Mongolia Highlights by Local Bus
(14 days)

short description

FIRST DAY
Terelj National Park

DAY 14
Bus back to Ulaanbaatar

DAY 13
Family along Tamir River

DAY 12
Family along Tamir River

Detailed description

Terelj National Park

In the morning your guide will pick you up at your hotel and walk to bus station to take public bus to Terelj National Park. Enjoy your ride within locals. Witness the stunning & contrasting view of life of urbanism and nomadism around Ulaanbaatar. Ride will take us through the valley surrounded on both sides by high, densely forested mountains and rocky formation of erosion. They valley is covered by wild flowers & plants and peacefully grazing herds of yaks, horses, goats & sheep. At bus station in Terelj National park we will be picked up by our host family travel from bus station to family on horses. Our host family is located on the river bank of Tuul River. Settle in your Ger and enjoy your evening.

(Local family B, L, D)

Terelj National Park

Today we will spend full day with our hosts and get involved in many activities of herders pursue daily. Bring animals to camp in the evening, milk horses, yaks, goats, and sheep. Process milk, make butter, yogurt and cheese. Savour delicious, fresh dairy products you help producing. Fresh yak cream and fresh yogurt are the best you have ever tasted anywhere in the world.

(Local family B, L, D)

Terelj National Park

Today little adventurous trekking day on horses awaits us. We will explore the surrounding area and go little deeper in the park admire the nature in Khentii Mountain range. We will do some sightseeing. We will visit Turtle rock and Aryaval Monastery, small meditation monastery at the foot of hill. Beautiful view over the entire park.

As we leave family behind and venture into the wild, you will hear and see ever more ground squirrels, marmots and birds. The day trek on horse will take us through an area of tundra, which is the habitat of the moose. You will soon become an expert at ‘moose detection. It is a typical Siberian landscape. We will climb up the mountain through deep forest where deer, wolves, moose and bears live. Keep your eyes open! The high mountains and the deep valley make this wonderful hiking through wide valleys to give a way to large mountain forests of birch, pine and cedar.

(Local family B, L, D)

Bus back to Ulaanbaatar

Today we will say good bye to our host family and drive back to Ulaanbaatar. Time to take shower and make some laundry before our second leg of adventure. Catch up and share news with family and friends while you have possibility to stay connected online.

(Hotel B, L, D)

Bus to Batulziit

Lazy morning ahead of us permitting you to pack at ease, around 1 pm we will make our way to long distance bus stop on west side of Ulaanbaatar. About 7-8 hours’ bus ride will take us to Batulziit village in Ovorkhangai province. We will spend overnight in a little village house and next morning head to horse and yak breeding family. Batulziit village situated in Khangai Mountains in Central Mongolia. Khangai Mountains are a mountain range in central Mongolia, some 400 kilometres west of Ulaanbaatar. The tallest mountain is the Otgon Tenger Uul with its summit at 4.020 m above sea level. The mountains feed the river Orkhon, Selenge, Ideriin, Zavkhan and the lake Orog and Böön tsagaan. In the west the Khangai Mountains transition into the Great Lakes Depression. Batulziit village is Mongolia number one wood processing village.

(Local family B, L, D)

Family at Orkhon valley

We will set further westwards into to Orkhon valley where the Orkhon River flows. The Orkhon valley is surrounded by the foothills of the Khangai mountain range. The valley is registered as world cultural heritage by UNESCO due to its ancient findings, artefacts related to early 6^th century and even before that. As well as, 12^th to 13^th century great Mongol empire had expanded its capital Karakorum here. Moreover, pasture nomadic lifestyle still remains here and it keeps both historic and nomadic view of life.

Meadows and fir forests are prominent here. The Orkhon river valley is lined with the remains of an ancient lava flow. Our host family located nearby Orkhon Waterfalls which cascades down a basalt canyon to a depth of 20 meters. After lunch we will have plenty time to explore the waterfall, its canyon and surrounding area.

(Local family B, L, D)

Family at Orkhon valley

Immerse yourself within locals. Discover in depth their way of life get involved in their daily activities such as milking, process milk into butter, cream, cheese etc… Bring animals to the family camp for evening. Goats and sheep must be brought next to the Ger for every night to be in protection from wolves. Evening, barbeque cooked over hot stones is on the menu. Engage a friendly chat & stories of their life over one or two shots of vodka. Herders make local vodka from fermented milk. Tastes little bit similar to rice vodka.

(Local family B, L, D)

Bus to Karakorum

Having said goodbye to our hosts once again we will take a bus to Karakorum, the old capital of Mongolia. Arrive at your guesthouse. Time to take shower & do some laundry and enjoy your evening.

(Guesthouse B, L, D)

Karakorum

Little bit history today. You will learn in depth history of Mongolia specifically during great Mongol empire. Karakorum is the site of the 13th century capital of the Mongolian Empire created by Genghis Khan. The highest peak of its prosperity was from 1220 to 1260. The specific feature of this stage is that Karakorum existed as the great capital of the Euro-Asian Empire with Mongolia as its core and as the centre of politics, economy, culture, religion, intellect, and diplomacy and the prominent tie of international relations. At the arrival, we will visit one of the biggest Buddist monastery Erdene Zuu. Now Erdene Zuu Monastery is all that remains of what once was a huge monastery of 100 temples and about 1.000 lamas residing there. We will explore the grounds of Erdene Zuu Monastery surrounded by its massive 400 m X 400 m walls. We will be guided around the 3 remaining temples: Dalai Lama, Zuu of Buddha and Lavrin Temple.

Another place we will visit will be Kharkhorin’s New Archaeological Museum. It is a small museum but housed in a modern well-run building with good lighting and display cases with clear English labels. The exhibits include dozens of artefacts dating from the 13th and 14th centuries which were recovered from the immediate area, plus others that were found from archaeological sites in other parts of the provinces, including prehistoric stone tools. You’ll see pottery, bronzes, coins, religious statues and stone inscriptions. There’s also a half-excavated kiln sunk into the museum floor. Perhaps most interesting is the scale model of ancient Karakorum, which aims to represent the city as it may have looked in the 1250s, and is based on descriptions written by the French missionary William of Rubruck. Another chamber exhibits a Turkic noble tomb with wall paintings and artefacts, including gold items and jewellery. There is a short video of actual burial site. We will also see the Turtle Rock and the Phallic Rock, visit little market behind walls exposing local arts by locals.

(Guesthouse B, L, D)

Bus to Tsetserleg

Today we take public bus to Tsetserleg town of Arkhangai province. It is a lovely little town surrounded by forested hills. Here we will visit the Buyandelgeruulekh Monastery, the town main functioning monastery and the nice little Museum of Arkhangai located in Zayaiin Gegeenii Monastery. From the museum we will walk hill upward to a small abandoned monastery and enjoy the beautiful view we have from there over Tsetserleg and the surrounding hills. We will visit local market.

(Guesthouse B, L, D)

Family along Tamir River

Today we will arrive at our host family and resume our nomadic way of life. The region is famous for horse fermented milk. Families have big herd of horses and yaks. Our family located on the bank of beautiful river Tamir often mentioned in Mongolian books, movies and poetry.

(Local family B, L, D)

Bus back to Ulaanbaatar

Today our final day in broad Mongolian countryside will take us back to the capital. Enjoy farewell dinner in capital share some unforgettable moments of the trip.

(Hotel B, L)