For starters, if you haven’t read about the first part of Jeanine and mine’s Mongolia adventure last year, you should read Part 1 first.
After our bike packing trip didn’t go as planned in the Arkhangai province, we mulled over a variety of options for our time left in Mongolia. We ultimately decided to splurge on a Gobi Tour because why not? When would we have the opportunity to go to the Gobi Desert again?
We were able to arrange a Gobi tour through the Fairfield Guesthouse where we were staying in Tsetserleg. The difficulty was the logistics of getting our bikes and gear back to Ulaanbataar while we were in the Gobi. After a lot of back and forth, the guesthouse was able to set up for our bikes and gear to be transported on a truck back to Ulanbataar, arriving the same day as us, 7 days after departing Tsetserleg.
We had done some research on Gobi Tours, but feeling pressured to start the next fun part of our adventure, we found it easiest to go with the guesthouse’s proposal. That included a van, a ‘tour guide,’ and a driver for 7 days (I leave their names out of this post for anonymity). They arranged everything. Now, this felt very strange to us after spending months planning every single detail of our bike packing trip. But we had hardly done any research on the Gobi, and from what we read, it is very difficult to navigate on your own. So we decided to just go with it and see what happened.
On day one, we left the guesthouse in the van and made a stop on the way out of town for food and water. Lots of water. Not as much food (luckily we had our own snacks!)
We were provided with an ‘itinerary’ with 7 days full of adventure and we were excited for our first stop which was in Kharhorin to visit the Erdene Zuu Monastery. We had driven through Kharhorin on the way to Tsetserleg, so we mostly knew what to expect on day 1.
The Monastery was beautiful despite a dark history (as is the history of most monasteries in Mongolia) and is known to be the first Buddhist monastery in Mongolia.
From Kharhorin, we really started our Gobi adventure. As soon as we drove off the paved road and into the desert, we knew we made the right decision in hiring a driver and guide. There are no roads, no road signs, no directions. The driver had done the trip a few times before, so he just knew where to go.
We drove past livestock and civilization gradually disappeared. Suddenly, our driver pulled over and told us that it was time to take a break. Jeanine and I walked around a bit and stretched our legs. We soon came to realize that we weren’t really taking a break, there was something wrong with the van. Nobody told us there was anything wrong initially, but we figured it out since the driver kept looking underneath the van and talking to the guide off to the side. We were able to continue on our way, but as soon as we came upon a small town in the middle of nowhere our guide said we had to stop to fix the van. We went on another walk while our driver welded the van back together as best he could (he said he fixed the shocks, but by the amount that we bumped along for 7 days, I would say ‘patched’ is probably a better term). No matter the patch job, I still give him a lot of props for having the skills to weld the van at a junkyard in the middle of nowhere!
Finally, we made it to our Ger Camp for the night at Ongiin Hiid. This was our first Ger Camp experience, and it was one of the quietest and most peaceful next to the river with fewer tourists. It was also the time Jeanine and I used the wrong bathhouse because we didn’t know there was a fancy new bathhouse on the other side of the property (we ended up going to the fancy one after being frantically spoken to in Mongolian with lots of pointing across the property). It was also when we first started to learn more about our guide and driver over dinner.
The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and explored Ongiin Hiid which is the site of one of the largest monasteries and schools in Mongolia that was destroyed during the 1937 Russian purges. It housed over 1,000 monks before the purges. The ruins felt quite desolate and we could really feel the impact of the purges on the area as we wandered around. There is a small community of monks residing again at the site and we were able to check out their small museum of artifacts.
