Desolate, vast lands extending as far as the eye can see. Herds of animals passing the day grazing in the golden landscape.

After spending nearly a month in Mongolia on my own, I was really excited to reunite with a good friend from San Francisco. Katie had been traveling herself and came to meet me in Ulaanbaatar from India. The reunion was so nice, we had so much to catch up on. It had nearly been a year since we’ve seen each other! When I saw her, one of the first things that came out of my mouth was “you are so tall!” It just then occurred to me that I had been living the last 4 months where, believe it or not, I was average height.

It was a really great and an interesting experience for me to be with a close friend again. I had been traveling for so long, away from the life “where I came from”. I had so many thoughts, ideas, and personal transformations that I hadn’t been able to express outside of myself. Not only was I always facing a language barrier but a cultural barrier. It was something that I never thought I missed until it came back into my life. All in all, it was a happy reunion that started a successful month of travelling together!

The lady that I had been in contact with, Tsogie, has gone above and beyond helping me throughout my time in Mongolia. Our relationship started through the WWOOFing website. Originally, I was going to work on her family’s farm but since it wasn’t quite the season for making cheese she helped organize my time teaching in Dashinchilen with her mother-in-law. She helped make all of these arrangements while living in Canada! It’s amazing how connected the world can be, even in a place like Mongolia. Tsogie knew that I was planning to visit the Gobi Desert and put me in contact with her brother that lives in Dalanzadgad. We organized a trip through the Gobi with him, staying with him and his family throughout.

Before traveling to Mongolia, I heard so much about the bumpy roads (or lack thereof). So far, I was lucky to experience decent conditions. The road to Moron was fully paved within the last couple of years and even the road to Dashinchilen was nice. This was the first time that I saw the road "end". There isn't anything between point A and point B and the distances are so great that it becomes a huge investment to build a single road in this country. The bus ride started out on a paved surface and then "poof," disappeared before our eyes and we started bouncing up and down, moving to the music.

The ride seemed to take forever, perhaps because we traveled during the day and could see how slow we were going. We traveled 360 miles by the speed of about 45 mph. Stopping occasionally for the animals, honking at them until they dispersed. Also, making the "restroom" stop, which consists of stopping the bus anywhere and people getting off to squat in the open fields. Men and women, all squatting in the open. Such a different mindset from where I had just come from in Turkey where these things are extremely segregated and done in private (like most places).

Dalanzadgad

We arrived in Dalanzadgad where our hosts met us and took us home to their ger. This was the first time that I stayed in a traditional Mongolian ger with a family. If you don’t know much about gers (also known as a yurt), it is a single circular room that provides all the functions of the home. We stayed with a family of 6; the mom, dad, 18 year old niece, 13 year old daughter, 4 year old son, and 1 ½ year old baby, plus Katie and I. We were 8 people in total!

The home was set up with an outer room attached to the door, serving as a buffer zone for the extreme temperatures. The home is centered around the wood stove, where all the meals are cooked. The door to the stove faces the right side, and remains the side that the family sits. When entering the ger, you must enter to the side of which you belong. Family enters to the right, guests enter to the left (side opposite the door to the fire). And there is no crossing or making a full circle once inside the ger.

Along the perimeter of the ger (and in this order for this home) was the kitchen, living area with sofa, television, altar, clothing wardrobe, storage, and the sink for washing hands and brushing teeth. I’ve been inside a few gers since then and this layout remains pretty true. Every night, the family will pull out wool mats and blankets and lay them in a row on the floor. Everyone sleeps with their head towards the altar and feet towards the door, all in a row. This was an experience for Katie and I because there were 8 of us in a row on the floor, sleeping so close every night! Once the morning comes, you fold up your blankets and pack them away neatly in the wardrobe.

At this time, it’s still very cold in Mongolia. Don’t be fooled by the sunny, blue sky! It’s freezing! The beautiful thing is that Mongolia is known for about 250 sunny days of the year. Which is incredible, but it does not mean that it is warm when you see the sun.

