Since I was already out in Asia, I thought, I might as well keep the travel going on my end. I ended up going to Mongolia with my brother Andrew. After 25 days planned together, we had a somewhat limited timeframe for Mongolia and we wanted to accomplish a lot. I did a bunch of research and a lot of emailing. With our 13 days, we landed on booking a custom tour with Bek Travel. It was $2850USD/pp. We combined a Gobi Desert & Western tour in 12 days. After a lot of back and forth and plans changing on our end, this price included airport transfers (round trip), a 12-day tour (transportation & guides provided), border permits & round trip domestic flights for the West portion. We were also able to use their corporate discount and booked our Ulaanbaatar hotels through them for the stays before, in-between tours and after.
Tidbits of Mongolia
-Mongolia is known as the “Land of the Eternal Blue Sky”
-4 sacred mountains – 9 division
-population of 36 million with 40% still practicing the Nomadic or semi-Nomadic lifestyle.
-Mongolia has a big mining operation. The main mining is for copper, gold & coal.
-There are many power plants that are coal powered
-Public toilets are not squat toilets but they don’t always have toilet paper so bring your own!
-Ulaanbaatar (Ohh laaan Baatar) Ulan means red and Baatar means hero = Red Hero
-Normally the best type of restaurant has the wife as the cook and the husband running the rest of it. Service is at a slower pace as nothing is deathly urgent.
-You can never precisely tell what the weather will be like. It changes from minute to minute
-No regulations on cars – many imports – Russian, Japanese, European etc. The cars can have the driver side on either side.
-Mongolians are good and known for Wrestling, Judo, Taekwondo and Karate
-In the distance in the flat fields you can see black houses which are the winter homes for the nomadic.
-The northwest portion of Mongolia has the biggest sand dunes and a beautiful lake equivalent to the one out west we are visiting according to Serjee.
– Road etiquette. You can cut into the other lane to pass vehicles. If you are looking to pass a truck and are behind them, they will signal left telling you there is oncoming traffic and when it’s safe to pass they will signal right then you thank them with a hazard lights
05/02/25
Ulaanbaatar – Yoliin Am Valley – 2-9°C sunny, windy and drier air
Mongolia is known as the land of blue skies. The sun rose at 5AM and indeed there are blue skies. The air was much drier than China that my hands become sand paper. As for temperatures, the tank tops went away.
Think spring in Toronto – could be 20°C but could also be -5°C in a day. The morning drive was 2°C sunny but windy. When the sun is on you, it feels amazing but the moment it isn’t it is chilling. It did slowly warm up to maybe max of 12°C.
Our Tour Guide for this portion was Serjee (ser gee) – a super fit 51 year old grandmother with 3 kids of her own – age 11, 25 and 26. She also has 2 grandchildren. She studied Humanities. She use to be a Nurse turned Freelance Tour Guide who learned English from a Dutch Nurse. She grew up in the North West area where she rode camels everywhere and home to the biggest sand dunes (Gobi has the tallest). When she worked in a hospital, she would travel from her ger in -50°C and walk 7-8KM each way to get to work. Wrapped in wool and feathers from camels and hawks to keep her warm.
Our driver was Buynaa who had just finished a 700KM journey and just covered another 600KM to come and drive us out to the Gobi Desert & back. Buynaa is from the North where the deer are from. He has 3 kids. He is quiet and observant but a very gentle soul. He is passionate in what he does and knows the routes with no maps and just intuition. He takes pride in his job and takes real good care of his vehicle.
Our vehicle to handle all the terrains was a Soviet era Russia van – the UAZ0452 Buhanka. High up with one cozy passenger seat, the middle row doesn’t have seat belts but has a table with built-in USB power. The back row has seat belts.
Traffic in Ulaanbaatar is horrible and no joke. School starts at 8AM. For people to drive their kids and get them to school for 8AM, they need to be on the road by 5AM. The kids can sleep in the car. There are 3-5 lanes but still traffic. The main roads were made it soviet days but since then the population has grown 2.5X.
