Jump ahead:
Day 8 | Flight to Ulgii, Sagsai, Eagle Hunter Family, Photo Shoots, Bear Valley Ger Camp
Day 9 | Golden Eagle Festival Day 1
Day 10 | Golden Eagle Festival Day 2
Day 11 | Flight to Ulaanbaatar
Day 12 | Terelj National Park, Turtle Rock, Horseback Riding, State Department Store
Final Day 13 | Depart Ulaanbaatar
For my recap video, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCiu36etkQ0
This half of my Mongolia trip was probably the most anticipated one as it was the highlight of the entire itinerary. The Golden Eagle Festival in Ulgii is easily one of the top 5 festivals in Mongolia and every year it gets bigger and bigger. It’s also probably the event that all the photography enthusiasts looked forward to most. This part of the trip had a completely different kind of energy to it and turns out there’s quite a big difference between Western Mongolia and everywhere we’ve been so far. The domestic flights (Hunnu Air) to and from Ulgii from Ulaanbaatar were already included and booked as part of the tour fee so all we had to focus on was making it there as a group.
Day 8 - 10/4/19
This was the earliest wake up of the trip at 0330. Checked-out of the hotel by 0400… they had good breakfast bags already prepared for us but I didn’t feel like eating any of it so I left mine on the counter. In it there was a sandwich, yogurt, fruits, and water. We ended up leaving the hotel at about 0420, all in one bus, and arrived at the airport by 0445 (no traffic).
Got checked in one by one… my bags were easily underweight (15 kg total limit) but apparently the overweight charge was not as much as we were told so it wasn’t such a big deal I guess. All of a sudden there seemed to be a lot more people traveling with the group now but I had zero energy to meet anyone new. I guess they were all with Ayan Tours but still in separate groups and guides, all coming together for the eagle festival. I think our original group might’ve been the only ones who did the Gobi tour prior to this. Hill (Steve’s friend) basically stuck with our original group since he and Steve made the plan to travel together so at this point he officially became one of us. He was a great addition to the group and it was as if he’d been with us the whole time. Also got to meet Mona at the airport… she was the one who helped arrange my trip and answered all my e-mails prior to… apparently she did this for everyone which must’ve been quite the headache eheh and yet she could still pick out our faces at the airport… more bonus points for Ayan!
After everyone was able to check in, we went through the side security gate. All the other groups seemed to think they had more privilege than others for some reason, cutting in line and whatnot even though we were all tour groups. The bathroom was before security (poor design) so once we went through the beepers there was no bathroom. In the small waiting area after security there was a nice little snack bar/cafe with coffee. Looked so good to have a real coffee but I skipped again since my stomach was still not normal (actually pretty stressful this whole time).
Took a shuttle to the plane waiting on the tarmac out in the cold and then boarded. Just a quick direct flight over to Ulgii… just under 2 hours, departing at 0620 but due to the 1 hour time difference we landed at 0710. Sat next to Steve and behind the Founder/Director of the tour company… he’s supposedly a very good photographer and down to earth guy. On the flight, Zero scared me into thinking I’d have to share a room with another person at the next camp in Ulgii but it turned out I already had my own room assigned. A bit surprising they would’ve roomed me with a female without asking prior or after I paid the single supplement but all’s well that ends well?
The airport in Ulgii was very very small… just one tiny building with no proper toilet and my stomach getting uncomfortable at this point. Still no poop since taking that immodium a few days earlier… where’s all the food going???
It took the guides a little while to organize our rides with so many people now, especially from Ayan. Rode in a super old Russian(?) van along with Zero, Viola, and Iris.
Update: Per Susie, the vans are from a Russian manufacturer UAZ (Ulyanovsk Automobile Zavod), mostly UAZ 452’s. They are better known as Buchanka, meaning “loaf of bread”…. haha I can totally see that… plus 10 points for figuring that out!
It didn’t take long to notice there were some translation problems between Zero and the driver who spoke mostly Kazakh. Majority of the people here speak Kazakh rather than Mongolian and are Muslim rather than Buddhists… quite the contrast from Ulaanbaatar.
Our ger camp wasn’t open yet so we went to look for an eagle hunter’s ger which was only supposed to be about an hour away. On the way, someone in another van lost their phone so we waited in the nearby town of Sagsai. Took this opportunity to find a bathroom at their city hall but all they had was the old style out back… a pit with the slot between the wooden boards and no toilet paper (still stressing about the stomach situation).
Once the other vans caught up, we left the city only to get a little lost driving through streams and bushes. It was taking a lot longer than the supposed one hour. Eventually, they were able to call the man of the house (Asylbek), who then had to find and escort us back to his home.
