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We’re off to Mongolia next week for a 4x4 self drive trip. We’re using Drive Mongolia for the rental and having real trouble getting useful info out of them
Questions about what is included, ruote advice etc are pretty much ignored and after a week of not responding they sent us an invoice for the wrong amount of days
Now we know from experience this is all part of travelling to these countries and to be expected, and they have some decent reviews so we’re sure it’ll be fine once we actually turn up at their office but if anyone has direct experience of a similar trip would be great to get a few pointers like what areas were good, anything to avoid and anything to bring that we might not have thought of
…just managed to speak to them on the phone. Much reassured, he speaks good English and will amend the invoice for us. He also promised to give us help with route once we get there. However a bit of advice if anyone else has done similar before would still be great so we have an idea once we get there
Following.
Mongolia has been on my wishlist for too long.
Not relevant one bit but Uzbekistan was amazing. Kyrgyzstan is also on my list
On my list too. Food is meant to be fantastic.
Nothing really to add except that ever since I watched The Story of the Weeping Camel I've wanted to go there.
Are you a seasoned traveller of those parts or is this a long held ambition? Tell us more, post what plans you do have, and pics when you get back please!
A friend of mine once lived there for a year or two. All I really remember is horror stories of only having potatoes or cabbages to eat for months on end. But that was years (decades)ago. And on a very modest budget.
Junior lived on and bartered melons. He found Mongolia monotonous, just kms of driving on crap roads. However, he loved Turkey and Iran.
Food was not the highlight of our trip. My wife and I spent three weeks horse riding there a few years back.
Amazing place if you like horses and not people! We had all the milks (horse, yak, reindeer, cow, sheep/goat). I think it is kumis that they ferment from horse milk. They then distill it which tastes as good as you imagine it might. I welcomed the cheap vodka to burn away my taste buds. Thankfully you can ride a horse under the influence.
We went to the okhran) Valley and rode north. Ended up very near the russian border. Khuvsghul lake.
Any touristy sites were minimal. Mostly we were there to be be in the middle of nowhere.
Culturally they didn't seem to do plans and organising like westerners. Very much in the moment and take it as it comes. So your guy sounds similar to my experiences.
Culturally they didn’t seem to do plans and organising like westerners. Very much in the moment and take it as it comes.
Sounds about right for a largely nomadic society that didn’t have clocks, and lived to the seasons.
<p>Sounds like exactly what we’re after jonba!</p><p>This is actually our honeymoon, an unusual choice but having not been able to do any adventure travelling lately between Covid, injuries and personal issues we are keen to get out and explore again. </p><p>We have always wanted to travel and back in 2017 a new job and 200% pay rise meant we could start doing it. Between then and 2020 we travelled India, Cambodia, Nepal etc and loved getting away from the busy tourist areas. We considered the usual beach destinations but were uninspired until we happened to look at Mongolia and it just seemed like the perfect adventure before we potentially add members to the family and can’t do such things for a while!</p>
You might get some helpful info on routes etc if you head over to Horizons Unlimited (if you haven’t already)
https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/northern-and-central-asia/
It’s a lot quieter than it used to be pre Covid but there’s a lot of info on there.
Nice one mrpaul, looks like a good resource that!
Uzbekistan was also on our list but from what I could tell it’s all about the cities, culture and architecture and just uninhabited desert in between. Is that the case or is there some scenery out there too? Defo somewhere we want to visit but seemed like Mongolia had more to offer
<p style="text-align: left;">No but went to Kazakhstan in the 90s... it was ermmm interesting not in a good way. I was there for work, if you liked kalashnikovs, land cruisers, grey desert and the shits it was tip top.</p>
Food is meant to be fantastic.
LOLOLOLOL
My sister was there for a while, said it was grim - basically lamb fat and rancid milk/cheese stuff. Mind you she was working rather than holidaying.
So we went!
It was the most incredible adventure we could have hoped for. We drove 1800 miles, got stuck in mud and sand, got lost every single day and met the most lovely hospitable nomadic people
I feel like I could write a book on the 2 week trip but the main things were the variation in scenery, one day I’m in my boxers climbing a sand dune, 3 days later we’re driving through a snowstorm and very nearly got stranded up a mountain pass. Saw vultures, camels, foxes, marmots, pikas and loads more. The high mountains were amazing but the 360degree flat horizon steppe and endless Gobi sand dunes were also amazing places to be
We saw the Milky Way whenever it wasn’t cloudy, I loved driving across mountain passes and through mud and sand and the locals often invited us in and gave us variations on very smelly goat cheese, in return we gave them herbs, torches, rizlas and colouring books
Thoroughly recommend trying it out!
Awesome.
We definitely need a lot more info and a link to your photos please.
Loads of questions and don't know where to start.
Were you on your own?
Did you book any accommodation or just Rock up each night?
Where did you go and for how long?
Always wanted to go to Mongolia.
Haha yeah like I say, I could write a book!
Photos still need sorting, but I was with my wife, this was our honeymoon! We slept in the popup roof of our 78 series Land Cruiser wherever we fancied once we were tired each night, no options for accommodation apart from staying in nomad’s Gers, which would have been awesome but the Gers are tiny and our half hour visits for directions and food kinda reached the limits of the fact they spoke zero English and we could only say hello and thankyou!
Two great things were firstly not having anyone ever remotely give us the impression they wanted money, wherever else you go in the world there’s almost always an angle to extract some kind of tourist tax. Secondly how they were just baffled to see a couple of Europeans driving around when they must barely even see other locals! We waved at everyone we passed and almost 100% of the time they stared in disbelief for a few seconds then smiled and waved back (a couple exceptions when we were really high up and remote and I think they were probably genuinely and rightly concerned we were going to get stranded somewhere)
Also, skeletons and dead stuff everywhere! Really cool
We did 9 days with the truck, which meant mostly 12hr driving days without much stopping, but that’s what we set out to do
The only bad thing is this has ruined holidays now, there is no way it can be topped!
Brilliant!
I must admit I learnt to horse ride for our trip. It took a few years to get to a standard where Id be happy on an unschooled, challenging horse in the wilderness. I never found anything as motivating after that to keep it going.
But views from camp like this are hard to come by.
The only places I've ever been that might match it are in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Have a look at the Demster Highway? 22 years (!!) ago I spent a summer mooching around that part of the world with a canoe. It was remote although O+G exploration has moved things on a bit since then.