Mongolia Gobi Experience: Nature, Culture & Adventure
11 days jeep tour. Starting off from the capital of Genghis Khan traverse the legendary Gobi desert. Visit its rich dinosaur fossils sites and natural contrasts. Vast open spaces with dancing mirages and herds of camels, green meadows beneath towering dunes, glacier covered canyon – all these contrasts await you. Horseback and camel riding, hiking are the main activities. Overnights in traditional yurts, comfortable, rich cultural experience.
Travel through the best travel destinations of central and south part of Mongolia.
UNESCO world heritage “Orkhon Valley” and historic Kharkhorin.
Valleys and endless steppes with large number of herds of nomadic people alongside and visit family en route to see their unique way of nomadic life.
Arrival in Ulaanbaatar and transfer to a centrally located 4* hotel. Afternoon guided walking city tour will introduce you to the highlights of the city: the central city square with a grand statue of Genghis Khan. Then choose to visit one or two museums from the following: Museum of National History introducing Mongolia's history from early humans to modern era, Choijin Lama or State Oracle Residence-museum displaying best samples of Buddhist artwork and religious masks. A show of traditional music, throat singing and contortion at 6PM will be followed by a welcome dinner. ( D.)
After breakfast drive (5hr) to Mongol Els sand dunes - a spectacular area of steppes, sand dunes and granite mountains. The going is easy mostly on tarmac across wide open steppes with rolling hills in the background. After a lunch in a local visitor camp ride camels in dunes. Then make a short trip the ruins of a Buddhist monastery destroyed during internicine warfare in late 17th century. Dinner and overnight in traditional felt gers/yurts. Bathroom and shower facilities are in separate building. This afternoon you may as well visit a herdsman's ger and learn about traditions and chores of nomadic living. Dinner and overnight in a local ger camp.
Drive to Kharkhorin town where the 2nd son of Chinggis Khan built the capital of the Mongol Empire in early 13th century. Largely an experiment of city building in a pre-dominantly nomadic culture, Karakorum as it was known then never became a fully functional capital before it was demolished by invading Chinese Min Dynasty troops in late 14th century. Today the main attraction here is the monastery museum of Erdene Zuu established in 16th century by a Mongol khan as part of introduction of Buddhism as the main religion. The monastery then suffered almost a complete destruction during the anti-religion campaign of 1930-ies with just a dozen of temples surviving till present. Spend some time in the peaceful premises of the monastery and take a glance at a few surviving artifacts of the old capital. You may as well walk the earthen hills nearby that still contain remains of the imperial capital. Dinner and overnight in a local ger camp.
Leave the steppe behind and head (5hr) south into the desert area. As you move south the steppe turns saline and semi-arid, vegetation gradually thins out and less people come across our way. We may not encounter a human being for hundreds of miles, only endless bushy plains, camels and mirages. This is exactly where travelers say: “This is middle of nowhere”. Dinner and overnight upon arrival to a ger camp nestled by some weirdly shaped granite formations.
Back in vehicles and drive across vast arid plains to the Flaming Red Cliffs. The Flaming Red Cliffs is a paleonthology site where the first ever dinosaur egg nests were discovered by Americans in 1920-ies. Walk the labyrinths of rock hard sand and make your own discovery. Then you may visit a saxaul forest lying nearby. Saxaul actually is a desert bush that grows to a height of 2 meters and is a valuable soil supporting agent although the most popular fuel of local herders. Continue to a local ger camp for dinner and overnight.
Our next destination is the “singing” sand dunes majestically contrasting with the green meadows and black mountain ranges. Stretching for over 100km and reaching 200 meters in height they run side by side to a dark range of Sevrei mt and the green meadow of khongor river. Do the dunes really sing? Yes, they do; on a windy day a distant propeller hum is distinctly heard from the dunes. Fine sand is pushed up by the dominating western winds on the ridges. Gradually building up on crests it then collapses down the steeper slope thus producing the tremor of tons of sand rolling down. We will head to a ger camp next to the tallest dunes. Deserved showers, dinner and overnight.
The Singing dunes stretch for over 100km and reach 200 meters in height. They run parallel to the dark range of Sevrei Mt. A small oasis feeds a green meadow at the foothill of the massive dunes. Do the dunes really sing? Yes, they do; on a windy day a distant propeller hum is distinctly heard from the dunes. Fine sand is pushed up by the dominating NW winds on to the ridges. Gradually building up on crests it then collapses down the steeper slope producing the tremor of tons of sand rolling down. Today you may hike and climb the dunes. Riding 2 humped 'bactrian' camels is also an option. Sunsets are particularly beautiful for taking pictures here. Meals and overnight in the same camp.
Trip to another of the Gobi highlights, the “Eagle mouth” or Lammergeyer Gorge. Nestled between the beautiful peaks of the Three Beauties Mountains the gorge shelters a small "glacier" which remains frozen even on summer's hottest days. Wild Goats roam the steep cliffs. If very early spotting of the Wild Goats is guaranteed. At the entrance of the gorge is a small museum displaying samples of the area’s animal world. Back in the camp and we relax.
After breakfast we drive to Tsagaan Suvarga or White Stupa, extraordinary feature of clay that is 30-60 m high, 400 m long, colorful erosion red, yellow and purple etc. It was the ancient seabed. Its colors are outstanding early morning and evening at sun set for photo amazing shooting.
We drive 4-5 hours to UB. The remainder of the day is at leisure to self-exploration of the city or shopping.
Transfer airport for your return flight home. (B).
SUZANNE and BEATHi Batsuren,
As requested our short appreciation of our trip and your performance. Excellent service and support. Batsuren provided us with all the necessary information to prepare for our one month trip and included wisely our requirements regarding sights to be visited in the program. During the entire trip, the guide and our driver Balu were very informative, caring and discreet helpful.They were also very well prepared with the equipment, and the maintenance of the UAZ, over 4800km drive, was great. Great Customer Service by Mongolia Expeditions & Tours!!! With our very best regards and thanks, Beat and Suzanne
JanEmblem_BelgiumFrom May 25th till June 6th, we made a tour through a part of Mongolia, south of Ulaan Batar.
We visited only a part of the country, but the visits to Baga gazar, Tsagaan Suvarga, Yoliin-Am, Khongor Sand dunes, Bayanzag, Ongi Monastery, Orkhon Valley, Karakorum and Hustai NP, were mind-blowing. We had an excellent guide: Mrs. Uyanga Genendaram: she felt the perfect balance in steering the program and leaving space for indecent activities. Her English was outstanding. When one of the team-members got ill, she did whatever was necessary to movie care and medical assistance. Our driver was Mr. Tseren: he knew all the roads like his own pocket and drove us Thousands of kilometers through the beautiful landscape of Mongolia: w never felt even one moment unsafe. We choose for an alternating gas-camp and family stay which turned out to be a good choice since you get closer to the people's real life. We can only recommend Mongolia Expeditions as a 5-star organization. The trip was worth every cent!
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