"Mongolia : Simply & Unmaterialistic World" Top 5 Page for this destination Mongolia by Tulka

Mongolia Travel Guide: 1,090 reviews and 3,380 photos

Real Mongolia is out of UB, taken by Tulka

Mongolia, *Chinggis Khaan* not a Genghis Khan

Mongolia is a country of the Eternal Blue Sky and fascinating nomadic lifestyle was flourished for centuries, which is based on herding the livestock and very dependent on the nature environment. Mongolians have secret relationship with the heaven and believe that it’s their main protector. Mongolia is a huge country with less population and located the heart of the Central Asia just between two powerful countries China and Russia.
Once Mongolia was the largest Empire even known before which is united by Great Chinggis Khan and proclaimed as “Mongolian Unified State” in 1206, and the world was admiring the amazing military tactics and power of the Empire, Mongolia once was suffering under the rule of Manchu and the Tibetan Buddhism was imposed in 16th century as main religious the reason was to calm down Mongolian’s power and most of the man became monk and stayed in a monastery instead of mounting their horse and holding their sword and fight against them. Throughout the history Mongolians never lose their strength and never fell down on knees and never lose their unique nomadic culture. Even today you would be welcoming by kind hospitality and wide minded Mongolian people.
If you land in capital city with your imagination of nomadic culture, animals, people dressed in a rag, and living in a tent, migrating from here to there, probably you would see what you didn’t expect.
People drive their fancy landcruisers, hold expensive modern cell phone, beautiful girl wearing stylish cloths and walking graceful everything is signed in English nothing difference from your western civilization. This is the view of modern Mongolia. Just out of it the great wild life, real means of freedom depending and communicating only with nature less sense of time, the place to lose yourself.

Population: It has the population of 2.9 million people living sparsely over the country of 1,566,500 sq. Km, or equal to the twice of Texas. Mongolia has incredible low population density almost less than one person a square kilometer.
Education: It’s unbelievable that 85% of Mongolians are literacy, How nomadic people could study how to read a newspaper and how to write a love letter, that’s incredible, it’s considered one of the good influences of Russian communism,

Climate: Don’t be shocked if you see four seasons changes in one single day in early Spring…Well Mongolia has a sharply continental climate ranging between two extremes long harsh winter, dry windy spring, sunny hot summer and rainy wet autumn. In Mongolia more than 260 days are sunny even the middle of freezing cold winter sun will shine brightly. The average temperature in mid-winter falls -20 to -35*C, Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city In the world, around the northwestern part of Mongolia in the UVS lake is known one of the coldest places in Asia, The lowest temperature ever recorded is -58*C. But in the summer southern Gobi desert temperature climbs as high as 40*C. The most pleasant time to visit Mongolia is from May to September. When the flowers booming and grasses are rolling green,

Religion: Mongolian’s traditions and histories are closely tied to Buddhist and almost all of the ethnic groups ( 93 percent of the population) practice some Buddhism, lamaist Buddhism of the Tibetan variety is the traditional and dominant religious in Mongolia, after 1990 socialist control finished on religious and the Buddhism practice have grown rapidly, Kazaks, most of whom are Muslim, are the second largest ethnic minority including the 4 percent of the population nationwide and more than 85 percent the western province, Bayan olgy. Kazaks practices Muslim,
The nomads of the vast expanse of the Mongolian steppes shared a vision of the universe and the world of human experience that was characterized by religious concepts, rituals and magical practices that came to be known as shamanism from the word "shaman."

Nomadic way of living,

nomadic family with 10 kids in Arkhangai,

Seems that i never know the true meaning of Nomadic,
Staying in nomad family will help you to understand more about their life style, waking up before sun rises and start their endless work ,milking the cows and produce the milk products after one by one, boil the milk and make a Urum clotted Cream ( during boil the milk stirred up so well and keep the fire for hours and finally boom of the milk turns into Cream) , to make a yogurt, Aaruul dried curd( bitter tasting curd is a mixed with milk) from the beginning of the july Mongolian milk the mare and produce a Airag fermented Mare’s milk which tastes very strong and kind of alcoholic eventhough small kids starts drinking that in their age of 4 This is also the one of the reason why Mongolians are such a strong from the nature,
. During the summer people store enough food for the harsh winter, milk products, and lot of meat, Mongolians have very special way of storing the meat from the ancient time which called BORTS a dried meat Sliced fresh meat and hanged on in outside and within a month meat gets frozen and when the spring comes it gets dried so they can use it all during the hot summer and it’s ideal food for travelers for a long time trip , just taking a dried meat powder, and add in to the boiled water and make a cup of soup it’s nourishing and even could help you to survive frozen Mongolian winter.
Mongolians move four times a year once in a season looking for more better grazing grass for the livestocks, Sheep, Goat, Cow Yak and camel.
Nomadic Mongolians are people who has a destiny from the nature..looking the sitting sun and can know the weather of next days, seeing the marmot hole and can tell how much will be snowed next winter.
Normal Mongolian family has 3 kids in city and 5 or 6 kids in the countryside .they all live in one GER all together sharing the food, sharing the clothes and sharing the bed as well…this is the way of nomadic life. Living with them , riding a horse and herding the livestocks as a nomad, seeing unbroken horse taming, playing anklebone games with kids,,

