Known as the “Land of Genghis (Chinggis Khan) and Yurts, this land has been on my list to go to for sometime. Situated north of China, and south of Russia, this large landlocked country has some of the most beautiful scenery and skies with wide open spaces known to man. Elements of its communist past are all but eradicated and little by little opening up to tourism in a great way. With their yurt huts that can be taken and moved around from place to place to their wonderful horse treks, this country has it all.

A great place to stay at or travel with that gives you an authentic experience and tailor your every needs for a trip would be Stepperiders. Weather you want to have a yurt experience, they have a camp for you, or take off on a group horse trek for X days, they also have this for you. Some people decide to do a solo trek in which they can take their horse, food, and water for as many days that they want and explore the wide open country themselves. They can also provide trips to nearby national parks and book your every need. Nathalie whom I coordinated with has been living there for years and she always kept us in the loop of all the up to date information and is quite knowledgeable. I would not hesitate to travel with them again as their prices are fair and the food they cook at the camp is top notch.

Steppriders is a camp that has over 200 horses and caters to people from all walks of life.  It is not uncommon there to see families with kids sitting and talking with 20 something students who are still in university.  Sharing yurts with complete strangers and then becoming best friends.  There is enough for the kids to do with games and horse rides happen a few times a day at different lengths and intervals.  Things do not always run on time in Mongolia (like other parts of the world), but everyone staying at the camp as a community just learns to accept it and understand that this is the way things are and eventually, it will get done.

Ulaanbataar is the capital city and was once seen as just another soviet apartment block city, but since the early 90’s is being restored to actually look very beautiful.  While I did not spend much time there, you can certainly notice that they are trying to restore it to being beautiful and a city that people would want to go to and stay on their vacation. 

There are a plethora of National parks all over Mongolia and two of them are a short drive from UB and can easily be done in day trips.

Hustai National Park boasts a good chance to see Marmot’s which are a small rodent that lives in the ground.  The other attraction there is the last wild horses in the world called the Przewalski Horse.  These horses have not been domesticated and look very different than the regular domesticated horses that we are used to riding.  They are mostly found in the steppes of central Asia and at one time were extinct in the wild, but have been reintroduced.  It was very difficult to get near to these horses as you must keep within 300 meters of them, however I got as close as I could and got some pretty good photos of a small herd of them.  As you can see form the photos below, they look a lot different….

As you drive around (or ride horses) around the land you can see land from beautiful rolling hills to rocky lands.  A common sight it trucks full of horses are seen zooming down the highway as well as houses that are not surrounded by anything for miles.  A common sign on the side of the road would be a pole with flags surrounded by rocks and items of personal nature that people deem important.  It is a very ancient belief called Shamanism which is still practiced in pocketed parts of the world.  The legend goes that you take three rocks of varying sizes and walk in a circle and toss the rocks down each time.  Good Fortune is brought to those who do it…..

Another National Park which is in driving distance from UB is Terelj NP.  A few hours driving will take you through some lovely rolling hills, to pine forested mountains.  Here you can see the famous turtle rock which really does look like a turtle as well as Bactrian Camels, Eagles, Horses and Cows.  A walk up a steep path with beautiful Buddhist inscriptions on signs will take you to a beautiful temple that overlooks this once glacial valley.  Definitely a place you do not want to miss.

One of the highlights of Mongolia that I always wanted to see was the massive Genghis Khan statue.  The statue is about 40 meters tall and shows him on horseback on the bank of the Tuul River.  This is where he according to legend, found the golden whip.  The complex below has 36 columns representing the 36 khans from Genghis on.  This is part of a larger complex that when completed will spread acres in every direction.  This is definitely a great symbol for Mongolia as is the Eiffel Tower for France and Statue of Liberty for the United States.

Naadam Trek

Naadam is a festival that is widely regarded as the Olympics of Mongolia.  It has been going on for centuries in one form or another and I would regard it as the biggest holiday of the year.  The three games are Horse Racing, Wrestling, and Archery.  Women have started to participate in Horse Racing and Archery but not wrestling.  It has an opening ceremony which rivals that (not in pyrotechnics) of the Olympic opening games.  It is usually held on the 11-15 of each year in the capital of Ulaanbaatar, but it has smaller followings in other isolated parts of the country. 

