After two days in Ulaanbaatar, we were eager to start exploring the Mongolian countryside. It’s not that we didn’t like UB, but to be honest, nobody comes to Mongolia for a city break ;-). We had managed to book ourselves on a tour via Khongor guesthouse, one of the most recommended guesthouses in UB. The plan was to head out for 7 days, and explore central Mongolia – with Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur being the culmination point of our voyage.
So off we set in our trusty Fourgon Russian minibus (Mongolians describe it as follows: “Russian minivan go anywhere. Break down easy, but easy to fix”.), with our driver Togoo (a cheerful chap, who actually comes from central Mongolia – and boy did he find his way around well) and lovely tour assistant Bogi (who comes from the Gobi – easy to remember eh ;-). That is the normal setup for the tours – one driver (who, this being Mongolia, also needs to be a pretty good mechanic), and a tour assistant who’s kind of like a combined guide/translator/cook. The translation bit is the most important – pretty much nobody in Mongolia speaks English outside UB. Our entourage was complemented by three lovely Taiwanese ladies (the formidable mother/daughter team of Miss Wang & Ann, as well as the always smiling Li Cheng) and a student from Hong Kong called Henning (never met a Chinese guy with a Nordic-sounding name before – well he was born in Germany so…).
Having been stuck in UB traffic jams for an hour or so (seems that there is only one road out of UB!), we made good progress toward our first destination – Kharkorin. Well, everything is relative. Roads in Mongolia are, shall we say, not up to western standards. In fact, even most of what Mongolians would refer to as roads are more like dirt tracks, and what Mongolians call dirt tracks are more like a couple of tyre tracks through the bush. And forget about signposts, obviously (we probably saw about 3 in all of Mongolia outside of UB). So the ride was somewhat bumpy ;-).
Kharkorin is an interesting place, in that it is built on top of the ruins of Kharakorum, the ancient capital of Chinggis Khaan’s empire. Pretty much nothing remains, Kharkorin is a modern town without much to see (you can say that for nearly all Mongolian towns) – interestingly some people even want to make it the capital of Mongolia! There is one major attraction though, which is Erdene Zhuu Khiid. After our first night (the first of many…) in a ger, we visited it the following morning. Erdene Zhuu Khiid was the first Buddhist monastery built in Mongolia, and also one of the biggest ones. It used to house between 60 and 100 temples, but sadly one 3 survived the communist purges of the 1930’s. Still, the place was definitely interesting (especially since it felt more like a real place of worship than some of the temples in UB). After the temple we took in some of the other sites around Kharkorin, including the Great Imperial Map Monument (a circular structure with maps depicting the Mongolian empire at various periods – they never got to Finland yihaa!) and the phallic rock (which faces the “Vaginal valley” – apparently it was put there to fight off the sexual urges of the horny monks of Erdene Zhuu Khiid).
After the most interesting visit, our journey took us further west (on even bumpier roads) down to the Orkhon waterfall, situated in the lovely and lush Orkhon valley. OK, the waterfalls ain’t got much on the Niagara falls, but they were nice nonetheless – and the setting really was lovely. After a hike up to one of the nearby hills and dinner, we were treated to a traditional Mongolian concert/contortionist show. The programme featured hauntingly beautiful Mongolian folk songs, the most impressive Mongolian throat singing (which sounds a bit like somebody playing a diggeridoo), Kazak dances, some amazing contortionist tricks (that poor girl must’ve been hurting for days afterwards, honest!) and something I suspect was Mongolian 80’s music, even (not the highlight of the show – it was as bad as everywhere else in the world).
