" vans), a wide field was demar­ a far bigger surprise: a bottle of wine from the States, All-tech Carpentry Contractors, and cated by stones and then divided by three par­ renowned Italian producer Angelo Gaja. Jalsa made his considerable fortune. allel white lines. Each horseman had to ride He said he had brought it with him just in across the lines as his eagle pursued him, and case any of us turned out to be connoisseurs. It n 1990 events in far distant Mongolia the sooner the raptor closed in, the higher the was astonishing, and it was followed by a bot­ came home to New Jersey. The Soviet rider's score. Jalsa explained that the eagles de of a far rarer wine, a Soldera Brunelle di Union broke up, and Ulaanbaatar de­ were not bred in captivity but culled from wild Montalcino. Strange indeed to be sitting in the clared independence. A six-man delega­ nests and then released after seven years of middle of the Mongolian steppe around a tion from the new national parliament hunting service. The tradition upon releasing wood fire sipping a Soldera Brunelle from a Iarrived in the United States, headed by them back into the wild is to leave a sheep's silver drinking bowl normally dedicated to al­ Dashiin Byambasuren, who would go on to carcass on a hillside as a good-bye gift. coholic fermented mare's milk. But then it become prime minister. The delegation later Out there on the plains, with mountains on was, in some way, typical of]alsa's way of doing asked Jalsa to help them develop the country's all sides, the searing winds promised snow. A things. Perhap~ as the result of his uniquely tourism industry; in response, he set up the few Bactrian camels stood on the pale-yellow mixed background, a Mongol growing up in U.S.-Mongolian Business Council, and grassland. Every hour, a lone horseman ap­ New Jersey and becoming a wealthy self-made shortly thereafter Mongolia was opened for peared from the mountains, making his way man in the cutthroat constr~ction business, the first time to Western visitors. towards the bukhankas. Jalsa has a way of being sui generis in all things. "When I came back in 1990, it was an over­ The horsemen were each in a traditionally His family originated in a region once known whelming experience," Jalsa said. "Twenty-five tooled leather and felt outfit, with an extrava­ as Dzungaria, now part of Xinjiang in north­ years ago, it was a totally different place. There gant pelt hat, a handmade wooden Y-shaped western China. This was once the home of a were almost no cars m Ulaanbaatar. There

"TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, MONGOLIA WAS A COMPLETELY DIFFER­ ENT PLACE. THERE WERE ALMOST NO CARS IN ULAANBAATAR."

stick protruding from the saddle, and a forbid­ Mongol people called the Oirats, who emigrated were hardly any restaurants or bar~ . Kids ding eagle sitting on the rider's thick protective from there to southern Russia in the early 17th played soccer in front of the Parliament build­ gauntlet, its head covered with a leather hood century, where they became known as Kalmyks. ing. There were about 600,000 people in the to pacifY it. As they cantered past, the horse­ Their new home, still called Kalmykia, was on whole city- now there are 600,000 cars! And men would sometimes stop to show off their the banks of the Volga River and the Caspian they're not Ladas." prize birds, raising them to make them extend Sea, and they are still the majority of the popu­ In recent years, growth in Mongolia has av­ their wings, and then look down at us in their lation there. After Kalmykia became part of the eraged 12 percent a year- in some years, it's magnificent sable coats and silver-studded Soviet Union, Jalsa's father migra.ted even far­ been among the highest in the world. Despite belts. Later, we saw these same men galloping ther west to Bulgaria, where he met Jalsa's being hit hard by the 2008 crisis, the so-called across the field with their eagles chasing them, Kalmyk mother. Then they moved to Germany. wolf economy (as Mongolia's is often called) swooping down to attack the pelts. Among "They were refugees," Jalsa said. "They has rebounded, driven by mining and cash­ them was a 13-year-old girl named Ashol-Pan, ended up in a displaced-persons camp after the mere, of which Mongolia is the world's second who in recent months has become something war, but the Tolstoy Foundation managed to largest producer. Mining, indeed, has made of a celebrity, featured prominently by the persuade the American authorities that they Ulaanbaatar something of a boomtown raking BBC. The Golden Eagle Festival and its dan­ were 'Russians,' and they got into the U.S., de­ in huge profits from coal, fluorspar, copper, dyish hunters have indeed become photogenic spite the immigration controls on Asians. They and tin. Trade with China is thriving, as are icons in the age of mass media. And yet noth­ allowed in 571 Kalmyks as 'Caucasians.' That's the luxury and tourism industries. ing about the event itself felt overly contrived. how we ended up in Monmouth County, New On the Khovd River, Jalsa and his young This was clearly a people rediscovering its own Jersey. We were poor and definitely not Cauca­ all-Mongolian staff (many of them graduate traditions with gusto. sian, but my father always kept alive the myths students) run a camp that is deliberately That night, by the Khovd, our little band ate of Mongolia for me. He was illiterate, but he transient. The whole thing is taken down the khorkhog, a dish of mutton cooked with hot used to make me read The Secret History ofthe day after the last visitor leaves, and nc;:> trace stones (traditionally inside the stomach of a Mongols, the 13th-century account of the life remains. In this respect, it's a typical nomad deboned marmot or other animal but now, of Genghis Khan. I spoke Mongolian at home, ger encampment. It's made to be ephemeral with more pedestrian intent, inside pressure and I always wanted to go back." and traceless. Three Camel Lodge, located in