We finally made it out of the city to a single lane road going each direction and we were flying. The speed limit on highways is 80KM/H however there are so many potholes so the lines are just guide lines in certain areas and you have to weave to avoid them.
You do have to watch for horses & cows crossing the road like squirrels back in Toronto. The fields are long and vast. Cows, horses, goats, eagles & camels just roam free.
Just like Toronto after the winter thaw, huge potholes not as well maintained so our driver Buynaa weaved as much as he could for a smoother ride.
The area is still developing as you see a mixture of new builds with some gers (traditional yurt homes).
We stopped in the 2nd/3rd province for lunch at Royal restaurant. We had Guriltai Shul (vegetable soup with mutton) and Khuushuur (fried minced mutton or beef meat pockets) that are the size of empanadas. The mutton from this province is tastier because the animals eat lots of chives grown around. We also had Suutei Tsai (salted milk tea with little yellow rice and tastes like wheat/barley tea).
Across the street by the stadium, there was a horse race happening – The Eefes cup. The riders range from 5-8 year olds. We had perfect timing to catch one of the ends of the race. The race is 14KM long. Adults ride 25-28KM courses with the older horses.
Back on the road passing 2 more provinces then a washroom break. No squat toilets in sight but need to still carry your own toilet paper.
We made a stop at Dalanzadgad Gate where there are statues to honour the 3 Queens and camels. This city of Dalanzadgad serves as the entry point to the vast Gobi Desert. Our final stop for the night was Cozy DZ where we stayed in tourist gers (yurts). The shared toilet/showers are their own little building.
Wonderful warm dumpling soup dinner (potatoes, onions & carrots) and delicious spicy cucumbers for dinner.
After dinner, Serjee taught us the Ankle Bone games. This was what many grew up playing instead of Lego or dolls.
The animals:
Camel – if the bone is on it’s tall side concave
Horse – flat
Sheep – laying down with a mound
Goat – concave side
05/03/25
Yoliin am Valley – Khongor els sand dunes
730AM breakfast. Bread, cheese, grilled onions, sausage, cucumber & tomatoes with a warm juice made from local fruit – sea buckthorn.
Went for a snow covered hike in Yoliin Am Valley – 2800M over sea level. We went from paved road to dirt roads. Buynaa skillfully drove us through it. We saw some wildlife (Ibex & Hika (desert hamsters)).
We did a 2.5HR hike all the way to the narrowest part and back. We thought it would be really muddy but still loads of snow and ice covering the ground. By the time we finished our hike, the trail looked completely different as the snow melted. It really warmed up from the day before that I could just dawn a t-shirt or maybe a hoodie over a t-shirt.
Tod Zoogiyn Gazar Тод Зоогийн газар for lunch. I got the Mutton hand cut short noodle soup with Süütei Tsai (milk tea) and we shared a plate of veggies.
Dirt roads to get us to our ger near the sand dunes. Let me tell you this section was incredibly bumpy but beautiful. The Gobi Desert once was all under water before it dried up leaving different sections with different attributes such as a sand area or vegetative. Loads of different colours. We even saw some endangered black tailed gazelles running in the fields.
We got to ride camels with the Khongor Els sand dunes as the backdrop – not bad. Just remember, approach camels from their left side. Don’t use the stirrups to get up.
After our ride, we drove nearby from our home base of Gobiin Tugul Guesthouse to climb up the sand dunes. It was a little bit of work to get up but the view is definitely worth it to peak over the top ridge to the other side and see both sides. Highly recommend switching to sandals/flip flops instead of shoes if you have them.
The land of the blue skies unfortunately was cloudy so no strong sunsets but the warmer weather I’ll take.
