It had been a while since Mom and I had taken a mother-daughter trip, so with life starting to return to normal, we made plans to reinstate them. With lots of options, we decided on Mongolia.
Many people gave us quizzical looks respectively whenever we mentioned where we were going as it is not a common travel destination – yet. However, this sort of made the journey even more exciting.
We booked an 8-day tour with Amicus Travel Mongolia focusing on being able to see Mongolia’s annual Naadam Festival towards the end of it.
Our tour started in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city, with just one night in a hotel before meeting the rest of our group and a driver, who took us all to the airport in the morning. Then, we were left to our own devices to figure out where to check-in and catch the morning flight to Murun (Moron as spelled on our boarding passes – was that a hint?!). Luckily, there were five of us together, so we figured it out. It was a short flight and then we met our tour guide and driver for the first three days of the tour.
A rather long and bumpy car ride took us toward Lake Khuvsgol in the northern part of the country which shares the waterway with Russia. It was a beautiful area with green mountains, herds of animals, untouched lands and fresh air. Actually, just the scenery reminded me of Trillium Lake at home in Oregon, but the Blue Pearl lake is called such for a reason. The water was rather chilly, but it was gorgeous to see.
We spent two chillier nights in the Ger camps, experiencing how the local nomads might live in these homes. It was a bit like ‘glamping’, only less glamorous. 
During this time, we visited a reindeer herd and explored the area with a visit to a couple of local families’ homes.
After a couple of days of this area, we then headed back to Ulaanbaatar for another night in a different Ger camp outside of the city area and compared the differences in herded animals as well as culture of the people.
We also experienced a bit of the spiritual side of the country in visiting temples both in and out of the city.
Of course, the highlight was seeing the festival with all its competitions from ankle-bone throwing to archery to horse racing to wrestling and the opening ceremony.
We toured the city and saw highlights as a close to the tour.
On the whole we enjoyed the trip. It was fun to see a completely different and fairly unknown country. While the history is rich with stories of Genghis (Chinggis) Khan, there is little known about its current status in the world.
With that said, I do not need to visit it again anytime soon. I might be interested to see its development in another 20-30 years since it is indeed a developing nation. Also, much of the tour was spent in a car getting from locations, which is not as fun. It reminded me a bit of the tour I took in Turkey.
As for recommending it, I’m not sure. I think if one has an interest in Mongolia or seeing a still fairly untouched country, then it is worth it. However, don’t expect the food to wow you or to be overly impressed with the tourism industry.
Click on the pic to see all trip pics!
Still, I’m glad I got to do another trip with my mama and to revive the travel bug in me! Now, the real question is, where to go next…? π
~T π