After our tranquil stop, we set off bright ‘n early, our first stop being Tovkhon Khiid, another Buddhist monastery. I really take my hat off for super-Togoo for managing to get us up that muddy road… Even so, we had to hike the last part of the road. The temple itself wasn’t particularly impressive, but the setting was lovely, surrounded by forests and mountains. And there weren’t many tourists … We stopped for lunch at a nomadic family. At this point I must mention the Mongolian hospitality. Basically, Mongolians will welcome travellers in their Gers, providing they are not busy. If really stuck, they will even provide a bed for the night. All this is pretty much free – although it is of course polite to leave a gift. You don’t get that in the South of France, that’s for sure ;-). Anyway, our visit with the family ended up being a bit longer than planned – as a massive hail storm broke out during lunch. Kind of reminded me of Scotland! (another place where you can get all 4 seasons in one day). Well, we eventually managed to get underway, and continued our journey on the muddy tracks, eventually reaching our ger camp for the night. This time we were staying in a tourist ger, which was a good and a bad thing. On the upside, there were showers, and even some hot springs, and beer! On the downside, there were loads of people – some of whom decided to party all night, and keep everybody else awake as well…
The next day, the road took us to our final destination, Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur – which means great white lake in English. And what a lovely lake it is – in a lovely setting surrounded by mountains (some of them extinct volcanoes). We had no problem settling into our cozy ger camp either. First thing was first – of course being a Finn I had to go for a swim in the lake. Actually, in spite of the less-than-scorching hot temperature, the water was absolutely fine, no problems at all (although our Taiwanese friends seem to think I was mad to brave the waters). After a calm hike up around the hills surrounding our get camp, we thankfully went to bed quite early (not having slept much at all the night before…).
The next day the plan was to visit the Khorgo Uul volcano. Most of the group went by horse, whereas me & Mathilde decided to take the opportunity to do a bit of hiking. And what a lovely hike it was, with great views and many 4-legged friends to keep us company (mostly yaks). After a strenuous 3 hours of walking or so, we reached the rim of the crater. That wasn’t enough of course, down we had to go (or rather, slide…) to the bottom of the crater (our travelling companions thought we were mad again), and then all around the rim. But it was well worth it for the views and the fresh air. We finished off the day by getting some beer and Chinggis Khaan vodka (which is actually very good, a bit like Zubrowka from Poland) from the shop from the ger camp down the road, and having a bit of a party by the ger.
In spite of the slightly sore head, we got packed real quickly the next morning, and headed off – we were on a tight schedule. Our next destination was another lake, Ogii Nuur. On the way there we stopped by in the Arkhangai province capital, Tsetserleg, for lunch (Here is a description of a typical lunch in a small Mongolian town: There is a menu on the table, with loads of dishes, but it’s all in Mongolian – and written with Cyrillic letters. Then Bogi would explain to us: “there are three things: mutton with rice, mutton with rice and potatoes, and mutton with rice, potatoes and salad. And for drink, there is tea or coffee”). After a quick visit to the local museum (which was actually pretty interesting, basically it was housed in a monastery), we carried on towards the lake. We stopped on the way to pay a visit on Togoo’s uncle, who was kind enough to let us taste a Mongolian speciality called Airag (fermented mare’s milk – I guess one could say it’s an “acquired taste”). The plan was to stay with a nomad family by the lake, but unfortunately they didn’t have enough beds for all of us, so a bit of improvisation was called for. We eventually ended up staying at a half-finished ger camp on the other side of the lake. Ogii Nuur is not as famous as Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur – and I can see why (the main reason is not the fact that it’s less scenic – which it is. The main reason is that there are flies – I’m pretty sure I had never seen more flies in my life as I saw at that lake….!). Well, no matter, the plan for the night was anyway to have a party! The two bottles of Chinggis Khaan vodka was more than enough to lift our spirits. Both Togoo and Bogi impressed and moved us with their singing – and I was proud to beat everybody at the Mongolian drinking games they taught us. And we also learnt many words of Taiwanese and Cantonese (and naturally forgot them all by the next morning). All in all, a very nice finale for the last night of the trip.
A lot of driving remained for the following day – all credit to Togoo for his endurance in spite of previous night’s proceedings! His trusty Russian vehicle struggled a bit, clearly the Mongolian heat wave put undue strain on the radiator. So it was kind of slow going – and most of our drinking water went into that radiator, I reckon! But hey, that’s travelling in Mongolia for ya. Main thing is, we all made it in one piece back to UB!