They tried to convince me I was holding a real dinosaur skull…
With a long drive ahead, we were quickly on our way again (the theme of the trip). Next, we headed to Bayanzag, the “Flaming Cliffs.” We made a quick pitstop along the way to run up the first sand dune we encountered and stretch our legs. When we arrived at Bayanzag, our drive and guide seemed a bit stressed. That’s when we realized they hadn’t figured out lodging ahead of time. They were able to find a small family camp and we settled in for afternoon tea and lunch of bread and some sort of cream cheese from Russia (I packed my own rice cakes instead of bread since I’m GF). After being cooped up in the van for 2 days, Jeanine and I decided we were going to go on a walk. Our guide and driver looked at us a little confused as to why we needed so much exercise. But we told them we would meet them over by the cliffs after they had some rest. We walked across the barren planes and over to the cliffs where we realized we had really joined the Gobi crowd now. Old Soviet van after van was parked by the entrance to the cliffs with many tourists mulling about. We went on a quick walk before seeing our guide and driver pull up. Then our guide joined us for a hike down and around the cliffs. Luckily, we got out of there before and sandstorm swept through.
That night, our guide talked our way into the Tourist Ger Camp next door, so that we could watch a historical film about Bayanzag. Coming from a family where our childhood vacations always involved a good history lesson, Jeanine and I soaked up the film and were delighted by the experience and the fact that we had a guide who had no problem pretending to belong. Through the film, we learned that Bayanzag is most famous for yielding the first discovery of dinosaur eggs. And it was named ‘flaming cliffs’ by the American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews who visited it in the 1920s.
This is how we charge all the things the one time we have electricity in the desert. Our guide even threw his phone on there. Also, Jeanine is a sit up junkie.
After Bayanzag we drove on to Khongorin Els (singing sands) with a quick hike to view petroglyphs along the way. The sand dunes extend over 323 sq mi. The section that we arrived at rose about 900 or so feet from the parking lot. At Khnogorin Els we were able to hike to the top of the dune. We were told to spend as much time up there as we wanted. We wandered the ridgeline of sand away from the crowd and basked on the sun. We enjoyed speaking to a military family from the U.S., and their little boy reminded us that the view looked like the background on the Mac desktop. After enjoying our time up high, we sledded/ran down the dune. I think I spent more time off the sled because sledding is scary, and seemed especially daunting from the steep incline at the top. Back down at the bottom, we found our guide and driver, and we headed back to our Ger Camp for the night.
The Ger Camp at Khongorin Els was probably the nicest one we stayed in. There was a whole group from France there, and they were filming some sort of movie. We also had entertainment after dinner from a local opera singer. After dinner, we asked about arranging to ride camels, as this appeared to be the place to do it. Our guide didn’t want to make the arrangement through the camp because he said he wanted all the money to go directly to the camel herders, so we embarked on a mission to the local herding family’s ger to strike up a deal. Our guide told us that in the Gobi, women tend to be the heads of the household. We found this to be true as we were welcomed into the ger by an older lady who was watching after her grandson. We sat around and ate biscuits (well, everyone except me) while our guide made the plan for the morning. We learned that she uses the money from the camel rides to send her children to college in Ulaanbaatar, and it felt even better to pay her directly. Ultimately, the plan was to wait for the camels to come back from pasture in the morning, and that Jeanine and I were to meet the woman by ourselves at 6:30am when we saw the camels coming back.
Heading out to make a deal with the camel lady.
Now, the next morning, Jeanine and I made sure to be packed and up on time. We watched the horizon, looking for the camels, but didn’t see them. We started to wonder if the camels would ever come back from the pasture. We wandered over toward the herding camp, when we finally saw the woman and her son appear on the horizon with the camels. Before we knew it, we were off, following her through a series of gestures. She took us on a ride over toward the dunes, we were able to walk around a bit, she took our photo, and then we started back toward the camp. All of a sudden, someone came riding up at a fast pace. I thought it was someone on horseback, but it was her little grandson galloping a camel. I hadn’t seen a camel run so fast. He joined us for the rest of the ride back.
