Gobi Desert Tour in Mongolia – starting in Ulaanbaatar

A more than 30 hours train journey brought us to Ulaanbaatar (or just called UB). We wanted to book a tour to the Gobi Desert and thought it is as easy as just turning up at the hostel and arrange a tour. It turned out that it was much more difficult as April is off season and only a few tourist stay in UB. So we spent a few days in UB visiting the National Museum, Monastry District, seeing a wrestling match and walking around in the city. Mongolia and especially UB had a lot of negative feedback online because of the many scams and pickpocketing performed on tourist. We were a bit worried but it was actually quite the opposite that awaited us in this busy town where more than half of the entire population of Mongolia lives.People were greeting us on the street saying hello and smiling at us. Also people in restaurants are helpful and some random strangers would jump in and help with translating.

We were lucky to find a tour with UB Guesthouse. They arranged a seven days Gobi Desert tour for us. As we were six people the price per day was 50$, which was relatively cheap compared to the other offers we had.

Day 1

At around 9:00 we left UB Guesthouse to go food shopping for the trip. We were told to buy snacks for seven days as there are no supermarkets on the way. I bought lots of snacks and water as well as apples. Then it was time to head off to Gobi Desert with our skilled driver and a cook. It was a very long drive of about 10 hours with a few stops for lunch and stretching the legs. Our group consisted of two girls from the US, a guy from the Netherlands, another from Vietnam and the German guy I was already travelling with. In the evening we stayed in a local family Ger that had Satellit-TV and other mod cons usually seen in a normal flat. But it was still basic.

Day 2

We were in for another long drive of about six hours. The dirt roads are very bumpy but thanks to our skillfull driver we haven’t had any accidents. The scenery outside changed about every two hours. We arrived at the Ger in the afternoon. It was in the middle of nowhere. After a short break the driver took us to the Flamming Cliffs Rock Formation. There we spent some time climbing up the cliffs, walking around and taking some pictures. It was stunning to see the scenery, especially as it appeared out of nowhere. In this area dinosaur eggs and bones have been found. We could not see any remains as most of them were stolen by tourists.

In the evening we had dinner in the Ger and after that we went outside to see the stunning sky with more stars than sand grains in the desert. Thanks to the Starwalk app on my iPhone we identified more than just the few standard star signs. Back in the Ger we drank some Vodka and played the typical Mongolian ankle bones game called Shagai. We had some good fun playing the horse game.

Day 3

On the third day it was a half-day drive to a Ger camp close to the sand dunes. This was one of the best days on the trip as we could ride the camels for about an hour and also climb the sand dunes. The later turned out more difficult than expected. The dunes are steep and it was more like one step up three back down. Eventually almost all of us made it up to the top and enjoyed the magnificient view of the 12km wide and about 140km long stretch of sand. We could also hear the sound of the Singing Sand Dunes as described in the Wikipedia article. It was a fascinating experienceand therefore we spent twice the allocated time to the disliking of our driver and cook, who would always wait in the soviet style van for us.

The Gers are heated with wood or camel poo and before going to bed it is normally around 35*C and come morning it gets as cold as 9*C. I don’t want to imagine how it is in winter.

Day 4

It is the fourth day and unfortunately we haven’t spoken to any locals. The family would just greet us and disappear in their Gers’. Today we drive the biggest town in the Gobi Desert. On the way we stop by the Ice Valley, which is impressive because there is a lot of ice and again it turned up out of nowhere in this normally flat land.

In the town we got the chance to shower at a public bath place and also stock up on our food and water supply. However we stop by a little store each day. There was no need to do shopping for seven days ahead.

Day 5

On the fifth day there wasn’t any sightseeing so we had a short drive to the next Ger and time to entertain ourselves. The Ger Camp we stayed at had lots of animals, goats, sheeps, camels and dogs. Food was good as most of he times. They served us soups, rice, pasta, mashed potatoes and always lots of meat and some vegetables. Funny to note: One group member is vegetarian and asked to get meals without meat, what she didn’t know was that in Mongolia chicken is considered to be a vegetable.

Day 6

Finally we met some locals. We stopped in a small town and some locals were inviting us to play billiard and ping-pong with them. This was not planned or included in the trip but we were all happy about it as it was the only moment we interacted with the locals. Also we went to see an other rock formation were we spent time walking around. There was a hidden Temple and lots of valleys to get lost in. We were supposed to spend around an hour there. Unfortunately one member of the group went missing and we had to search for her for a good two hours. We got very worried as the sun was about to set and there was still no sign of finding her. Lucky enough we have found her by coincidence walking around lost in the valley. So we got to the next and last Ger camp later than expected.

Day 7

On day seven we drove back to Ulaanbaatar. So another long drive with a few stops inbetween to see a frozen lake and to have lunch at 10:30. This was too early for all of us. After lunch we got caught up in a snowstorm. We also had to help some other drivers to pull their car out of the snow.

All in all it was a great experience. A lot of driving but the sights every day made up for it.