Trip Day 1 - Orkhon Valley

05.25. – UB to Orkhon Valley, staying with a nomad family

Our guide and the driver picked us up at 7 am, and we spent a good few hours in the car (it was more than an hour to get out of the city). Around 11.30 we stopped for lunch (cucumber salad and fries) – and our last pee in an actual (non-squat) toilet with running water in the tap and everything (at least for the next 24+ hours). To be honest, we hadn’t expected to find such a little oasis of civilisation so far out from the capital city, but it was a nice surprise. They even had a small shop where we bought some snacks.

Surprisingly modern and clean building by the road - waiting for lunch

The shop had some vegan sweets too!

The next stop was at 3 pm, to enjoy the view of the Orkhon river in the territory of Orkhon Valley National Park. We took some pictures, then got back in the car to keep driving. Up until this point, it was mostly proper roads, but after this stop, we went offroad and kept off paved (concrete) roads for the next two days.

Orkhon river

Rocky-grassy terrain in Orkhon valley (with rain in the background)

Off-roading, by the way, is pretty cool. Our driver was very skilled – even on steep hillsides, across rivers, in mud, whatever the challenge was – and his car (a jeep) was robust and strong (and comfortable too). We felt safe and while I had a lot of fun bumping around the backseat, my husband managed not to get sick even once in the 4 days – which is a true achievement as he used to get really carsick even in the city, only a few years ago. Now he only got a queasy stomach.

Driving across a smaller river

We had to stop dozens of times over these 4 days to let animals cross the road

From the river viewing point, we kept driving off-road. We had to request a second pee-stop at 4 pm (keep in mind, this was our second time peeing since 7 am – but this is road trips for you, with no roadside rest areas. This was also our first time seeing an animal skull up close, just left there in the grass. Over the 4-day trip we ended up seeing a shitton of animal carcasses (in different levels of rot) just left in the middle of the field or by the road, and many bones and skulls scattered by the wind or other animals. There were also heaps of animal shit everywhere, it almost looked like the grass was full of rocks – except it wasn’t rock, it was dung; lots of it. I guess there is no point in gathering it when it’s also a good fertiliser for the earth.

Directions at an off-road 'intersection' - try not to get lost

This picture was taken the next day, actually, but look at this horehead!

Around 6 pm, we’d finally arrived at the field where the nomad family live who are friends with our guide, Uka. They invited us to sleep in one of their gers (they had 3, two normal-sized ones and a smaller one). The two sons weren’t at home (they spend weekdays in the nearby village as they go to school there), but the wife and husband welcomed us in their main ger. Of course, that started by us sitting on the guest-side of their ger, and them taking the kitchen-side, and offering us all milk tea.

The family's gers and their motorbike

Look at the design on the main ger's 'ceiling'

Their little home shrine

Milk tea and home-made bread

Then the wife started making dinner, and since Uka had told her beforehand that we do not eat meat (we are on a plant-based diet but some people here seem to have a problem with understanding/remembering the difference between vegan and vegetarian, so we stopped trying to correct everyone and explain it – we are happy not to get meat and we try to avoid dairy and eggs as much as possible, when visiting others; we don’t usually get invited to Mongolian families anyway, so we can stay off those too except for these few cases). A nice surprise, the woman made some vegetable noodles specifically for us – and it was really tasty too! Once she served us two heaped bowls of the noodles, she added some meat for everyone else, of course; what a kind gesture.

They put ketchup and/or Maggi seasoning on EVERYTHING
(also, Uka called Maggi seasoning 'soy sauce' on several occasions)

After dinner, we walked around the gers a bit, taking in the view and fresh air (although it was impossible to get our lungs full as the elevation was some 1800 meters and we couldn’t manage to draw our lungs full the first night). In the evening, we took our Dobble (English Spot it!) to the main ger and asked if they wanted to play. Nomadic people usually entertain themselves by playing cards, as there is not much to do for leisure in the middle of nowhere. They were happy to play, with Uka explaining the rules for us (as the family spoke no English, only Mongolian). They seemed to really enjoy the game, and so we decided to leave it there for them to keep, assuming they would teach the kids how to play too, and they could play with them and the ‘neighbours’ too, in the future (they visit each other quite often on their motorbikes, just popping in for a few minutes). We can always just buy another one back in Hungary. They were really happy to keep it indeed. (And Uka told us the next day that the kids had gone home for the weekend and the whole family played together and they were already planning to involve all the other kids in the valley too.)

Another popular form of entertainment: basketball.
These rudimentary hoops are everywhere - in backyards, in the middle of fields,
just popped down wherever...

Playing Dobble with the family

During the night, it was very hot at first (because of the fire in the middle of the ger), but since we were super tired (hubby slept 1 hour the night before, working into the early morning hours to get everything done before our trip; and I slept about 3 hours, spending most of the evening-night cooking – we had to bring food for about 4-6 days, just in case – and packing for the trip), we went to sleep pretty early, around 10 pm. Which meant that the fire went out after a time and by 2 am it was freezing cold. The outside temperature that night was about -1 Celsius, so it was literally around freezing point even inside the ger. We decided to try and make a fire at about 3 am, and we also stepped out of the ger to pee and to stargaze. (Let me tell you, it is kinda scary to not see anything but pitch black darkness all around you, with animal sounds off in the distance, but the sky was awe-inspiring. We have never seen this many stars before. You could even see some galaxies or I dunno what, but like, an unbelievable amount of stars.)

Our bed (two singles pushed together) and the fireplace

Getting the fire started in the ger took at least an hour, because the wood was kinda wet and really cold and the matches were not of a very good quality either – we ended up using my lighter. This meant we did NOT have a good night’s sleep, but at least once the fire was crackling away, the ger started to warm up a bit, and we could go back to sleep. To be frank, I would have given up but my husband was hell-bent on starting that fire, deeming the temperature too low to sleep in. (We had huge blankets and extra socks, mind you.)