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 | Mongolia General Tips | Tips 1 - 10 of 126 |  |
This is what you can expect to manage with one week's time at your disposal in Mongolia:
In practical terms, you have 5 days. This is what you can do:
With such short time, it's definitely best if you can organise and book your trip, accommodation and other services needed before you leave home. That puts a lot of uncertainty into the bin.
UB is a bit of a disappointment, but read the history (find the book Lost Country - Mongolia Revealed) and you will understand the lay of the land better. Do check out UB and her museums, monasteries and so on. They have some very good restaurants and the Chjingis beer! One day, and you're about done. For shopping there are a number of tourist/quality oriented shops along Peace Avenue. A few other streets, too, will have some interesting shops with local jewellery and especially silver ornaments and wedding gifts. Next morning head out of UB and plan to stay overnight 2-3 nights outside the city. Either the Gobi if the steppe and desert is of interest, Terelj National Park just NE of UB if the outcrop of the taiga forest, hills and mountains are on your menu (horseriding, fishing, hiking, camping - all can be organised or fixed by yourself), or hit west toward Akhangai Aimag/Tsetserleg town as a base if you want to see the steppe and some of the central mountains and historical remains, including Kharhorin and Zamin Udd monastry. If really serious, fly to *** (mind the name) and take in the Lake H?vsg?l area, and fly or drive back. You will reach the places here in one day's uncomfortable travel (well, only northern Gobi). Driving back from *** will take two days - maybe fly instead?
Make sure you have a good buffer day on your return, so you WILL be able to catch your flight out. For all these options you will need a 4x4 Russian jeep or similar that you can either get as part of a package deal or negotiate privately.
Enjoy your journey - bring warm clothes and sleeping bags! Leave a Comment
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Here I will outline what you can expect to be doing when on a weekend-trip to Mongolia:
Be sure to have hotel/guest house bookings made before you arrive - don't waste time on such things during your UB weekend!
If you arrive, say from Beijing on the late afternoon flight, get installed in your hotel, meet the travel agent/contact and confirm your bookings and possibilities. Maybe you have time to see the key craft stores for anything you fancy - clothing, arts etc. Enjoy an evening in the city with some good food and Chjingis beer. It is a jovial atmosphere in New Mongolia. Next day - Saturday? - get out of town, go to Terelj National Park, or the area south of town with the wild horses, see the steppe and the larch-covered higher mountaineous terrain. Stay overnight in a well-organised ger-camp and sample some local food and drink - it's and adventure! Next day, hit back to Ulaan Baatar and do the last sightseeing there, Sunday markets, monasteries etc, and check out the city scenery, and head to the airport. If you can wring it, leave in the next day (Monday) morning on the 7 o'clock-something flight to Beijing again. If you can spare a day from work, take the train to Beijing (33 hours).
This is in my opinion a massive program, so if you start from here and scale it down to what you really want to do, then you're on to a faboulous weekend in Mongolia! Leave a Comment
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I absolutely love camels and any opportunity that allows me to see them makes me very happy. We saw camels everywhere, wandering freely and also being ridden around the country. When we stayed with the camel herding family in the Gobi Desert there were numerous baby camels who were so adorable. They were tied to ropes which were staked down while their mothers were allowed to roam. I took so many pictures of camels, it was hard to narrow down a few to place here. The adult camels were quite curious of us and came right up to us to have a look. Posed quite nicely for pictures too I might add ;-)
The Mongolia camels are Bactrian and have a double hump. They grow very long hair which is shaved off and used to make wool which is woven into various products, blankets, sweaters, hats, scarves, etc. I bought some mittens from a nomadic woman in the Gobi Desert. She was stopping by the gers and selling her wares, I also bought a small wooden camel from her as well. Leave a Comment
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We employed Monoola for the full day trip and more from UB to Tsesterleg vil Lake Ogii.
His English is limited to "yes", "no" and "soup", but his knowledge of the roads seemingly all over Mongolia is impressive. He knows the sightseeing spots and eateries and will go to great lengths to please.
The jeep he used was immaculate and without any hitches at all, and his driving very good. Monoola was safety conscious with regard to driving, no drinking, gas levels and leaving the car locked/under supervision. He became a good friend during the day and night we spent together, and communication levels increased by the hour when he understood what we were looking for.
He can be contacted via Bolod Namkhain, Bolod's Tours & Guesthouse located in a block of flats (into the courtyard first) opposite the Central Post Office on Peace Avenue in UB. Leave a Comment
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There is quite a good opportunity to view wildlife in Mongolia, we saw everything from foxes, to vultures, owls and wild donkeys. There were also red deer, gazelles and ibexes. We weren't always able to get a picture of the wildlife though we tried when we could. The wild ibex escaped our camera lenses as did the wild donkeys. We did come across an owl just sitting in the middle of the road and we managed to get some pictures before it got spooked and flew away. I patiently waited in the desert for a small type of rodent to pop back out of its hole in order to take a picture, being very quiet in the process.
The strangest sight was a flock of vultures on a field that we saw as we stopped to get water from a stream. We crept closer and closer until we could see what they were eating. It looked like the remains of a horse.
We also, of course, saw a lot of domestic animals such as yak, camels, horses, goats and sheep. The goats are kept for their hair as opposed to their meat. Cashmere is created from the goat hair and Mongolia accounts for about 30% of the world's cashmere. Leave a Comment
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In Central Mongolia we crossed the endless green grasslands from Khujirt to Karakorum.
We saw some wildlife like marmots, hawks and falcons along the track.
We stopped at the place were our track crossed a stream to have a look at the water and the bridge, happy with every variety the landscape us gave.
We walked bit around looking, if we could spot some birdlife. Leave a Comment
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Mongolia, also called ''the land of the blue sky'' or one of the last unspoiled travel destinations in Asia, called up images of camels walking in the Gobi Desert or horses galloping in the steppe. The Gobi desert we crossed only by train, but in central Mongolia we spent some days in the endless grasslands. And yes, there we saw horses, but also camels.
The endless landscapes, sometimes with some scattered boulders or some mountains at the background, were really amazing.
Being there, just walking in the grass or sitting on a small hilltop, feeling the clear air and the freedom, looking at the green and blue colours, was a great experience. Leave a Comment
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We didn't visit the Gobi Desert during this trip, so we were very excited to find these camels in the grasslands of Central Mongolia. Our busdriver drove our bus through the grasslands to show us the camels nearby.
There are about 367.000 camels in Mongolia.
These two-humped Bactrian camels are indigenous in Mongolia. Camels are very useful for long distance transport and valuable because of their adaptability, especially in the desert. Leave a Comment
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Of our visit to the nomadic family we enjoyed most the moment they milked the horses.
The foals were lined up. Each foal could drink first and then ''the lady of the ger'' milked each mother horse immediately.
It took a lot of time, so we couldn't wait till the last mare was be milked, because it was getting dark very fast and we liked to reach our temporary ger at the camp in time.
For more pictures see my travelogue. Leave a Comment
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The Mongolian people in the countryside live in gers (in Russian yurts), in traditional tents.
The gers can easily be moved to another place. Mongolia is partly still a nomadic society. The Soviets transformed Mongolia from a nomadic society into an industrialized and urbanized country, so many people moved to the city. In Ulaanbaatar you can find large living aeras of hundreds of gers.
After the Soviet Union felt apart in the 1990s, many Mongolians returned to the countryside and the nomadic life depending on domestic animals, as they did allready many centuries. Leave a Comment
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on September 22, 2004
on January 21, 2006
on October 28, 2003