More photos here.
So off we set in our trusty Fourgon Russian minibus (Mongolians describe it as follows: “Russian minivan go anywhere. Break down easy, but easy to fix”.), with our driver Togoo (a cheerful chap, who actually comes from central Mongolia – and boy did he find his way around well) and lovely tour assistant Bogi (who comes from the Gobi – easy to remember eh ;-). That is the normal setup for the tours – one driver (who, this being Mongolia, also needs to be a pretty good mechanic), and a tour assistant who’s kind of like a combined guide/translator/cook. The translation bit is the most important – pretty much nobody in Mongolia speaks English outside UB. Our entourage was complemented by three lovely Taiwanese ladies (the formidable mother/daughter team of Miss Wang & Ann, as well as the always smiling Li Cheng) and a student from Hong Kong called Henning (never met a Chinese guy with a Nordic-sounding name before – well he was born in Germany so…).
Having been stuck in UB traffic jams for an hour or so (seems that there is only one road out of UB!), we made good progress toward our first destination – Kharkorin. Well, everything is relative. Roads in Mongolia are, shall we say, not up to western standards. In fact, even most of what Mongolians would refer to as roads are more like dirt tracks, and what Mongolians call dirt tracks are more like a couple of tyre tracks through the bush. And forget about signposts, obviously (we probably saw about 3 in all of Mongolia outside of UB). So the ride was somewhat bumpy ;-). 
Kharkorin is an interesting place, in that it is built on top of the ruins of Kharakorum, the ancient capital of Chinggis Khaan’s empire. Pretty much nothing remains, Kharkorin is a modern town without much to see (you can say that for nearly all Mongolian towns) – interestingly some people even want to make it the capital of Mongolia! There is one major attraction though, which is Erdene Zhuu Khiid. After our first night (the first of many…) in a ger, we visited it the following morning. Erdene Zhuu Khiid was the first Buddhist monastery built in Mongolia, and also one of the biggest ones. It used to house between 60 and 100 temples, but sadly one 3 survived the communist purges of the 1930’s. Still, the place was definitely interesting (especially since it felt more like a real place of worship than some of the temples in UB). After the temple we took in some of the other sites around Kharkorin, including the Great Imperial Map Monument (a circular structure with maps depicting the Mongolian empire at various periods – they never got to Finland yihaa!) and the phallic rock (which faces the “Vaginal valley” – apparently it was put there to fight off the sexual urges of the horny monks of Erdene Zhuu Khiid).
After the most interesting visit, our journey took us further west (on even bumpier roads) down to the Orkhon waterfall, situated in the lovely and lush Orkhon valley. OK, the waterfalls ain’t got much on the Niagara falls, but they were nice nonetheless – and the setting really was lovely. After a hike up to one of the nearby hills and dinner, we were treated to a traditional Mongolian concert/contortionist show. The programme featured hauntingly beautiful Mongolian folk songs, the most impressive Mongolian throat singing (which sounds a bit like somebody playing a diggeridoo), Kazak dances, some amazing contortionist tricks (that poor girl must’ve been hurting for days afterwards, honest!) and something I suspect was Mongolian 80’s music, even (not the highlight of the show – it was as bad as everywhere else in the world).
