MONGOLIA, Land of Chenggis Khan

Have to admit I had to look this up. Mongolia is not your average tourist destination. I knew it was the land of Chenggis Khan who ruled somewhere in the 1200’s, of the eagle hunters and camel herders, and they love wrestling. I didn’t really know much more about it. But that is going to change right now.

It is big, about 1,5 million km2 (4x Germany) and only has 3 million people, of which more than 50% live in the capital, which we noticed first hand, the traffic is gruesome. Then about 20% are nomadic or semi-nomadic, it is the world’s most sparsely populated country. As we would notice later much of it’s area is covered by grassy steppe, some mountains in the north and west, the Gobi Desert in the south. Desertification is one of the biggest problems, there is hardly any agriculture but it is one of the 10 countries with best natural resources. So now you know!

DAY 1: The Nomad Show

We drive about 2 hrs out in the country to a tourist camp where we first have lunch. A nice soup, (they love soups here), then a gigantic plate with meat. I believe they grilled the whole lamb, than cut it into pieces and put the chunks on the plate. Tastes okay but too much fat and bone and no spices at all, so I mainly stick to the potatoes, carrots and the cabbage salad. Now is not the time to start being a vegetarian, but I am tempted. 

The show starts. We follow them to the gers, and are shown inside, it is nice and warm inside, not that that is a problem, the temperature is rather good today anyway, somewhere near 20°C. The round tents are covered in wool from all the animals they have, a big stove in the middle, colored carpets line the walls. Well, it’s a colorful way of life, but too tough for me. Boy it must be a hard life being a nomad. They sing for us, the throat singing they do, it is very special but rather pleasant to hear, not as bad as I thought. Then other Mongolian songs, which I really do like. One guy is on the Morin Khuur, the Horse-Head-Violin, one plays drums, the other a banjo-like instrument called the Khun Tovshuur and later a flute they call Tsuur.

As a traditional welcome we are offered a little bottle with a wonderful smell. Take it with your right hand, smell and pass on. We are offered some snack, little cubes which taste like a biscuit at home, not so bad so far. They show us how they make fermented yoghurt, which they then dry to take along when traveling, it is not at all to my liking, tastes like sour milk, and the milk vodka is not much better, I’ll pass on that one.  They show us some fine horse riding, picking a hat up from the ground. Going down is probably easy, but getting back up, wow, they make it look so easy, great horsemen these people ! We get to dress up in the fur coats, boy, we look stupid and it’s so hot, not the best dress for lovely spring weather. Then we learn the game of anklebone shooting (called Shagai Harvaa), we are not that good at it, but give it try. All too soon we have to leave. A two hour ride back to the city in our fancy yellow and gold bus.

But the fun is not over. We stop at a big field where loads of people are gathered. An archery event, and half the town is there, all dressed up and having a great time. We are the only foreigners walking amongst them. It is quite hard to get a good photo, you don’t want to get in the way, but the general mood is fantastic and they all seem to be having a great time. They aim for what looks like a pile of wooden blocks 70m away, and have to hit that, it doesn’t matter how many tumble over, interesting. The girls are all dressed up, and bring back the arrows the men shoot. But mind you, they participate themselves as well. I even got the referee table to give me a big smile. I just love how friendly all these people are.

Next surprise, we have three young men show us Mongolian wrestling, which is the most favorite sport here, closely followed by archery and horse riding. They wear tiny blue „speedo’s“ and a red or blue arm and shoulder covering thing which resembles a bolero, it is tied in front with a piece of rope (which uncomfortably cuts into their bellies) and they wear a Mongolian hat (which they take off during the wrestling part).  The emblems on the hat show how many victories the guy has made, how good he is. This is funny, these big guys in sparse clothing, first they do a welcome greeting ritual which is almost like an elegant dance, then minutes later they are throwing each other about.

Day 2: To the Eagle Hunters

We fly 2 hrs to Khovd. I like it, the landscape somewhat reminds me of Namibia, beautiful hills, snowcapped mountains in the back, shapes and lines everywhere and lots and lots of space. It is a 3 hr drive to the eagle hunter camp near Olgii. Our driver is Kyrat, a wiry little man, who drives well and speaks 5 words of English: thank you, let’s go and horse, that’s about it, so no communicating except with sign language. Halfway along we almost suffocate, it is so hot in the car, but outside is only 13°C. Turns out the heater is on full heat on the feet, my feet feel like deep fried. No matter if we switch the lever to cold, it stays hot. So we turn the damned thing off. The on/off button seems to be the only one working anyway. We leave the main road, only 25 more kilometers. We stop on a ridge overlooking the bare land of rolling hills covered in short stubby grass, it is stunningly beautiful, and yes in the distance we see a row of white dots, our camp ! We are in Mongolia but all people here are Kazakhs, Kazakhstan cannot be far.

