Mongolia - Ulan Bator surroundings

Ulan Bator 21.10.2014

Mongolia is a very big country and it has only three million habitants. About one third of the population lives as nomads in gers around the country.

We decided to do something special and booked a 3-day trip from our hostel. It was all-inclusive. We had with us Dandr our driver and Tuul our guide. And we drove with a UAZ Soviet Jeep.

During the first day we visited Chinggis Khan's statue which is the biggest of its kind in the world. Then we visited a meditation center on the mountains. In the afternoon we arrived to the nomad family who hosted us for the evening and night. We left almost right away to ride horses for one hour.

Panorama was breathtaking. We literally rode to the sunset.

The day went by really quickly and we sat a lot in the car. The main roads were fine but others made us appreciate the jeep. We even crossed a river with the car.

The nomad family was friendly and consisted of the father, mother and a 5-year old boy. Two older children were studying in the city. They had horses and cows. Even they host tourists their nomad life style was genuine. We ate together and the father offered us some self-made milk vodka in the evening. After one cup they already joked that we were celebrating our marriage. Same humour as in Finland. We took quickly another cup.

The sky in the night was so beautiful with its million stars. We saw the Milky Way as ever before. It was warm in the ger which was heated with an oven full of dried horse poop. It didn't even smell. During the night we heard dogs barking and cows noise. In the morning the family told us that during the night some wolves came and took one of the little cows. We just saw many eagles and other birds eating the rests/bones. The family was of course sorry for the loss of property but they thought it is part of nature.

After breakfast we drove to Kharkhorim, the ancient capital. We spent almost all day in the car. We took most of it and looked out for all possible animals. We saw eagles, horses, camels, cows, foxes, goats, sheeps, dogs, an owl, cats. And the landscape was like from a story book.

Arrived in Kharkhorim we settled in a ger with our guide and driver. Soon a musician came to our tent and asked if we would like to hear some traditional Mongolian throat singing and playing. Of course we did. The man was 60-70 years old and performing so well. Playing Mongolian instruments made from wood and horse hair. Throat singing was also something new for us. The show was very nice.

In the morning we visited the ancient temples and summer palace. Countless paintings of buddhas and other gods hundreds of years old. Some remains of the city were around the temples.

We headed to the sand dunes for a camel ride that was hilarious. While riding hundreds of wild horses ran close to us and stopped to look at who we were. It looked pretty funny. Afterwards we start our journey back to the city and arrived in  late afternoon.

We were happy of the trip because we saw the true Mongolia and its nature. Even just a small part.