A trip to the Gobi Desert

When I arrived in Ulan Bator on Tuesday, June 25th, I had no idea how beautiful this country actually is...

But even before the trip, I knew that I wanted to spend more time here to participate in a tour of the Gobi Desert. When I woke up on Wednesday morning and sleepily made tea in the hostel kitchen, I saw two unfamiliar faces sitting at the table in the common room. They had just arrived in Ulan Bator that morning on the Trans-Mongolian Railway. Like me, just a day later. Andral, the hostel mom, introduced us right away: Carla, a travel blogger from Brazil, Christoph from Stetten am Heuchelberg, who lives in Hamburg, and myself. The world is small! Less than 30 minutes later, we had decided to do a tour together. It was 10:30 am and we were supposed to leave at 1 pm. We had 2.5 hours to shower (we didn't know that this would be our last proper toilet and shower for the next 8 days), buy provisions for the journey, withdraw money, let our loved ones know that we would be almost offline for about 8 days, and pack our things...

At just after 1 pm, we were sitting in Mishka's Russian car in traffic in Ulan Bator. Zami, our guide, sat happily in the passenger seat, trying in vain to teach us the first Mongolian words... I only understood "schtaabrchkalaaugwiaschkchilabay"... let's just say it sounded complicated! 😉

Conclusion after 8 days: It still sounds complicated, and my pitiful achievement is limited to: hello, thank you, please, goodbye, the number 1, yes please? (on the phone), and that's it! 😂

Now to the trip... we drove a lot, I estimate about 1200 km. It may not sound like much to us, but when there are no roads or only off-road driving, it's prettttty long and very exhausting! Almost like training, because you tense your muscles the whole time 😄

We visited many great places in several provinces of Mongolia. Here, there is only one city, Ulan Bator, everything else is small villages, and the rest of the population lives scattered in yurts far away from civilization. We were even there 😉

It's difficult to put this unique and wonderful experience into words (especially if you don't want to write too much... 😉), but here are my impressions:

The "Maschina" and Mishka

We drove with Mishka, our driver, 52 years old and lovably crazy, in his Russian car. It's a typical off-road vehicle (goat or bread, maybe you remember?)

Mishka loves his car. In the morning, when he gets up and even before he brushes his teeth, he washes the Maschina. He tinkers with it every free minute, sleeps and lives in the car. Apparently even when he is at home (he made it clear to me that he moves into the car when his wife annoys him). Can someone tell Papa that maybe this would be something for him too? 😂

Mishka has many intolerances, such as fruit, eggs, and noodles. But what always works is fatty meat, cola, and vodka.

Our verbal communication was accordingly limited to the essentials: Bayarlaa (thank you) or Merci, cola, vodka, party dancing, net (Russian no), niiicce, suprrrrrr nice, and Naadam (Mongolian holidays and a big festival with wrestling, horse racing, and archery). Oh, and "chut chut". That means "a little bit". This expression was used so many times every evening when pouring until the vodka bottle was empty. Now you can imagine how much fun we had 😉

The non-verbal communication was easy and resourceful.

The Maschina bumped along with us over rough terrain and survived everything. Well, almost everything... on the way back, we had to stop to weld the wheel (??). Mishka drove the last 300 km on an asphalt road at 100 km/h. You could literally feel his joy of coming home soon in the wind 😄 But the roads are not like what we know... they have many potholes. So there was a loud bang, followed by many Mongolian swear words, 1 hour of repair in the middle of the road, another 30 km of driving at a speed of 30 km/h, and welding work afterwards. Zami, Carla, and I were having lunch in a small restaurant on the side of the road when Mishka, covered in oil, came to us with the word "Maschina" and a thumbs up, indicating that we could continue driving. Yay!!

Showers, running water, "proper" toilets? Why though?!

So... even though it was only hot on 4 days and cold and windy on the other days, a shower and a toilet to sit on with water to flush would have been nice...!!! But even THAT is part of Mongolian country life:

No running water, except for 2 days in a small village where we could "shower" with a trickle of water. No toilets as we know them, but a hole in the ground with 2 boards to stand on. That's it! If you're lucky, there's a little shack built around it for protection. If you're very lucky, there might even be a door 😂

Otherwise, the fun looks like in the pictures attached 🙈😂

At first, Carla and I thought: let's wait until we're in the village and then go to the toilet. In the end, it was exactly the opposite: it was better to go somewhere in the wilderness, because it was "more hygienic" than in the village on a "toilet".

Generally, nomads in the countryside only shower every 4-6 weeks. In between, they do a cat wash with rainwater or river water, if there is one...

I didn't wash my hands properly for almost 7 days. A challenge! Washing dishes is also not done very seriously here. Believe me, the feeling when I arrived at the hostel yesterday and could use the toilet and shower was INDESCRIBABLE!!! A real experience!! 😊

Accommodation

We either stayed with nomads in yurts in the countryside or camped. Regardless of where, the starry sky, the experiences, and the views were always breathtaking and unique.

I couldn't imagine before that you could see so many stars, shooting stars, and the Milky Way. Incredibly beautiful!

We spent the last night with a nomadic family, where we were allowed to help with their daily work. First, I herded the cows with the scooter to be milked, then I was allowed to milk, ride, and help make yoghurt. After that, we were invited to a kind of snuff tobacco ritual by the eldest member of the family. Fantastic experiences!!! Even though the saddle was too small for me when riding (not to mention the horse 😉) and the camel milk yoghurt didn't agree with my taste! 🙈😄

The landscape

For this, I can probably say the least, and even the pictures can hardly show the beauty of these different landscapes as I saw them... But I still want to show you the best pictures.

Conclusion

A dream and a real adventure: beautiful, wild, and vast! Mongolia is definitely worth a visit, and the warmth of the people here impresses me! If there weren't so many other places I want to see, I would come back for such an adventure!

...now I'm spending the last 48 hours in Ulan Bator before flying back to Germany on Saturday. Melancholic Mongolian music is playing in the hostel, Undral is singing along. I'm a bit nostalgic... but I'm also excited to come home. I can only say: my bathroom, my bed, and spaetzle with sauce! 😉