On the first night we arrived, Tsendee made dinner. This was the first time I saw a meal with so many vegetables! It was nice that they went out of their way to make such a meal for us. We spent the first evening bonding with the two girls. The younger one was learning English but didn’t speak much, we mostly communicated through hand gestures. She showed us all of their family photo albums. I found this to be really fun, learning so much about the family and seeing the parents at a young age!

Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park

The next day we departed for the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park. Traveling through the Gobi Desert takes a local guide and a durable vehicle. There are no roads, only slight indentations carved out by the very few cars that pass through. The land is so vast, you can see for miles and as a visitor it’s nearly impossible to differentiate one place from another. I think we were just following the sun.

Bayanzag | Flaming Cliffs

Our first stop was Bayanzag, also known as the Flaming Cliffs. Flaming Cliffs are known not only for their beautiful red rock formations and vast surroundings but became known for the findings of many dinosaur bones and egg fossils. The site was first excavated in 1922 by American palaeontologist Roy Chapman Andrews. Many of the fossils we see in museums today, may have been discovered here. Now, it’s become an attraction visited by many from around the world. We were the only three people walking around the area.

Somewhere in the Gobi

After the Flaming Cliffs, we drove another several hours to arrive at the other brother’s farm. We arrived just as the sun set. It was getting dark and we were climbing up and down steep, rocky hills in the jeep. All of the stars were shining bright in the sky above. Guided by the moonlight and lights from the car, we arrived at the ger.

Inside the ger, the family was sitting around with work clothes still on. The mother was making some food on the wood stove. We were soon offered a hot meal of rice with shreds of dried meat and broth. Everyone was talking, and staring at us but we couldn’t understand a single word. We were sitting there, just smiling, eating and watching everyone interact. The brothers seemed to have a lot to catch up on, since I don’t think they travel this way often. We sat around for an hour or so, and then drove to another ger where we were going to sleep. Once at the second ger, Katie and I situated ourselves and tried to figure out what was going on. We weren’t sure where everyone was going to sleep and for a moment we thought we might of had the ger to ourselves. The night was cold, just like the rest of them. Burma stoked the fire with dried animal poop and it quickly warmed up. We both had to go to the bathroom. When asking where we could go, they just pointed outside and signaled anywhere, just not to the right. We thought, okay and grabbed our headlamps and ventured out into the dark night, laughing to ourselves. Hopefully this spot is fine!

The next morning came early as the cold air filled the ger. The fire went out and we were hiding under the wool blankets. At this point, I’ve become accustom to the chill awakenings. The morning moved slow but we managed our way to the main ger where we ate breakfast, more rice with shredded meat and broth. We washed it down with some hot salted tea (which I am still confused of what it was, I think it was bone broth) and went outside. We were going to go with Burma to take the sheep and goats out in the mountains. Before leaving, we helped scoop up the animal poop and transport it to the top of the hill so it could dry in the sun, and later be used for the fire.

Mid-day we left to take the herd of 200 hundred goats/sheep out into the mountains. Burma led the way. She was so quick, scaling the sides of the mountain as if it was a flat track. This was so much different than my experience with the goats and sheep in Turkey. The landscape is so rough and mountainous. We climbed up and down the very steep mountain sides, the tops still covered with snow. We would stop occasionally, allowing time for the animals to graze. There was no green grass for the animals to eat, but the further we went out the more shrubbery there was and melted snow for them to drink. There were points that I was climbing up the mountain side on all fours, hands grasping at any stable rocks I could find to pull myself up. It was incredible, to think about doing this every day. We hiked for miles, with moments of stopping and being perched on top a rock and then starting again. The day was beautiful and there was not one sign of any other human. We came across a herd of wild mountain goats, that quickly scampered as they heard us coming from the ridge.