After our camel ride, we were back in the van and on our way to Yoliin Am which is known as an ice canyon. We had a nice lunch stop and while the water for tea was boiling, Jeanine and I did what we typically do, picked the closest high point, and started hiking up. We enjoyed the views and the rush of the wind as we ran back down for lunch. Jeanine and I had read about a neat hike through the canyon and back to the main road, but we seemed a bit short on time after lunch, so we were told to hike down and look at the canyon by ourselves and come back after a few miles. We started off walking and once we were out of sight of the parking lot we quickened up our pace. We wanted to do as much of the hike as we could in the short amount of time we had. We made our way into the canyon where the ice started. It was similar to walking on a glacier, but with more grit for traction so we were able to get through with ease. There was one section that we had to jump over a crack to the other side, but considering we are from cold icy climates and we watched a man in flip-flops do it, we decided to follow-suit. After that we picked up a running pace and made it to a lush green valley. We had made it through to the other side of the canyon! It wasn’t quite as far as we wanted to go, but we figured we should head back before people started wondering what happened to us.
After Yolin Am, it appeared as though we didn’t have lodgings reserved again, so our team made the decision to stay the night at a questionable hotel in Dalanzadgad. While unexpected, this stop did provided us with the opportunity to walk around a new town and visit a local museum in the morning. Around Dalanzadgad, it felt nice to be on pavement again. The ride was less jolting. But it ended as soon as we took off into the dirt toward Tsagaan Suvarga.
Tsagaan Suvarga was another place where Jeanine and I were instructed to hike alone (by this point in the trip, we had all learned each other’s quirks, and that some space was good after spending days on end in the van together). We explored the rock formation which shows evidence of once being an inland sea. We traversed around the formation more quickly than we imagined and met our team on the other side for lunch. After days of sardines, bread, and poorly aging cheese, we started to long for other food options.
After another ger mix up, we found our lodgings for the evening and immediately went on another long Foley sister walk-about into the desert arriving back in time for dinner.
Our last stop on the tour was Baga Gazriin Chuluu and from the short description, we expected the least out of this stop. It was simply described as a rock formation with ruins of a monastery.
Before we actually arrived at the scenic location, we pretty much ran out of food and most of our water. So we stopped at a cafe along the way for lunch. It was our first lunch that wasn’t bread, cheese, eggs, or sardines. Jeanine and I savored every bit and enjoyed a nice conversation with a group of women from Gibraltar.
The last of the water and food.
Back out into the planes, there seemed to be more confusion about our lodgings and our driver and guide said we simply had to wait for the park ranger to show up. So we sat for a long time waiting. And nobody came. Finally, we said we were going on a hike. We pointed to a distant peak and hiked up to the top until we could see over the other side into the next valley. After making our way down, we decided that we wanted to find the monastery ruins (our guide said he did not know where they were). Luckily our driver pointed down a dirt road, so we set off in that direction. We started to question if we would find the monastery, but finally stumbled upon the oasis of aspen trees among the rocks. After a wander around, we headed back to camp where the ranger had finally arrived and so had dinner (we were out of food by that point…and water).
We picked a high point and up we went.
Desert Oasis.
What would an ostomy blog be without an ostomy tip? For squatting toilets, I recommend keeping your pants up. With them down, they seem to just get in the way and you risk poop ending up all over you.
The next day we were on our way back to Ulaanbaatar.
Rumor has it that if you pour water from this hidden spring into your eyes, you will have good health. I opted out for fear of an eye infection.
Our Gobi Tour was not quite as expected. And upon reflection, it appeared different than a lot of the other tourists’ tours that we observed in our travels. Our guide even told us at one point that he was ‘not a guide.’ He just wanted to travel. So while we didn’t have the guided experience that one would expect, we had a lot of quality sister time, explored high points and mysterious places, and made up our own stories and conjectures of what things meant along the way. The Gobi was magical, refreshing (as the hot desert can be), a way to get our minds off of our bike trip gone wrong, and a way to reset. It was also a wonderful time spent in the outdoors before heading back to the concrete jungle of Ulaanbaatar for a week (oddly, we were actually excited for urban life).