Getting to Mongolia

Traveling by air to Ulaanbaatar is probably the most comfortable and fastest options available. There are direct flights from Beijing Berlin, Moscow, Tokyo, Irkutsk and Seoul then there are some network of airlines and destinations is planning to be added in recent future,
here is the list of Main airline companies check out the seat booking online is available,
-Miat
http://www.miat.com/

-Air China
http://www.airchina.com/

-Aeromongolia
http://www.aeromongolia.mn/

-Korean Air
http://www.koreanair.com/

-Aeroflot
http://www.aeroflot.ru/eng/

By Train:
Traveling by train is more adventure and you mor experience as well, basically train runs between Moscow & Beijing passing through Mongolia, Actually there are three options,
1. Taking the Trans -Siberian & go on to vladivostok
2.Take Trans-Siberian which goes to the north of Mongolia in Siberia & then change the line to China without entering to Mongolia
3.Trans- Siberian which goes direct line Irkutsk-Ulaanbaatar-Beijing,

check out the train ticket from Beijing to UB / online booking is available/
http://www.chinatripadvisor.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=42&Itemid=45

Apply visa:
Applyng a visa to Mongolia is quick proccesing! just contact the nearest Mongolian embassy or Consulate, detailed information check the embassy website:
*Mongolian embassy in USA
http://www.mongolianembassy.us/
*Mongolian embassy in Beijing
http://www.mongolembassychina.org/

Foreign Embassy and Consulate in Mongolia
http://www.mongoliatoday.com/info/embassies_abroad.html/,

Capital: Ulaanbaatar
Currency: Tugrug / 1 USD=1164tg, 1 EUR= 1537tg, 1 CNY=149tg /

Special Events
* Naadam festival /July 11-13/
*Traditional Lunar New Year /Jan, Feb/
*Golden Eagle festival /October 2-4/
*yak festival /august 15-18/
*ice festival / February 25/
*Tsam dance festival /september/
*camel polo / March 15/

Pros and Cons

Pros:*incredible to see horses are being able to gallop without any fence*
Cons:People are shy by the nature
In a nutshell:Imagine Mongolia with, horse riding tough Guys, Red cheeked cute kids,unbelieveable Reindeer people, Mare's milk & the Endless blue sky,

Last visit to Mongolia: Jun 2006
Intro Updated Oct 9, 2007
Add to Trip Planner (?)
Report Abuse

Reviews (22)

Cheapest way to get UB from Beijing, - Mongolia

Cheapest way to get UB from Beijing, Transportation (2)

Hi there!! I guess you are having a trouble to get Ulaanbaatar (UB) from Beijing (BJ). well there are international... more travel advice

Buddhist Temples are holy Places - Mongolia

Buddhist Temples are holy Places Local Customs (5)

In Mongolia more than 90% of the population is Buddhist, Originally comes from Tibet in sixteenth Century. All around... more travel advice

Mongolian's red Cheeks say how healty they are, - Mongolia

*Here is How to Know Who is... Favorites (4)

Have you even heard about Mongolian Blue Spot All Mongolian kids have a blue spot looks like a bruise on the back when... more travel advice

Ovoo in Arkhangai Province, Central Mongolia. - Mongolia

Heap of Stones are everywhere in... Local Customs (5)

Ovoo is a traditional monument associated primarily with the worship of the mountains and sky. Generally it is a heap of... more travel advice

Comments (20)

Reply
- Report abuse
mimiyu Oct 19, 2009 at 6:28 PM

I work at at the East Asia Institute at the UT-San Antonio. We had Enkhtuya Oidov from Mongolia to give a talk on Mongolia's conservation of natural resources. May I use the photo in our newsletter? We are a non-profit org. Thanks.
Reply
- Report abuse
Pavlik_NL Apr 19, 2008 at 1:22 AM

Spectacular beautiful and intreging page on an equally beautiful and intreging country. Recently saw the film "Story of the wheeping camel" - simply touching. Smile from NL, Paul
Reply
- Report abuse
lotharlerch Apr 19, 2008 at 12:02 AM

A great page! I hope to visit Mongolia one day.
Reply
- Report abuse
brewjohnson Apr 18, 2008 at 11:51 AM

Beautiful Terelj pics. Mongolia looks awesome!
Reply
- Report abuse
Mailo Apr 17, 2008 at 10:20 PM

Great homepage, cogratulations, I will reed it slowly. Regard from this side of the world in Honduras, central america.
Reply
- Report abuse
deeper_blue Apr 4, 2008 at 7:30 PM

Fantastic tips, maybe I'll get the trans sib through here one day, Any tips for me?
Reply
- Report abuse
CliffClaven Jan 9, 2008 at 4:33 AM

Beautifully written
Reply
- Report abuse
schwein Dec 1, 2007 at 4:11 PM

Great page! I'll travel there soon. :)
Reply
- Report abuse
pieter_jan_v Nov 16, 2007 at 8:13 AM

Love this page. PJ
Reply
- Report abuse
GenuinelyCurious Nov 3, 2007 at 2:31 PM

great shot of you and your friend with the locals