Our trip to Mongolia has no particular itinerary and we are planning on the go. We have our Lonely Planet guide and also heard some advice while in Russia.
July 7, we decided to go to the Gorkhi Terelj National Park, which is just 1-hour drive from Ulaanbaatar. There were again some roadworks which slowed us down, but that was not too bad compared to traffic in Ulaanbaatar - regardless of today being Sunday.
We paid a fee to enter the park, but we could not understand why as this whole area seems far from being protected and is littered with tourist gers and hotels - both for locals and foreigners. If authorities don't do anything about it, the beauty of the park will be destroyed by the hotels and tourist installations.
The park had impressive stone formations and beautiful hilly landscapes. We decided to take a circular route to come back to Ulaanbaatar. It was clearly marked on the maps, but was not always very clear in reality. Some parts required offroad driving. As we approached one of the villages, we noticed something going on. This is their local Naadam festival - competitions in archery, horse racing and wrestling. We have come just as horse racing finished, but just in time to see the wrestling. When we rejoined the main road, we were stopped by the police which asked Pablo to breath into a small device - festival time! Upon our return to the hotel, we went to the rooftop restaurant to enjoy Ulaanbaatar by night.
Now I (Anna) can't believe I am not in Russia. I've seen similar landscapes throughout our trip. Even the stones is something we saw in Ergaki and Krasnoyarsk, although covered in forests. According to the pictures, the Stone Town that we failed to visit in Ergaki had similar stone formations. The fact that everything is written in Cyrillic also makes me feel in Russia, although I don't understand a word...
July 8 was very relaxing. We spent the entire morning updating the blog and planning the trip further. We left the hotel at 3:30pm to have some Mongolian-style lunch (oh boy, it's heavy!). Then visited the largest souvenir shop (the commercial did not specify where) and local monastery with a very tall standing Buddha statue. We went back to the rooftop restaurant for a light dinner to enjoy the views over Ulaanbaatar and update the blog again. Tomorrow, we have to move to a different hotel. Our hotel is fully booked because of the Naadam festival...
July 7, we decided to go to the Gorkhi Terelj National Park, which is just 1-hour drive from Ulaanbaatar. There were again some roadworks which slowed us down, but that was not too bad compared to traffic in Ulaanbaatar - regardless of today being Sunday.
We paid a fee to enter the park, but we could not understand why as this whole area seems far from being protected and is littered with tourist gers and hotels - both for locals and foreigners. If authorities don't do anything about it, the beauty of the park will be destroyed by the hotels and tourist installations.
The park had impressive stone formations and beautiful hilly landscapes. We decided to take a circular route to come back to Ulaanbaatar. It was clearly marked on the maps, but was not always very clear in reality. Some parts required offroad driving. As we approached one of the villages, we noticed something going on. This is their local Naadam festival - competitions in archery, horse racing and wrestling. We have come just as horse racing finished, but just in time to see the wrestling. When we rejoined the main road, we were stopped by the police which asked Pablo to breath into a small device - festival time! Upon our return to the hotel, we went to the rooftop restaurant to enjoy Ulaanbaatar by night.
Now I (Anna) can't believe I am not in Russia. I've seen similar landscapes throughout our trip. Even the stones is something we saw in Ergaki and Krasnoyarsk, although covered in forests. According to the pictures, the Stone Town that we failed to visit in Ergaki had similar stone formations. The fact that everything is written in Cyrillic also makes me feel in Russia, although I don't understand a word...
July 8 was very relaxing. We spent the entire morning updating the blog and planning the trip further. We left the hotel at 3:30pm to have some Mongolian-style lunch (oh boy, it's heavy!). Then visited the largest souvenir shop (the commercial did not specify where) and local monastery with a very tall standing Buddha statue. We went back to the rooftop restaurant for a light dinner to enjoy the views over Ulaanbaatar and update the blog again. Tomorrow, we have to move to a different hotel. Our hotel is fully booked because of the Naadam festival...
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| Tourist gers |
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| Yaks |
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| Golden eagle traditionally trained for hunting and getting money from tourists for the photos |
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| Kids learn to ride horses before they can walk |
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| Traditional mongolian wrestling |
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| Wrestler in traditional wrestling attire |
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| Wrestler and wrestler's hat holders |
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| Gers are everywhere, even on top of buildings |
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| Health and safety in Mongolia has a lot to be desired. We found many open manholes |
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