We each get a ger, it is cute, very basic but I like it. The toilet is a seat with a bio degradable plastic bag in it, who cares, I‘ve seen worse. The bed is a bit short, (but okay, I am a bit taller than the average person), only 60cm wide, stone hard, as is the pillow, which is more or less a sack of rice, but a lovely warm duvet. After settling in we meet for dinner in the big ger, an hour later we leave for the sunset shoot, three hunters on horses have already left. We meet them on a cliff with the big snow covered mountain called Tsambgarav in the background, which is 4190m high. We are high up in the mountains, even our camp is at 2200m ! This is so cool, they pose, to lift the eagles our tour leader shouts „coteo“and swoop, the arms, plus eagle are up. In the end we have them running towards us. It takes a while until we get it right, too close together, too far apart, our cars in the background, but it is good practice for tomorrow. Back at camp we meet in the big ger for a Kazakh concert. After that off to our beds.

It is bloody freezing, I am in bed with long johns, extra socks, a long sleeved shirt and beanie. They come to light the oven for us softies, they don’t need it anymore this time of year, well, we do ! I almost hug the oven, so nice and warm. That doesn’t stay that way for long, after about an hour the thing really starts to heat up, in the end I am lying on top of my duvet in my underpants, glowing like a lamp, shit it’s so hot, like a sauna. At 23:00 they come knocking, the plastic linoleum floor (which looks like a wooden floor) is melting away under the oven, which we had noticed, it smells disgusting, they have to cut it out ! Can’t sleep anyway, I am too big for this bed and the pillow is the hardest I’ve had in my life. 

Day 3: The private Golden Eagle Festival

Rise and shine at 04:30, slept maybe 3-4 hrs if that many at all. A quick tea and at 5:00 we leave for the sunrise shoot with about 10 eagle hunters on horses. We park at the top of a hill and they come running towards us, super cool ! I absolutely love all these men. They all look different, beautiful clothing, great hairy hats, cute horses and best are the gorgeous eagles each one of them is holding. We have different guys pose in different setting with different backgrounds, different combinations, there is always something or other someone to shoot. By now we are calling „coteo“ when we want them to lift the eagles, we are getting good at this ! My favorite shots are the ones when they do not know you are taking them, much more natural, when posing they are a bit stiff, but it is brilliant anyway. After that back to camp for breakfast. It is freezing cold, even inside the big ger you see your breath when you breathe out, it can’t be more than 5°C, so we all request the oven in our tents to be heated again, but with half the coals we had last night, don’t want to freeze my fingers off whilst checking my photos !

Then the Golden Eagle mini Festival. There are 5 disciplines:

1- Eagle landing on the arm – in best time and range

2- Eagle hunting the rabbit (skin) – in best time

3- Horse riding- picking up a coin from the floor at full speed

4- Tug of war- on the horses ! 

5- Costumes

Now there’s a ton of photo opportunities, and there will be enough light ! Shaimurat, the boss, is the judge and jury, except for the costume part where our group is to be the jury.  First we get music, our driver Kyrat, who would surprise us again the next day, sang and played the Khun Tovshuur. Boss couldn’t let that be, and sang for us after that. It was loud, and I pray he doesn’t plan a career in music. Now let the games begin. 

Discipline 1: They all sit halfway up the hill, one guy holds the eagle, its owner comes down and calls his eagle. I didn’t really go as planned ! The first guy calls, and the wrong eagle comes, the second guy calls, and his eagle heads off. The third guys eagle flew about 1m then sat down on the hill and didn’t move anymore. It was hilarious. In the end out of 10 only 2 or 3 finished. 

Second discipline: They now ran and pulled a dead rabbit on a string behind them, the eagle is supposed to go fetch it. Didn’t go too well either, but we laughed a lot, so did most of the eagle hunters. 