Had dinner at the guesthouse restaurant – Kimchi Pork Belly on rice. Our guide & driver didn’t like it as much. They say Mongolian aren’t use to spicy food like theirs. Since there are a lot of Korean tourists, the food is slightly more catered to their tastes. We even saw a bunch of the Korean tourists bring their own seasonings & provisions such as Gochuchang and seaweed.
I went for a shower right after dinner but the other tourists used all the hot water up.
Being in the middle of the desert, the only power source are generators. The generators turned off at 11PM. I was hoping to see stars but unfortunately it was overcast.
05/04/25
Bayanzag Flaming Cliffs – 14°C – sunny – incredibly strong 68KM winds
Woke up in the middle of the night to sounds of rain and strong winds. So happy we climbed the sand dunes the previous day.
We had oatmeal/congee with goji berries & pumpkin seeds, a fried egg, sausage, bread & Mongolian fried dough.
Off we drove towards Bayanzag on all dirt roads. The winds continued to be incredibly strong averaging 68KM/H. The route we took was in the valley which is known for strong winds. We stopped by a well to pour out water in the trough for the animals and that water got blown away the first round of pouring.
Stopped off at another well shared between 5 farmers where a farmer was giving water to her cows & horses.
Our next stop was in the small village of Bulgan where they are known for growing tomatoes in greenhouses using water from the underground oasis. It was incredibly windy and the Ger restaurant Serjee planned for us to have lunch was super packed with tourists. Luckily she ordered ahead but we ate in our van instead of the restaurant. We ate camel meat with rice, coleslaw & a fried meat pocket. Can’t forget the salted milk tea. Camel tasted like beef stew.
Our accommodation for the evening was Gobi Tour Tourist Camp in Bayanzag and it was about a 20KM drive from lunch (this is considered a short distance on this trip).
We were hoping for the winds to calm down as our afternoon activities were the infamous Bayanzag Flaming Cliffs Баянзаг (where dinosaur eggs found). We made it to the Information centre to watch the short documentary. When we came out, the wind had pushed the dust away so we could visibly see the cliffs but decided to check into our ger first and rest. We ended up hiking through the Flaming Cliffs around 6PM but it was overcast and the winds were still rather strong. My eyes & ears were filled with sand. Certain sections, it felt like the wind would push us off the cliff.
There were a few stalls at the base selling handmade souvenirs. We indulged and bought a few handmade camels made of felt and at that point covered in desert sand. 15K MNT for the keychains and 17K MNT for the medium sized camels.
After the Flaming Cliffs, we went straight to dinner at the accommodation. We had salad, rice with beets, mashed potato and chicken with sauce.
Gobi Tour Tourist Camp had 24HR power but no wifi. It has an updated modern restaurant. You can upgrade to Villas instead of staying in the gers. Their shower & toilets seemed upgraded compared to the previous night. There is even a shower attendant. However, 4/6 showers were working and one stall has 2 showers side by side with nothing separating them.
What we learned was that with our Airalo esim, it uses Skytel network which works well in the city but doesn’t work well anywhere else. Unitel & Mobicom have better network coverage.
05/05/25
Bayanzag to Baga Gazriin Chuluu ruins – 6-11°C – cloudy with light sprinkle of rain but less wind and a little hit of sun
530AM call time for Serjee & myself to head back to the Flaming Cliffs for sunrise. Our accommodation is close enough we can walk over (about 20min walk over).
We were hoping for actual Flaming Cliffs but we got a slightly kindle instead as the clouds were blocking the sunrise from taking full form. At least the winds had died down and I could actually open my eyes and not have sand in them.
For breakfast, we had a light buffet style serving sausage, eggs, soup with camel meat (the best part}, bread with jams, pancakes with honey, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, watermelon, apples & oranges.
Made it back to Dalanzadgad (finally back to paved roads & a little city) to refuel. Driving halfway back to Ulaanbaatar.
It was a blanket of cloud with a little sprinkle of rain until we hit Tsogt-Ovoo for a toilet break. Once we got back in the car, the sun just decided to shine.
