Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia?Hohhot, China (overnight train) | 14 July, 2006 | $39.76 (train ticket) The train from Ulaan Batar, Mongolia to Beijing, China was booked weeks in advance but I had no trouble getting a ticket to Hohhot, China. I enjoyed Beijing during Phase I of my trip but it made more sense to head…
Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia | 10 July, 2006 | $5 USD This was my third (and last) time back in Mongolia’s capital and finally time for The Naadam Festival! This is the busiest time of the year in the capital and I had booked this bed months in advance?one of only a handful of times I…
Erdenedalay, Mongolia | 7 July, 2006 | $3.33 USD The last night in The Gobi Desert and a really nice family to stay with. The owner’s children were running around play fighting among the rusted out remains of old cars surrounding the ger. She even found a toilet seat and constructed a “Western-style” toilet in…
Bayanzag, Mongolia | 6 June, 2006 | $3.33 USD Still in the middle of nowhere. My van-mates played frisbee in the desert while I sat behind the ger watching the sun set and drawing in my journal. There was an amazing thunderstorm this night and my driver caught and tormented a poor baby hedgehog. This…
Hongoryn Els, Mongolia | 5 July, 2006 | $2.50 USD This group of gers was at the base of some sand dunes which we rode camels on. The camels don’t really go on the sand dunes which is a shame, because walking on the sand dunes is much harder than walking to the sand dunes.…
Dalanzadgad, Mongolia | 4 July 2006 | $3.33 USD Dalanzadgad?the big city in the Gobi! This is the only time during our 8-day trip that we were able to take a shower (at the public bath house for $0.67). The shower felt great but walking back to the house through the dusty streets left me…
Tsagaan Suvarg, Mongolia | 3 July 2006 | $3.33 USD Night two on my Gobi Desert trip was a stop with a family that felt like the middle of nowhere and going to the bathroom in the middle of the night was pretty scary if you didn’t keep your bearings and head back in the…
S?m Kh?kh Burd, Mongolia | 2 July 2006 | $5 USD This was our first stop on my second van trip around Mongolia with five strangers?this time through the Gobi Desert (skip ahead and read the entire trip report here if you like). After 9 hours driving from Ulaan Bataar we almost didn’t make it…
Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia | 1 July 2006 | $5 USD I made this hostel my home base in-between trips to the countryside. I had a number of different rooms, this being a typical dorm room you’ll see in Mongolia. The cost included a breakfast which was basically just tea and toast in the kitchen. If…
Ambarbayasgalant Khiid, Mongolia | 27 June 2006 | $3 USD This was the first town we’d seen in a while, the second monastery of the 10-day trip and it was a bit of a detour off of the paved road we’d been driving on. Because of its remote location nestled between hills it was one…
Hutag Ondor, Mongolia | 26 June 2006 | $2.50 USD This wasn’t really a town at all, just a handful of yurts in the countryside in-between Khovsgol Nuur and our next stop (the monastery at Ambarbayasgalant). We didn’t arrive until 5:30pm and while we got settled a herd of aggressive horses invaded. As someone who’s…
Khovsgol Nuur, Mongolia | 25 June 2006 | $8.33 USD When we originally booked the van to take us around Mongolia we were supposed to stay at a town on the Southern tip of the lake (Khovsgol Nuur). Once we got there we realized that the town was actually so far from the lake that…
Moron, Mongolia | 23 June 2006 | $3.33 USD Yet another ger on the 10-day road trip in Mongolia. Moron was an actual town with streets, public buildings and Soviet-inspired statues. We entertained ourselves with jokes about the town full of Morons but it was mostly just a pit stop in-between The White Lake and…
Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur, Mongolia | 22 June 2006 | $3.33 USD Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur, also known as “The White Lake,” is a beautiful lake surrounded by rolling green hills. I stayed in this ger for two nights with four other travelers who were sharing a van with me on a 10-day roadtrip around Mongolia, Northwest…
Tsetserleg, Mongolia | 20 June 2006 | $3.33 USD I stayed in this ger with four other travelers who were sharing a van with me on a 10-day roadtrip around Mongolia, Northwest of Ulaan Baatar. The white concrete building in the distance is the toilet and you can see the son standing on the fence…
Karakorum, Mongolia | 19 June 2006 | $3.33 USD I stayed in this ger with four other travelers who were sharing a van with me on a 10-day roadtrip around Mongolia, Northwest of Ulaan Baatar. Surprisingly, most gers had plastic “linoleum” laid out on the floor and a single lightbulb powered by a car battery…
Me-go Mix: Track 3 “Ji Xiang San Bao (?????)” — Burenbayaer To download using Windows “right click” and save to disk. Mac users, you know what to do. If there’s one song that reminds me of my recent travels in China it’s Ji Xiang San Bao. During 2004’s Phase I, a handful of pop songs…
Could it be? There’s new maps up! Okay, the Mongolian flag sucks and there’s no data for NW China or Kyrgyz but it’s something. If it makes you feel any better, I took a ton of souvenir and sketchbook photos for the relevent sections but haven’t gotten around to writing the code and resizing the…
I know you’re waiting to hear about my “hiking” in Kyrgyzstan but while I’m working on that click here for the much-requested write up about my trip to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. As always, you can also click on the “Mongolia” category in the sidebar to get to those entries.
The Naadam Festival is the biggest festival of the year. It’s most well known for the unique form of wrestling but also showcases horse racing, archery, anklebone shooting and various dancing and celebration. Because this year is the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Mongolian state Naadam included more ceremonies and celebrations than normal.…