Third discipline: was pick the coin off the ground, from a running horse that is. Now that was cool. As two days ago at the nomad show, they bent down, which is gravity, but respect for them getting back into the saddle. They didn’t pick up a coin, but three small satchels. Hardly anybody got the three, just one guy, he was super, and probably the leanest and lightest of them all. 

Fourth discipline was the most hilarious one, they do a tug of war, on horseback, that was a sight !

5th discipline: This is where we had something to say ! It was the costume and dance presentation. We judged each and every one for age, dance moves and costume, which was really good fun, and ended off with a dance party, all the eagle hunters and us. That was so cool ! After another really good dinner, we do a short „horse-running-in-the-river“ shoot just before the rains set in. Back to our gers and guess what, I slept like a baby.

Day 4: Snow covered mountain and portraits

The alarm goes at 4:30 and it is again bloody cold, in record time we put our clothes on and when we leave our tent we see the mountain is snow covered! We are at 2200m, the snow must be at 2300m or so, no wonder it’s freezing. Whilst waiting for the others to arrive our driver Kyrat proudly shows us a video on his phone and points at himself. Turns out he is a retired colonel in the Mongolian army, he was doing border patrols on the border to Russia, on horseback ! It was a film on Mongolian National TV and shows him in the military, at his house with his family, making music. Wow, never would have expected that ! We don’t go far, just to the little stream beside camp, and we shoot in the direction of the snow covered mountain in the background, it’s brilliant. My fingers are slowly freezing off, but otherwise I’m fine, the whole scenery and especially the background is simply amazing. The poor horses shiver, the water has ice in it, poor things. After that to the lake, to get reflections of the horses and the mountain. We are a bit late, the wind is picking up and soon the ripples cover the water surface. 

Back to camp to pack, have breakfast, than an indoor photo shoot with boss, in full dress, an eagle on his arm. After him his son Seka, who looks absolutely amazing, but always looks as if he is really bored and unfortunately has his eyes closed on half the shots.  After that we are the models and can dress up in one of the big furry coats and hat, the brave ones even get the eagle on the arm! It is quite heavy, must be 5-6 kilos. Christine keeps shouting be careful he’s going to pick your eye out, so nobody looks relaxed, but luckily the eagle is very well behaved. 

We leave for Olgii, a 2,5 hr drive off road (including photo stops), a rather bumpy affair at times but the scenery is amazing, I love this drive. We hit the town, which isn’t much, check out a few souvenirs stores, and of course I buy some kashmir stuff. I am so tired I almost fall asleep at the dinner table. The food is okay but in general the Mongolian food has little taste and spices, just tons of meat. 

Day 5: Back to Ulaan Bataar and the Chinggis Statue

We land in Ulaan Baatar at around 13:30, a 1hr drive to the hotel then we continue to the Chenggis Khan statue. So 1,5 hr more in our big orange bus. It is interesting to just look outside whilst we drive, boy the city is ugly, just filled with 10-15 floor high buildings and the traffic is terrible. We will hit rush hour on the way back, but that is a later worry, now we go see the statue.

So after 1,5 hr and 60km we are finally there. It is a huge statue of Chinggis on horseback, 40m tall, made of stainless steel which shines silvery in the little bit of sun there still is. In the entrance hall there are 20 or so pictures of Chinggis and all his descendants, it is a beautiful place. We take the elevator to the top where we can go on a tiny platform in the horses head, and look Chinggis „in the eye“, well, almost. Then down to the little museum, which is very nice. The drive back takes ages, we now need 2,5 hrs for the 60km, but we all sleep half the time and it was really worth it. Tomorrow we leave for the Gobi. 

Day 6: Drive to the Gobi Desert

We were supposed to fly, but because the airport down south is under maintenance we have to drive… about 850km ! We only leave at 9:00 so for once we can sleep late, the alarm is set for 07:30, such a luxury. We are driven in beautiful, comfortable, relatively new Toyota Land cruisers, can’t be too bad driving in those. Our driver is Cantomar, Cantaa for short. Finally we get going, we pass the airport and head south on the A0102. We were told the road was really bad, but it is not bad at all. Yes, there are potholes, to be honest quite a few, but there is hardly any traffic so we just swerve around them. The weather on the other hand is bad, it is 4°C and raining constantly, the sky is a dull grey, let’s hope that changes. The landscape is incredible, the hills disappear more and more, it is flatter than flat, barren and so very empty. Just the short stubby grass in shades of brown and yellow, no trees or bushes, just a rare few herds of sheep and/or goats and maybe 3 groups of ger in 200km. It is like Namibia, just more desolate. 