Stopped by a small village called Khuld and had lunch at Hantai 300 (a restaurant in a Ger). We ate meat with noodles as well as steamed dumplings of course with a side of tea.
Back on the bumpy paved road with oh so many potholes.
Major off-roading onto rocks & stone ground. Through a narrow pass to Baga Gazriin Chuluu ruins consisting of granite slabs. We hiked through 2 areas – the old monastery and a cave.
We stayed at Erdene-Ukhaa. Dinner was a seaweed soup with slaw, mashed potato, meatballs and rice. The facilities are large & the gers are really nice and cozier than the previous ones.
The moonlight was incredibly bright but I was able to see some stars.
05/06/25
Gobi Desert enroute to UB – 6-14°C – sunny little wind
Final day of the Gobi Desert portion of our tour. Woke up for sunrise.
Buffet style breakfast consisting of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, sausage, eggs, onion pancake, boortsog (fried dough) – (crunchy, soft inside & slightly sweet) with all the fixings – sweet or savoury including caviar/fish roe from Russia, butter or sweet blueberry jam.
Back on the rocky roads until we made it closer to UB where paved roads reappeared.
Still amazed by Buynaa for being able to navigate with no digital GPS, just tire markings on the ground.
We had lunch on the outskirts of UB. Got fried noodles with mutton, onions, carrots & potatoes as well as a mutton noodle soup and fried ribs. Of course we had more milk tea. It was a lot.
After lunch, we said goodbye to Serjee as she lives out of the City Centre. It would take her 2-3hrs to get back out after dropping us off.
Going into the City Centre requires patience. Traffic is brutal – bumper to bumper even at 1230PM. 3 lanes going into the City Centre & 3-4 leaving. 1245-210PM – we finally arrived at our hotel. We went back to Edelweiss Art Hotel Эдельвайс Зочид Буудал.
We put our things down then finally went to explore UB. Tell me why the shutter of my DSLR decided to give up early midwalk. Our plan was to go shopping but this was an unexpected addition. I started looking for Camera stores and Camera repair stores. I walked into one store and there a younger guy who spoke little English. He walked me over to the Camera Repair guy in a basement store who was shooting Passport photos. That man looked at my camera, made a call to a few people but no luck with finding a replacement shutter part.
We continued with our shopping in the meantime but looked for other options. Mongolia from my experience isn’t the place to find great deals or the latest models for electronics especially for cameras. The options I did find were camera models a few years outdated with prices more expensive compared to prices available back in Canada.
In the end, I found a store on the 4th floor of a building called Camera World. It definitely had more options to choose from but ultimately, I went for a Sony Rx100 VII for 3500000MNT ($1300CAD). It was about $600-800CAD cheaper than I would have paid brand new in Canada. Wondering why it was that price, the box indicates that the product should only be sold in Korea.
At that point, it was a great deal and I wanted to have a camera better than my phone camera for the remainder of my trip.
Our hotel was very central to the main attractions of UB. The main focus for our shopping was the Central Post Office, the Flower Centre and the State Department store Улсын Их Дэлгүүр.
Andrew grabbed stamps at the Post Office. The Flower Centre has flowers on the main floor but the 3rd floor holds the better priced souvenirs. The State department store has a grocery store (Nomin Hypermarket) on the main level/basement level. The Department store is the place to go to purchase warmer clothes if needed. They also have souvenirs on the 6th floor but we found they are pricier but much more variety.
We walked around a bit more going west all the way to Naran Mall. The main artery we walked through is heavily influenced by Korean products especially in all the supermarkets and Convenient stores such as CU or GS25.
We had dinner at Tomodachi – Asian street food. I got a bimbimbap 23K MNT ($8.95CAD) & Chingis beer 13K MNT ($5.06CAD). Before walking back to our hotel, we walked the Chiggis Square (Sukhbaatar Square) with the giant statues.