I thought the horse trek was the best way to see the racing, so we took the horses from the Stepperiders Camp about 50 kilometers to a very isolated hill with Yurts set up for us and pretty much lived without electricity for the next three nights.  The advantage of being here is that we were a short 20 minute horse ride to the grounds where the horse racing was.

Riding a horse Mongolian style was something that I Should of practiced before as 50 kilometers was a long journey.  I can honestly say that after about 25 kilometers, almost every part of my lower body hurt.  As the sun beat down, I wondered how long it would be to the camp where we were staying.  Luckily a little while before sunset we arrived at the beautiful camp and had dinner and retired to our Yurts. 

The next day we saddled up our horses again to take them about 20-25 minutes to the fairgrounds where the first races were held.  Unlike the short spring of western horse races, these last anywhere from 15-30 kilometers with horses ranging from 2 years on.  What is even more amazing is that kids ride these horses.  Usually the younger horses race the shorter distances and so on.  Children from 5-13 are on the horse as jockey’s, but it is the horse who usually gets the credit as this tests the skill of the horse.  While I was not there for the beginning, I was there toward the finish line in which I saw some interesting things:  Horses coming in with no jockeys, a horse that broke its foot near the finish line, two jockeys hitting each other while each trying to pass the other up, and a myriad of other things.  We were able to see two races on the first day, and one on the third day which are always very exciting. 

From the first to the third day an area with 50 little yurt shops had suddenly transformed into a small city to watch these races, with people just about everywhere!!!!!  

The opening ceremony of the games is typically held on July 11 in the capital UB at the main stadium downtown.  Even though everything was dictated in Mongolian, you can tell that the 1 hour and 30 minute ceremony went through their history from the Mongols sweeping across the lands, to the unification of Mongolia, to Communist times, to the current democratic rule.  They used people of all ages in this ceremony and animals that they typically use on a daily basis in the ceremony.  Even thought it was hot out and we were on the lower deck and had some of our view obstructed, I was watching it with great enthusiasm at all time.  The pictures below (though not all of them) tell a wonderful story of this great country….

The mobs of people that came there from all ages were enthusiastic and ready to cheer on their great heritage:

The wrestling for me was somewhere anticlimactic as it was far on the field while we were up in the stands, but it was still fun to watch (although I lost track of time and thought they were still warming up).  There is either 512 or 1024 Wrestlers (unverified as I got two different stories) that compete in a single elimination tournament that consists of rounds.  The wrestlers lose when any part of their body touches the ground with the exception of their feet or their hands.  They do little victory celebrations as well as entering celebrations and there could be as many as 8 fights going on at one time.  While my photos were not that good, because of sun position and distance from wrestlers, I tried to catch the essence of this sport below:

My favorite even was the archery, which was great for photography and for watching.  This is a competition which has men and women participating each gender rotation games.  Men shoot the arrows from 75 meters away, while women shoot from 65 meters away.  This is played with teams of ten in which each archer is given four arrows to hit 33 surs (small blocks) which are set up on the other side of the field.  They compete in this in the traditional clothing of Mongolia which makes them very colorful.  When a person hits the target, the judge yells and puts his hand up.  You get more points for hitting the surs in the center although I do not know how many more.  The surs forming a wall are then put back together after each hit until the team is out of arrows.  The winners are then granted the titles of national marksmen or women….

Overall, I really enjoyed Mongolia and all it had to offer.  The people are inquisitive and friendly which is hard to find in all countries today.  Their culture loves to eat meat and wash it down with a shot (or many of vodka).   They live a hard life of sometimes moving from place to place or extremes in temperature from hot and cold during the year, but it does not weather their spirit or their great work ethic.  The kids are some  of the strongest I have ever seen as most are learning to ride and control a horse before they can walk, and often help their parents out with jobs around the yurts or house.   It was my pleasure to be hosted by Stepperiders and their great family of volunteers, friends that were on the track and workers.  I WILL DEFINITELY BE BACK!!!! THAT IS A PROMISE!!!