After our tranquil stop, we set off bright ‘n early, our first stop being Tovkhon Khiid, another Buddhist monastery. I really take my hat off for super-Togoo for managing to get us up that muddy road… Even so, we had to hike the last part of the road. The temple itself wasn’t particularly impressive, but the setting was lovely, surrounded by forests and mountains. And there weren’t many tourists … We stopped for lunch at a nomadic family. At this point I must mention the Mongolian hospitality. Basically, Mongolians will welcome travellers in their Gers, providing they are not busy. If really stuck, they will even provide a bed for the night. All this is pretty much free – although it is of course polite to leave a gift. You don’t get that in the South of France, that’s for sure ;-). Anyway, our visit with the family ended up being a bit longer than planned – as a massive hail storm broke out during lunch. Kind of reminded me of Scotland! (another place where you can get all 4 seasons in one day). Well, we eventually managed to get underway, and continued our journey on the muddy tracks, eventually reaching our ger camp for the night. This time we were staying in a tourist ger, which was a good and a bad thing. On the upside, there were showers, and even some hot springs, and beer! On the downside, there were loads of people – some of whom decided to party all night, and keep everybody else awake as well…
The next day, the road took us to our final destination, Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur – which means great white lake in English. And what a lovely lake it is – in a lovely setting surrounded by mountains (some of them extinct volcanoes). We had no problem settling into our cozy ger camp either. First thing was first – of course being a Finn I had to go for a swim in the lake. Actually, in spite of the less-than-scorching hot temperature, the water was absolutely fine, no problems at all (although our Taiwanese friends seem to think I was mad to brave the waters). After a calm hike up around the hills surrounding our get camp, we thankfully went to bed quite early (not having slept much at all the night before…). 
The next day the plan was to visit the Khorgo Uul volcano. Most of the group went by horse, whereas me & Mathilde decided to take the opportunity to do a bit of hiking. And what a lovely hike it was, with great views and many 4-legged friends to keep us company (mostly yaks). After a strenuous 3 hours of walking or so, we reached the rim of the crater. That wasn’t enough of course, down we had to go (or rather, slide…) to the bottom of the crater (our travelling companions thought we were mad again), and then all around the rim. But it was well worth it for the views and the fresh air. We finished off the day by getting some beer and Chinggis Khaan vodka (which is actually very good, a bit like Zubrowka from Poland) from the shop from the ger camp down the road, and having a bit of a party by the ger.
In spite of the slightly sore head, we got packed real quickly the next morning, and headed off – we were on a tight schedule. Our next destination was another lake, Ogii Nuur. On the way there we stopped by in the Arkhangai province capital, Tsetserleg, for lunch (Here is a description of a typical lunch in a small Mongolian town: There is a menu on the table, with loads of dishes, but it’s all in Mongolian – and written with Cyrillic letters. Then Bogi would explain to us: “there are three things: mutton with rice, mutton with rice and potatoes, and mutton with rice, potatoes and salad. And for drink, there is tea or coffee”). After a quick visit to the local museum (which was actually pretty interesting, basically it was housed in a monastery), we carried on towards the lake. We stopped on the way to pay a visit on Togoo’s uncle, who was kind enough to let us taste a Mongolian speciality called Airag (fermented mare’s milk – I guess one could say it’s an “acquired taste”). The plan was to stay with a nomad family by the lake, but unfortunately they didn’t have enough beds for all of us, so a bit of improvisation was called for. We eventually ended up staying at a half-finished ger camp on the other side of the lake. Ogii Nuur is not as famous as Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur – and I can see why (the main reason is not the fact that it’s less scenic – which it is. The main reason is that there are flies – I’m pretty sure I had never seen more flies in my life as I saw at that lake….!). Well, no matter, the plan for the night was anyway to have a party! The two bottles of Chinggis Khaan vodka was more than enough to lift our spirits. Both Togoo and Bogi impressed and moved us with their singing – and I was proud to beat everybody at the Mongolian drinking games they taught us. And we also learnt many words of Taiwanese and Cantonese (and naturally forgot them all by the next morning). All in all, a very nice finale for the last night of the trip.
A lot of driving remained for the following day – all credit to Togoo for his endurance in spite of previous night’s proceedings! His trusty Russian vehicle struggled a bit, clearly the Mongolian heat wave put undue strain on the radiator. So it was kind of slow going – and most of our drinking water went into that radiator, I reckon! But hey, that’s travelling in Mongolia for ya. Main thing is, we all made it in one piece back to UB!More photos here.
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