The landscape stays the same for the whole trip, you can fall asleep for 2 hrs, and wake up again, the views are still the same. You easily loose all sense of distance and time here. After 270km, we reach Mandalgovi where the Gobi desert starts. We are all quite surprised, expected a desert to be sand, but this desert only has 5% sand, and that is exactly where we are going. The other 95% is grasslands, rocky plains, canyons and mountains, it is a cold and dry desert. The rain has stopped and the sun comes out. Our driver Cantomal happily sings along with his Mongolian pop music songs, the sun warms us and the temperature rises to above 20°C, all is well. The landscape’s only changes are that now it seems even flatter and emptier, if that is possible, and the grass has a green hue to it. Later on we see the first herds of camels instead of goats and sheep, but that is about it. Another 300km of nothingness lies ahead.

Finally after 570km and I don’t know how many hours we reach Dalanzadgad. It is 20:30 and still 25°C, so nice, but unfortunately that soon changed. First to the restaurant we can check in later. Which turns out to be much later, it is 22:00 by the time we reach the Diamond Hotel. Which isn’t exactly what you would call a diamond but it is clean and the bed is okay. Sleep well !

Day 7: Camels and lots of sand

We wake to howling winds, there is a storm blowing, like a proper sandstorm, sight is down to a few meters, hope it clears soon. Breakfast is soup followed by a fried egg and a piece of sausage and stale toast, instant coffee, well that is diamond style.

We drive good roads leading west until we turn off after 180km (in 2,5 hrs) onto a dirt road and head towards the mountains on our right. In the meantime the sun is shining and it is about 10°C, that will be our maximum for today, no chance of getting 25°C as should be this time of year, we have a cold front. Off road on gravel and rocks, then a pass through, yes through not over, the Altai mountains, after that it opens up dry, short grasses as before, but in front of us is a sand belt, it is 200km long but not very wide. No problem, it is sand, it is okay and definitely big enough ! We cross the sands and on the other side reach our camp for the next 2 nights, 814km so far. 

We get a ger again, but not as authentic as before with the Kazakhs and no oven. It should be nice and warm here, which it isn’t, but inside the temperature is bearable. Meals are in the main building, a big wooden house which is nicely heated and there is a separate building with lots of toilets and very cold showers. Dinner is at 18:00, we all hurry because there is brilliant light at the dunes and nice shadows showing. Don’t waste good photo time eating. 

There are 5 camels coming towards us, on one a man, on another his wife, the other three on long leashes. Our tour leader makes them walk along the dune ridges, from right to left and back again, it is amazing when they walk along a light spot, layers of sun and shadow in the background. We keep going until the light is gone. The guys stay, most of the girls return to camp, to the nice and warm main building, time to download and check what we have done so far. Already the first photo I took looks really nice, juhui !

Day 8: More camels

Shit it is cold again, we get another cover from one of the other two beds to put over ours, I am wearing my long johns and socks and the worst part is when you have to pee at night, the wind is still blowing like mad and temperatures are near zero. It is a bugger to leave the nice and warm bed, but there is no other way, so run to the main building and back, and better be quick. 

We meet at the cars at 5:00, thank God not 4:30 as planned, it is still pitch-dark. We drive to the dune again, a bit further left this time, and the man and his wife are there, waiting for us with 3 camels. We do stills with ripples and shapes in the sand as a foreground. The sun eventually comes out, a beautiful sunrise but we are below a dune photographing facing upwards, so Jürg and me, we climb higher up, to get the red. It doesn’t last long but we get a few nice shots in. It gets so nice that shadows start to appear and Jürg even gets his drone out. Looking good so far. 

We head back to camp for breakfast, time off until after lunch.

Then we go for a camel ride. We are greeted by the camel chef and his wife and are invited into the family ger. As in Ulaanbaatar we are offered the little bottle to smell, it smell nice, sort of pepperminty. We are giving the usual snack, of which we have a whole bag in the car, so we take that. Once the lady of the house comes with the fermented camel milk the 10 of us share 2 cups and give them back half full. Not quite to our liking, as at the other place it tastes like sour yoghurt, us Europeans we prefer our yoghurt nice and creamy. So let’s get to the camels. They saddle them with beautiful colorful saddles, it is rather comfortable on top of the camel and you feel safe between the two humps.