210

MONGOLIA WHERE TO BUY

the open desert about 40 miles from the re­ THE NOUVEAU NOMAD MOLTO MILANO mote town of , runs in similar PAGE 116 Brunella Cucinelli bag at Brunello Cucinelli, PAGE 170 Louis Vuitton shirt and trousers at select 212-627-9202. Hermes scarf at Hermes, 800-441-4488. Louis Vuitton boutiques, 866-884-8866. Persol spirit, partly on solar power. Louis Vuitton guitar case at select Louis Vuitton bou­ sunglasses at sunglasshut.com. Ermenegildo The following morning, we rode out to the tiques, 866-884-8866. Esquivel shoes at store.esquivel Couture jacket, sweater, trousers, scarf, and belt at .com. Cassina chair at cassina.com. Band of Outsiders zegna.com. PAGE 171 jacket, shirt, and festival for the finals. A large crowd had gath­ coat at Band of Outsiders, 212-965-1313. Apparatus trousers at bottegaveneta.com. pocket square ered, and Jalsa mounted the podium to make a Studio censer at apparatusstudio.com. Denis Colomb at Brioni, 855-693-9862. PAGE 172 jacket, shirt, Lifestyle shawl at deniscolomblifestyle.com. Astier trousers, and sunglasses at Fendi, 305-931-4326. speech. The hunters, looking like a steppes war de Villatte incense at John Derian Company, 212-677- Caruso scarf at Caruso, 646-757-3041. shoes party of centuries past, paraded up and down 3917. PAGE 117 Salvatore Ferragamo shirt and tie at Pal Zileri, 702-431-5721. Valentino shirts and trousers at Salvatore Ferragamo, 866-337-7242. Cartier pen at at Valentino, 212-355-5811. Caruso tie at Caruso. Bally after their final exertions, and the first prize was cartier.us. Hublot watch at Hublot, 212-308-0408. portfolio at Bally, 844-442-2559. Santoni shoes at given to the cherubicAshol-Pan. I went to con­ Tiffany & Co. bracelet and bangle at tiffany.com. Astier santonishoes.com. PAGE 173 Brioni jacket, shirt, de Villatte saucer at John Derian Company. Barton and scarf at Brioni. PAGE 174 Phineas Cole jacket gratulate her afterward, and she asked ifi could Perreira sunglasses at bergdorfgoodman.com. Hermes and shirt and Paul Stuart trousers at paulstuart.com. take a picture of her eagle, not just of her. I notebook at Hermes. Bauman Rare Books inscribed pocket square at stefanoricci.com. first edition of Men Without Women, by Ernest PAGE 175 Tom Ford jacket, shirt, and jeans at Tom asked her if she was proud to have come ahead Hemingway, at baumanrarebooks.com. Ford, 888-866-3673. Stefano Ricci jacket, shirt, and of all the grizzled, experienced male hunters trousers at stefanoricci.com. David Yurman cuff links A CHICER SNEAKER and ring at davidyurman.com. PAGE 176 Ralph Lauren around her. They were, it should be said, kiss­ PAGE 118 Pierre Hardy at Pierre Hardy, 646-449- suit at select Ralph Lauren boutiques, 888-475-7674. ing her and mobbing her affectionately. 0070. Tomas Maier at tomasmaier.com. Del Piano at Salvatore Ferragamo sweater at Salvatore Ferragamo, scoopnyc.com . .Jimmy Choo at jimmychoo.com. FElT 866-337-7242. Brooks Brothers polo at brooksbrothers "Today is the best day for me," she said, at feitdirect.com. Z Zegna at zegna.com. Hermes at .com. PAGE 177 Dior Homme jacket, tank top, shirt, and her cheeks almost carmine berween the sable Hermes, 800-441-4488. Tod's at tods.com. trousers at Dior Homme, 800-929-3467. Brioni pocket square at Brioni. Richard Mille watch at Richard Mille, flaps of her hat. "But I've been doing this LOGOS2.0 310-285-9898. PAGE 178 Caruso waistcoat, shirt, and since before I can remember." When Jalsa set PAGE 120 Fendi at Fendi, 212-897-2244. Versace at trousers at Caruso. Bottega Veneta shoes at Bottega select Versace boutiques, 888-721-7219. Louis Vuitton Veneta. PAGE 179 Dolce & Gabbana suit and shirt up his festival, she was not yet even born. Now at select Louis Vuitton boutiques, 866-884-8866. Dior at select Dolce & Gabbana boutiques, 877-703-4872. a young girl might be the most globally recog­ at Dior, 800-929-3467. Canali tie and pocket square at canali.com. Mont­ blanc watch at montblanc.com. PAGE 180 Burberry nized face of the eagle hunters ofBayan-Olgii. Prorsum knit shirt and trousers at burberry.com. Brioni Within a few hours, the festival itself disap­ shirt at Brioni. Montblanc cuff links at Montblanc. coat at shop.ermannoscervino.it. peared. The bukhankas drove off in swirls of PAGE 181 Hermes