Fun things to do in Mongolia

The museum contains very interesting exhibits of, what else, Mongolian History.

The ground floor displays the cultural items related to Mongolia, the ger, farming implements, horse saddles, musical instruments, items related to Buddhism.

The second floor is wonderful. It contains the traditional costumes and head-gears from the various minority groups of Mongolia. All very interesting.

The third floor is, to me, a little boring, mainly historical photos, documents, etc...

Better to spend more time at the first two floors at the visual displays.

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I don't even know where to start. Best experience of my life. I was a little intimidated and reluctant to visit the village next to our "fancy" hotel but as my mother always told me just act like you own it and pretend you belong there; even though we didn't. However, the Mongolian people were so wonderful. Luck would have it that our horse guide from earlier in the day recognized us and then all was GREAT!!! He went and gathered up a couple of friends, his girlfriend and asked them to open up their disco early just for us.

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The horses are tiny but are sturdy and strong. For around $4 an hour in Terelj National Park, you have a guide and a horse. There were 2 of us on this trek and I got too scared and turned around. So, my boyfriend and the guide went on the ride. I am glad I tried it but was more happy that I wasn't hindering my boyfriend having a really good ride with the guide.

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Inserted in the heart of Ulaanbatar city is a busy and yet peacefull monastery where you can relac and appreciate the local activity and seeing monks chanting and creating Mandalas (Buddhist Universes) with coloured sand.

A generation ago there were still camels on the streets of Ulaanbaatar. Now the streets are clogged by top-of-the-range offroad vehicles – Hummers, Landcruisers, Range Rovers – and the city centre is expanding steadily upwards as more and more highrise steel-and-glass buildings appear. The "old" Mongolia can still be found outside Ulaanbaatar, but not in the capital anymore.

The massive marble building on the north side of Sukhbaatar Square was completed in 2006 to mark the 800th anniversary of the recognition of Gingghis Khaan (Genghis Khan) by the Mongolian tribes as their supreme leader. He had achieved the tremendous feat of unifying the various warring tribes and forging a great Mongolian empire. As the Mongol hordes spread west through Asia and into Europe, they inspired awe, fear and loathing. Gingghis Khaan tends to have a poor reputation in the West, but he is revered by his compatriots.

Old Cliffie was in Ulaanbaatar on an auspicious day for weddings and he saw several newly wed couples waiting for their turn to be photographed in front of the Sukhbaatar statue in the main square. The temperature was low but the sun was shining, and so were the faces as the family and friends lined up for the photographer. After that it was off to a reception, with plenty of vodka, brandy and whisky on each table.

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Yolyn Am (Vulture's Mouth) was originally established to conserve the birdlife in the region, but it's now more famous for its dramatic and very unusual scenery - it is a valley in the middle of the Gobi Desert, with metres-thick ice almost all year-round. The valley is named after the Lammergeier, which is called Yol in Mongolian. The Lammergeier is an Old World vulture, hence the name is often translated to Valley of the Vultures or Valley of the Eagles. It's a beautiful walk through some lovely dramatic rocky hills in order to get to the star attraction - the semi permanent ice. The ice field reaches several meters thick by the end of winter, and is several kilometres long. In past years it remained year round, but the modern ice field tends to disappear by September. Luckily there was some still around when I visited in July but it was melting very quickly, given that it was around 23°C. The reason why it stays here is that the tight valley never sees direct sunlight but it's certainly an unusual sight given that we had just come from the Khongur sand dunes. You can ride a horse along the valley for US$3 or a camel for US$4 each way.