I had a moment that I tripped and fell a short distance. I was by myself but could see Katie on top of the adjacent ridge which put me at comfort. I had a short moment of panic, thinking “Wow, Jeanne. You need to be really careful because if something happens…” I sat for a moment and shook out the pain in my ankle and shortly continued on with more awareness of every foot and hand placement. Moments like this you become vulnerable to the rugged wilderness. From what seems like just a nice hike turns into realizations of how isolated you are and how inaccessible a quick escape is. I later met up with Katie and she had a little trip herself and similar thoughts running through her mind.

We made it back to the ger before night fall and saw one of the most beautiful sunsets over the flat horizon. The colors filled the sky and the hillside reflected all the warm light. Everything is so quiet and peaceful.

After the second morning on the farm, we ventured out further in the Gobi to visit the Khongoryn Els with a final destination of Sevrei. The morning that we left, the family was preparing a few of the horses for the Spring horse race that the youngest son would be partaking in. I had only heard of this before so I was happy that we were able to experience this. One of the kids would walk the horses, brush them all while singing in traditional-Mongolian throat-singing. Mongolians have so much tradition and ceremony with their everyday life. They have a lot of respect for the animals and the land, which was very nice to see, especially after my time in Vietnam where it is quite the opposite.

Khongoryn Els | The Singing Dunes

It’s incredible to drive in these lands. It would be difficult to do this trip on your own. The land is so vast and there are no roads. Some areas have the slightest indentations of tire marks, which our driver was following - but it was too easy to lose them. The entire ride was extremely bumpy. We were jumping up and down in our seats.

This was my first time seeing such a sight. Located in the middle of the Gobi, Khonhoryn Els stretches a distance of approximately 62 miles and 4-8 miles wide. The highest point reaches a height of 980 feet. The dunes are constantly changing their appearance. Their shape transforms due to the high winds and the color of the dunes will change with every hour of the day.

They got their name “Singing Dunes” because as the top layer of sand slides down the dune, it creates a whistling sound. It sounds similar to a plane flying above or wind whistling through a pipe. It was so wild to sit on top the dunes and look all around to see nothing but more desert. The top surface of the sand was so warm, but once you dug your hand just below the surface, it was ice cold. As we left the dunes, we spent our time sliding down the hillside creating music!

From the top of the dunes we could see Sevrei, this was our next destination. We headed there to visit more family and to watch the town’s spring horse races. The entire time traveling throughout the Gobi, we were the only people. It wasn’t until we approached the town of Sevrei that we started to see people.

Sevrei

After visiting the sand dunes we traveled to Sevrei to see more of Tsogie's family. This is the town that she and her brother grew up in. Their mother still lives there, with a couple of the grandchildren. It's common that the kids will live with the grandparents in a different town so they can attend school on the weekdays and then they'll return to the countryside when time permits.

In Sevrei, we got to the 5-year old grandson was competing in the spring horse race. The competition consisted of 3 races, 12km in length with the grand prize of a new motorcycle to take home to the family. We drove out to the start and rode along the competitors. We got to watch the young riders whip their horses and hear the yipping sounds of encouragement.

Yolyn An | Eternal Ice

When we were leaving Sevrei, another traveler approached our driver and asked for a ride. After agreeing with this, he joined us on the next part of our adventure. I think we were both just so surprised that there was another traveler this deep in the Gobi!

He was from Russia and had been hitchhiking his way through Mongolia with a final destination of making it back to the western part of Russia, after passing through Kazakhstan. He was very kind, he taught us some Russian phrases that later became very useful! He didn’t have much with him, but he managed to be carrying a liter of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola’s entire marketing campaign has made so much more sense to me as I have traveled through all of these countries. I can’t tell you how many times I have arrived in a random and remote location and someone extends an offer of their Coca-Cola. In settings like this, in the middle of the desert in Mongolia, a guy from Russia extends his arm and asks if I would like a sip. I can’t help but think of the epic cinematography.

Before heading back to Dalanzadgad, we made one last stop at Yolyn Am, also known as the Valley of Vultures. This is home to the eternal ice attraction, a glacier situated in a place that never sees the sun. With this, the ice never melts.

Somewhere along the way, we stopped at a family friend's camel farm and got to ride a couple of the hairy, two-humped camels!