We finally arrived at Asylbek’s home just after 1100. I’m pretty sure this was the first time seeing a wolf puppy in person, let alone playing with one. Supposedly, they steal the puppy early which, as it grows up, keeps other wolves away from the herd… this one was only about 5 months old. They eventually release them back into the wild but they say this sometimes backfires because the grown wolf then uses the trust of the herd to come back with a full pack of wolves to attack later.
All wolf distractions aside eheh, the main reason we came was to meet with and take photos of some eagle hunters riding on horseback. Another Ayan group was already there taking pictures with the riders so we made it just in time for them to do a couple more rides by us. Everyone was pretty excited since this was the first time we got to see the eagles up close and personal… some people even got to hold them here. Asylbek and his brothers placed between 3rd and 6th place at last years eagle festival so they have a pretty good tradition running in their family. There was also a young girl in the family, Aimoldir, posing for photos with a falcon (or hawk?).
Update: Per Susie, Aimoldir’s bird was in fact a saker falcon (falco cherrug)… another 10 bonus points! I should’ve studied more…
After the photo session, we had lunch in one of the family gers… a shared mix plate of lamb, some kind of pasta roll with onions, and potatoes. According to some other visitors who were doing a homestay here, they had killed the lamb the night before so it was fresh I guess hehe. The food was cut and eaten with hands which I don’t usually do but had no choice here (I used lots of hand sanitizer). Asylbek played some welcome music for us which is more of a Kazakh tradition. After we finished eating, we just hung outside a little while…. some of us played volleyball with Aimoldir, I helped one little boy with his vest, and just played with the wolf puppy more. I assumed the company had already given the family some compensation for the lunch and photo session so I just gave the kids some black thunder chocolate as a treat before we said goodbye and good luck.
On the drive back to our ger camp, we noticed some hunters near one of the hills. We took a chance and drove over to them. Zero asked them nicely if they would do a practice eagle flight for us and luckily they obliged (he paid them after). We thought this might’ve been the closest we would get to the catcher if it was going to be really crowded at the actual festival. It was great to see the eagle flight for the first time and at the very least it was good practice for taking pictures at the festival.
Finally arrived at our last ger camp (Bear Valley Ger Camp) around 1515. Our new drivers were much slower today and the miscommunications with Zero was quite obvious. Apparently one of the other drivers wasn’t really listening to Zero either (3 different cars the first day but 2 starting the second). This was the longest we’d be staying in one location for the whole trip (3 nights). I ended up getting a small “house” instead of a ger. The room had no outlet so the only one I could use was in the restaurant ger. Toilets were not bad at least (western) and they always had toilet paper. I was really hoping they’d fire up the stove in the room so it wouldn’t be freezing like the last ger camp.
On a side note, found out later what happened with the phone that got lost earlier… it fell out of a pocket at a gas station we stopped at. They had video of the people who found it but now they were demanding 200000 MNT ($75 USD) to get it back… like a phone ransom (or “finder’s reward” if you will). Long story short, our guide went into full negotiator mode for a good chunk of the afternoon, was able to meet with the finders, negotiated a cheaper price, and brought the phone back safely. Of all the things to happen in a town like Ulgii in Mongolia so far from home eheh.
At 1830, most of us left the camp to do another photo shoot in town with more eagle hunters. We had to wait a little while for them to arrive but showing up a little late is expected/excusable when you’re riding your horse into town from so far away. I’m sure they all had more important things on their mind for the festival too rather then posing and entertaining a bunch of tourists with cameras. They started by singing in a ger while people took photos and then continued again outside next to a fire pit. It was hard to take any good photos with the lighting so I tried to take some time to just enjoy the moment too.
We got back to our ger camp around 2000. I had given the owner lady my original room key before we left which she lost while starting the fire in my room. She pulled a replacement key out of a tin full of random keys which miraculously worked somehow. Eventually she found the original, thank goodness.
Dinner soon after was just OK. After dinner I came back to a room full of flies and a big spider too! The flies were just endless… I kept killing them with the shower slipper but more just kept coming in through the roof… eventually the number of dead bodies everywhere started to gross me out so I could only turn off the light and wait for them to hopefully leave while I tried to sleep.
Day 9 - 10/5/19
One person in our group said they think Mongolia is a place for those who’ve been everywhere else and I think I agree… not because it’s the least interesting but because I think you need all the other experiences and perspectives in order to enjoy a trip like this… a certain sense of open mindedness and awareness… at least that’s what I took from that.