But there is more to do. We go to one of the 9 wonders of South Gobi, the highest dune in the whole belt, the Konghorynels. It is called Duut Mankhan by the locals, which means singing sands. That it what it sounds like when the wind blows strongly and the sand scratches over the dune. A few brave ones start to climb, the rest go up a little bit, just to enjoy the view and come back down. The drone people are happily buzzing around.

We have another evening session with the camels. We position the man on the camel on top of a nice ridge, them do stills of him and his wife in different settings trying to get nice patterns in the foreground. The drone people even get to fly and do some different stuff. This is my least favorite shoot, but Jürg was happy he got to fly. Todays high was 13°C which is massively better than yesterday and even better, the wind has died down a lot. So we sleep a lot better than last night, but still, the alarm is set for 04:30 again. It won’t be along night.

Day 9: Sun 18.5.25 – Final shoot

It is so nice and warm in bed, and the ger is so cold. But we bravely get out, get dressed, and outside it is rather nice, must be 15°C or so. A clear sky so that must turn out right. A new spot, the camel guy and his wife again, this time posted rather far away, so we get a big sand landscape with little camels. It is beautiful just before sunrise, the dunes glow in pastel colors and the scene is simple but interesting. After that they move as we did before. It really was nicer with the 5 camels but this will have to do. 

After breakfast we leave and head for Dalanzadgad again. After 5km through the sand we reach the wastelands. Another bumpy 15km gets us to the rocky part where we now cross over the Altai Mountains until we reach the „flats“ on the other side. The drivers race across the flats and after 57km (in 3 hrs) we reach the highway, so nice and even and now we have 200km more to go. Boy it is boring, we all doze off, hope the driver stays awake, the poor guy has been doing the same crazy hours we did ! 

We stop for a late lunch and from there to the Gobi Museum of Nature and History to see the dinosaur bones they found here. This place is an archeology hotspot. It is nice and very well made, but we are all so tired we walk around the place like a group of zombies. Back at the hotel by 5pm, and the best part… finally a hot shower after 2 days of sand and camels.

Day 10: Mon 19.5.25 – Ulaanbaatar and shopping

We leave town at 5:00, the drive is totally boring again, it is just flat and empty, nothing to see, nothing to look at, even the camels seem to have disappeared. The scenery in the west was a lot more to my liking. Time to catch up on some sleep. After about 3 hrs we reach Mandalgovi, this is the end of the Gobi desert.

We keep moving, and reach the city by 2pm, we are back at the good old IBIS hotel. Time to drop our stuff, relax and an hour later we leave for the Gobi Kashmir outlet. That was more a proper shop with a tiny sale part than an outlet, and such lovely stuff ! We both got a sweater, Jürg a scarf and I got a super soft beanie. I believe every one of us bought something.

Then to the city center which is not easily done, the traffic is dense and because of an accident half the cars are stuck for 90min and more, we barely make it through and reach the State Department Store first, but only because our driver drives like a proper asshole. The store is 7 floors high and on Nr. 6 are the souvenirs. Cool stuff and lots of junk are mixed. Of course we buy some more. 

We all meet in front of the store and walk to the Asiana Restaurant, a 10min walk. A few of us do a little de-tour to the main Sükhbaatar Square to photograph the palace for some last city photos, the others go directly. Dinner is superfine especially the spicy fried aubergines, so yummy, the best dish of the whole tour. Back at the hotel by 10pm, time to try get everything into the bag which is always a challenge at the end of a trip, but with lots of pushing and squeezing we manage. One more early rise tomorrow, we leave at 6:00 for the airport and fly home via Istanbul. More sitting, but we’re used to that. End of fun, and sad to leave, but can’t wait to see all my photos, it was a supercool and exiting trip, and an incredible experience !

For our favorite photos: Go to gallery

The thank you part:

Big thank you to our drivers: Pyrat in Bayan-Ölgii and Cantomar in the Gobi

Big hug for our Mongolian Guides: Khoz at the Eagle Hunter Camp, Undraa in Ulan Bator and Gobi

And Arild for getting us in touch with Kah-Wai: www.lofotentours.com

And of course our hero is Kah-Wai Lin, thanks for a perfectly organized tour: 

https://kahwailin.com