A Trans-Mongolian Journey - Part Three Mongolia

Mongolia is probably one of the wildest and best holiday destinations in central Asia and never fails to reward the intrepid visitor who ventures outside the capital city. Cheap trips can be organised with your hostel in Ulaan Bataar. More great insights from Dave Small from his Trans-Mongolian journey.

Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia's capital, can be best described as whelming. Not underwhelming, not overwhelming, just whelming. Beyond the locomotive graveyard near the station, the black market and the odd statue Chinghis Khan ("I thought it was Genghis Khan", "Shut up - he was man of the millennium you know, so we'll call him whatever we want!") there's not a great deal on offer. However, stepping beyond the capital is one of the highlights of the Trans-Mongolian. Here, you can experience the world's sparcest population - less than two Mongolians per square kilometre. And these two Mongolians live the simple life, living it up in gers (round tents) with minimal running water, with a few trusty horses, a few goats from which to glean some truly foul milk. That said, the simple life doesn't stop many having the telly in the corner of the ger, presumably for their weekly dose of Chingis Cowell on Mongolia's Got Talent. However, it's hard not to be impressed with the Mongolians and their nomadic life; typically they will stay at a camp for three months, tending to their flock of goats, sheep and horses, before moving along again, remaining almost entirely self-sufficient. The landscape is fantastic - vast and unpopulated. It's just you and a whole lot of wild horses.

You should program at least 4 days for Mongolia, preferably more. A three day trip will give you a taste of what Mongolian life is all about, but embark on a two week trip and you'll see all manner of landscapes, stretching right to the Gobi Desert. Nearly all organise trips through a travel agency or hotel in Ulaan Bataar, for which you can expect to pay circa US$35/day all inclusive. Satisfyingly, you may well find yourself getting about in a hardy, Soviet era 4WD van. We named ours iVan, because (a) it was a van (b) it was Russian, and (c) it's habit of giving travellers a hard time reminded us of Ivan Milat. Mongolians' habit of driving anywhere but the road makes for an interesting travel route, as you will find out. Accommodation is usually provided in a ger, which comfortably sleeps around 5. With a well stoked pot-belly stove in the middle, it is always warm and makes for a good communal area. If given the choice, try to steer away from larger ger encampments, in favour of staying at family gers. There are many options for sites and activities along the way, including horse riding, camel riding, Monasteries, waterfalls and thermal baths. Generally a trip can be easily tailored to suit, provided there are the numbers.

Setting off from Ullaan Bataar in the direction of Russia, you will very quickly have a taste of what the next part of the journey will be like. This may be because locals are trying to use you as a mule to smuggle goods, or maybe you've had your valuables stolen (be warned!), but hopefully it's because you will have settled into your cabin, possibly even cracked the top from a bottle of vodka. The smuggling of goods, mostly clothes, on this section of the trip is certainly entertaining - you'll probably find middle aged Mongolian ladies hiding boxes of clothing amongst your baggage, which in turn gets bartered for smoked fish along the way. The landscape will also become more in line with what you could expect from the remainder of the journey - kilometre after kilometre of birch trees. The final few hours into Irkutsk is one of the more prettier sections of the whole journey, as you pass along the southern edge of Lake Baikal.