Anyway, it was a cold night again… especially after the stove went out but at least it wasn’t the coldest night. Flipped my light on early in the morning (at 0500) to make sure they came and started the fire again… eventually the older man came at about 530. After he came in and saw me all cold and bundled up, he said some things I couldn’t understand and then in a sort of jolly old man sort of way, he reached under the blanket to feel my feet… I guess to check how cold I was??? lol… good thing I was already wearing my toe socks, although I’m not sure if that confused him more haha. Sounds weird, especially when I told the rest of the group, but in the moment it was more comical, like how a grandfather might check on a child or something… so for this camp, he was now Grandpa (he actually did have a grandson running around somewhere too). After he realized I was wearing socks, he gave me the thumbs up and then proceeded to light the fire again. Sooo much better… I went back to sleep for a little while but not before I heard a fly cooking itself on the stove hahaha.
Woke up again just before 0700 for breakfast at 0730… a strange kind scrambled eggs and a lot of biscuits and bread/pastries.
We left the camp at 0820 and arrived at the festival site early. There were a lot of shopping booths being set up and some of the hunters posing with their eagles for people. One guy let me hold his eagle so I gave him a little tip… I was told tips of 5000-10000mnt for photos are typical.
We were also surprised and excited to see Aimoldir (the little girl from lunch the previous day) in full dress and on horseback. She was pretty much an instant celebrity at the festival and yet she seemed to remember our group from the day before and was happy to see us again too.
The opening ceremony started a little over an hour late so we had to wait around longer than expected but luckily the weather was comfortable with sunny skies, great conditions, and good seating. Once it started, they had an eagle hunter parade, various speeches from all the “prime ministers”, and a short concert/dance (couldn’t see very good from the side we were on). They mentioned that this year would be the 20th anniversary of the eagle festival, with over 2000 attendees from 23 countries.
This year there were at least 124 eagle hunters… I think a new record of participants. The youngest participant was only 10 years old (Aimoldir) and the eldest, 82 years old. There were also a few more female eagle huntresses, which no doubt can be at least partially attributed to Aisholpan, the first eagle huntress from the movie, “The Eagle Huntress”. There’s some controversy surrounding the movie, especially among the other eagle hunters, but I have to admit to watching the movie and getting more excited about the festival. I think it did a lot to bring attention to the eagle festival and increase its popularity… which I guess is kind of the double-edged sword in this case. Aisholpan was not competing at this year’s festival but her sister was there and they look so similar now that I guess some people mistook her for Aisholpan. Oh yeah, and just for your information, all the eagles are female.
The first day of the festival is like an application or qualifying round to determine who makes it to the actual competition on the next day. The hunters compete in alphabetical order. They call the eagle down from the top of the hill, trying to catch them inside of one of three circles, each worth 6/8/10 points based on distance from the release point. Along with the points circle, the judges time how long it takes for the eagle to land and if they successfully make the catch, they’ll also judge the hunters presentation and decoration. The top 20 hunters would make it to the second day. With over a hundred eagle hunters this year, if they failed to call their eagle successfully, they were pretty much out already.
Just before lunch, I decided to climb the hill where they were launching the eagles from but it was hard to get good pictures with the lighting, angles, and crowd. I also didn’t see the horse trail on the back side of the hill so I scrambled up the harder way on the side. It was at least nice to see a different perspective from up there since you can see the entire field. I wasn’t sure if anyone else from our group made it up to the top yet but I think it was definitely worth the short climb.
After about an hour on top the hill, I went back down for lunch in one of Ayan’s company tents. I’m not sure who was cooking but I got a salad and some meat pockets. They also had some strong coffee which was a nice change of pace. It was a pretty basic lunch but good enough for me.
Browsed all the shopping stands and games after eating… some of the hats looked interesting (averaging about 150000 MNT). I asked our guide if he thought they were real fur but even for him it was hard to say, especially these days. The games looked like the kind of scams you’d see on city streets somewhere but they were even letting little kids play them. Most of the other things for sell weren’t really interesting to me but I guess others in the group found some nice things they liked. Some of the meat sticks looked good but you had to eat them there and I wasn’t ready to risk my stomach again eating just meat and fat, even if they cooked the hell out of them.
Towards the end of the day they had some archery demonstrations. The participants had a good sense of humor and made it enjoyable to watch. It seemed they were challenging each other one by one. A little different from other archery that I’ve seen in that their targets are a line of balls on the ground about 50 meters away. I couldn’t figure out the point system but they weren’t hitting the balls all that often anyway hehe.
