I’m back from an incredible adventure in Mongolia. My husband and I decided to try a G-Adventures Local Living experience. We even managed to talk our good friends from the UK into joining us!
This is one of the most adventurous trips I’ve ever taken. In fact, it was my first time to Asia. When I decide to do something, I sure go big! Getting to Ulaanbaator in time for the tour to start was the first hurdle. We flew nonstop from Chicago to Beijing on United Airlines (thanks to my hubby, the frequent flier for the business class upgrade) and spent one night at the beautiful St. Regis hotel. I hired a taxi driver to take me to a section of the Great Wall near Mutianyu.
We boarded an evening flight from Beijing to Ulaanbaator, arriving just before midnight. I had arranged private transfers with the Kempinski Hotel. Our friends arrived early the next morning. They had a bit shorter journey traveling from London via Moscow on Aeroflot. There were twelve travellers in our group along with Nymka, our CEO (Chief Experience Officers) and four drivers. We split ourselves into 4 Toyota Land Cruisers and began the journey out of the capital city.

There are 2 paved roads in Mongolia. We took the road heading east out of the capital. Imagine the worst state highway you’ve ever been on. This road was not even up to those standards.  Once we left the capital we didn’t see any towns for two hours. We passed a few rest areas with gas stations every so often.Then we left the paved road and took the dirt tracks for another 2.5 hours to finally reach our first host family, just before the storm hit!

The first family offered us the opportunity to ride horses and camels through the dunes. My favorite memory of this day was watching a group of children sledding down the sand dunes on a nearby hill. Youthful laughter is contagious and universal! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to snap a good photo of them. But here’s me and my friend, Susan, on a camel: (my camel is totally posing for the camera)

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We moved along to the next family, another 3 hours by dirt road. We spent 2 nights in the Orkhon Valley Natural and Historical Reserve. Here we learned how to milk goats, climbed hills and swam in the cool waters below the Orkhon Waterfall. ​

My husband is a child magnet and was in heaven teaching the host family’s youngest daughter how to juggle. ​

On Thursday we said goodbye to our drivers and Land Cruisers. Horses would now be our mode of transportation for the next 3 family stays. Our luggage was transported by ox cart to our host family. The longest distance we rode was 19 kilometers from one host family to the next.
Over the course of the next few days we chopped wood for the families, watched a cheese making and a vodka making demonstration. We also learned some sewing techniques from one of our host moms. We also tried our hand at bow and arrow, however none of us managed to hit the target.

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If you want to hear more about my trip, stop in to Compass Travel. I have so many stories to share!
Happy Travels!        
​-Jenny