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 right direction in the pitch black night.

The price included breakfast and dinner cooked by the family/owners. We made the driver’s son eat most of the dinner, which was a sort of breaded pocket of purple organ meat. I really tired to eat it out of hospitality but even ketchup didn’t help disguise the smell. Finding a ger full of drying meat covered in maggots didn’t help either! Breakfast was instant noodles, which is what I had brought for lunch. I do love ramen!

Süm Khökh 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 to this place. Our driver, despite being “from the desert”, got incredibly lost on the way and tried to get us to stop at a random ger where he asked for directions. Two of us insisted we find this place because we didn’t want to displace an entire family from their ger. We also figured that if we didn’t find the correct starting place for tomorrow’s long ride we’d be spending more than 9 hours in the van for the second straight day. A few of the others wanted to stay in the random ger instead of continuing to drive. This would be the first of many clashes between the group over the rest of the 8-day trip.

Although this hotel was basically in the middle of nowhere its named for the ruined ‘castle’ nearby. We arrived too late to do much exploring but did enjoy a nice sunset.
Despite the overpriced cost we were responsible for cooking our own food brought from the capital on the wood floor of the main room.

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 you got up too late it would all be eaten and the butter melted so I didn’t get too much to eat. I did stop by a local grocery store for supplies and made dinner a few times when I wasn’t eating at the English or Irish pub. Before you judge me did I mention I had to eat organ meat in Mongolia? My fish and chips was well-earned.

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 of the few monasteries in Mongolia spared by invaders. The owner of this ger, who bore a striking resemblance to Mr. Miyagi, lived in a concrete house and even had a mailbox. His dog watched over the ger, which stood in his side yard, throughout the night.

This was also the first town where we met a Peace Corps volunteer, although I had seen countless numbers of them in the hostels and pubs in Ulaan Bataar. She showed us her accommodations—a simple one-room concrete bunker.

The price included dinner and breakfast and cooked by the family/owners.

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 not used to hanging around large, somewhat wild animals I tried to keep my distance. At this point we were still 30km (19 miles) away from the closest paved road—quite far to travel on dirt tracks—but getting closer to the capital every day. You can see a photo in my gallery of the outside of our ger as well. You can see our driver eating dinner on the stovetop in the middle of the photo although he usually insisted on sleeping in the van.

The price included breakfast and cooked by the family/owners.

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 we would need to be driven there whenever we wanted to visit it. The five of us refused to stay and forced our driver to drive us along the Northwest edge of the lake to find a campsite. We got stuck in the mud a few times and eventually settled on a very high-end camp (for lack of any other options). Because a group had cancelled we had the place to ourselves. We negotiated down from $25 per person to almost $8 and only slept two to a ger (instead of 5).

We stayed two nights in the beautifully decorated gers with hand painted beds, spending the day hiking around the lake or drawing by the shore and animal watching. We had to pay for the food separately but after six days of noodle soup and mystery organ meats we were happy to splurge a little for something edible. You would be excited about this food too if you’d previously had this strange breakfast and some form of mutton soup every day. Mutton is not my favorite. You can see the oddly clean camp of expensive gers in this photo in my gallery.

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 Khovsgol after an 11-hour drive that started off in the rain. Rain and the dirt tracks that pass for roads in Mongolia are not a good combination and our driver had to get out at times to wade through newly created streams barefoot checking for rocks before driving through.

The price included breakfast and dinner cooked by the family/owners.

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 of Ulaan Baatar. We stopped at an old volcano on the way here, did a little hiking to get a better view of the lake and went for a horse ride on the second day. The horse ride, by the way, was more expensive that the ger stay.

The price included breakfast and dinner cooked by the family/owners.

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 (my current layout is a bit narrow for these images, so to see the whole width click on the image and it will pop up).

Most villages out this way in Mongolia are simply a number of gers with a wooden fence around the property. We played basketball with the kids—an obvious influence of the large Peace Corps presence. Its not uncommon to come across a few gers in the middle of nowhere with a basketball net set up.

The price included breakfast cooked by the family/owners.

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 outside. The circle in the center of the roof opens for ventilation.

The price included dinner and breakfast cooked by the family/owners.