jacket, tar]k top, shirt, and trousers dust taking the Europeans and Americans with at Hermes, 800-441-4488. Borsalino hat at borsalino .com. Bottega Veneta portfolio at Bottega Veneta. them, the half-dozen dreadlocked backpackers Ermenegildo Zegna Couture shoes at zegna.com. strode off to make the long hike back to Olgii, Grooming by Loris Rocchi. Production by Mandala Creative Productions Cmandalacp.it). The models are and we stood around with the archers to shoot Andy Walters, Benjamin Ben deck, and Florent Megdout. a few blunted arrows from the fearsome re­ Thanks to the Excelsior Hotel Gallia (starwoodhotels .com) and Luca Bombassei (lucabombassei.com). curve bows that 800 years ago had terrorized all of Eurasia. Genghis Cohen pulled a few ar­ BLING BANG THEORY PAGE 186 Tito Pedrini ring at titopedrini.com. rows but said that the bow's draw weight was PAGE 187 Chanel Fine .Jewelry brooch at Chanel so heavy that he had a problem keeping it Fine Jewelry, 800-500-0005. PAGE 188 Verdura cuff, similar styles at Verdura, 212-758-3388. steady. The tiny Mongolian girls, however, PAGE 189 David Yurman necklace at David Yurman, fired theirs off effortlessly and with deadly ac­ 212-752-4255. PAGE 190 VanCleef & Arpels earrings at vancleefarpels.com. PAGE 191 Dior Fine .Jewelry curacy. As the sun declined, we drove back to ring at select Dior boutiques, 800-929-3467. the Khovd and built another fire on the bank. SIMPLE MODERN CLASSIC The rem perature had plunged dramatically, PAGE 196 Bottega Veneta dress at bottegaveneta.com. and there was now a premonition of the brutal PAGE 198 blazer, similar styles at Max Mara, 212-879-6100. PAGE 199 .Jerome C. Rousseau shoes winter to come. Jalsa had set up an incongru­ at jeromecrousseau.com. PAGE 200 Oscar de Ia Renta ously elegant cocktail bar, and we drank, of all dress and belt at oscardelarenta.com. PAGE 201 Michael Kors shirt and skirt at select Michael Kors boutiques, things, iced-vodka tonics made, of course, 866-709-5677. PAGE 202 Dior coat at Dior, 800-929- with Chinggis (no rocks necessary). The moon 3467. PAGE 203 Fendi bag at Fendi, 212-897-2244. PAGE 204 Tod's jacket at tods.com. PAGE 205 Chanel rose over the fast-moving, desolately beautiful jacket and skirt at Chanel, 800-550-0005. river, and we got uproariously drunk. I think it's fair to claim that all of us now felt that even in the space of a few days, we had come to DEPARTURES CISSN 1542-1198). Issue No. 167, is published bimonthly, except September and October, by Time Inc. Affluent Media Group, 1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036; 212-522-1212. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional know something intimate about Mongolia, mailing offices. Contents copyright 2015 by American Express Marketing & Development Corp. All rights reserved. DEPARTURES is however little we actually did know. If we did a trademark of American Express Marketing & Development Corp. and is used under limited license. Time Inc. Affluent Media Group is not affiliated with American Express Company or its subsidiaries. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written then, it was only because of]alsa. permission from the publisher. If the postal authorities alert us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation "We have a toast in Mongolian," he said, unless we receive a corrected address within two years. To change your billing address, please contact American Express Customer Service. For article reprint information, please contact Kimberly Siess at PARS International Corporation: 212-221-9595, ext. 333; e-mail: raising his quivering vodka. "While your fa­ [email protected]; website: www.magreprints.com. For past issues of DEPARTURES, please call 800-304-6507 or visit us online at ther is alive, make as many friends as you can. www.departures.com. To access the site, please enter your name (as it appears on your Platinum or Centurion Card) and the first six digits of your Card Member account number or 589879. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to DEPARTURES. 777 American Express While your horse is alive, see as many lands Way, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33337-0002 or call877-509-3993. as you can." + Printed in the U.S.A. Member of SPA.

212 DEPA.RTURES.COM '