At 1630 we (somewhat reluctantly) skipped the camel racing and left the festival for a nearby private eagle shoot… a special arrangement made by and for Ayan travel group members only. They got some willing eagle hunters to do a few full gallops by us about five times. Then we went a little further away to do another smaller photo shoot by a river. It was all kind of rush rush and I had to struggle to free up enough space on my SD card as I was reluctant to start a new one hehe. We also got to hold eagles again and take pictures with some of the hunters here. I’ve never taken so many pictures in a day before.
On the way back through town, we made a quick stop to pick up a birthday cake and some wine for Carols birthday which just so happened to be today. I thought it was a really nice gesture from the tour company and of course our group was happy to celebrate with her on her birthday. Made it back at camp by 1900… super dusty and tired. The camp staff lost my room key again… last time I was going to give it to them obviously. Our guide got pretty frustrated with this camp actually since I wasn’t the only one having issues. They were somehow able to find my key again fairly quickly while I just waited in the restaurant ger. When I did get back into my room, I was greeted by yet another giant spider who I happily introduced to the shower slipper. The Grandpa came to the room again to set up the fire stove. He shook my hands this time to check my temperature and then he said they’d light the fire at 2200 which actually would’ve been better through the night since the heat only lasted about 5 hours.
For dinner we had some kind of meat patty… with a long piece of hair buried pretty deep inside mine. I think by this point I had already stopped expecting anything very exciting in terms of food. Then it was time for the cake and a little bit of wine for Carol’s birthday. A nice little celebration with our group in our ger restaurant… the camp owners even brought in some leftover birthday decorations too hehe. There was supposed to be a Kazakh cultural show in town but by the time we would’ve finished eating it would’ve been too late to go. It would’ve been nice to go and support it but honestly it was kind of a long day already so I didn’t mind skipping it too much.
Spent some time in the restaurant after dinner (where it was warm) freeing up more space on my camera while charging my devices. The Grandpa came in and actually gave me one of his fur coats for the night since he saw I was so cold in the morning. This definitely put them back in my good graces and was such a nice gesture… especially just for me. The others who were playing cards at the table found it amusing. It was also then that we found out we’d have to give our check-in bags to the drivers by 2100 the next night, before the actual day of the flight. Apparently the airport can’t handle the increase in flights during the festival so they were doing what they could to get some bags back to Ulaanbaatar on earlier flights too. The airport usually only has a few flights per week but during the eagle festival it jumps to something like eight per day (and you’ve seen how small it is). This kind of changed my packing strategy but the airlines at least agreed to waive the carry-on weight limit.
Day 10 - 10/6/19
It was a little cold at night again, even with with coat as extra layer. They actually lit the first last night at 2100 instead of 2200 so it got cold by 0200. The Grandpa came to make the fire again just after 0600. Breakfast was at 0730 again… more of the usual things.
Left the camp at 0850 and arrived back at the festival by 930. Some of the more enthusiastic photographers wanted to go a little earlier to get a better spot closer to the 10-point circle in the back so I agreed to go with the earlier car. Contrary to the first day, there was no ticket check on the road going in. When we got there it wasn’t crowded at all and we easily got the spot they wanted. Since the spot was pretty much reserved now, I left the group to go back up the hill to the release point. There were some hunters doing practice releases so I thought it’d be a good time to go up there while it was still relatively empty.
Eventually it got more crowded on the hilltop but still not as bad as the day before. It’s amazing how rude some of the other tourists were, especially the ones wanting to get good pictures. They even had the nerve to yell at the official videographer to move so they could get a picture…. so obnoxious. I think this was my first time encountering such rude and intrusive Europeans too… acting as if they’re above everyone else. Eventually the eagle hunters started getting fed up with some of these people. The hunters didn’t want anyone below or in front of where they were releasing the eagles (distractions for the eagles, plus not safe) but people would always keep creeping down there trying to take pictures. Eventually the hunters just started throwing rocks towards them to move… a couple idiots still didn’t listen. What the hell people? Tourists were even getting irritated with each other, throwing verbal jabs here and there.
Since there were less hunters participating today, I didn’t stay up there long. I got back down the hill and rejoined the rest of the group sitting along the rails just in time to see a few more eagles make successful landings. One of our drivers actually qualified to compete today, but for some reason his son took his horse so he wasn’t able to compete in the finals… I think someone might be grounded now?
After the eagle hunters finished up in the morning, We just kind of hung out at the field until they started with the rest of the competitions for the festival. The first one today was the coin grab. Pretty straight forward… the riders try to pick up four different coin bags over a short distance and I think they’re judged by the amount they grab as well as the time it takes them to do so.
Lunch today was at 1315… we had a huge, shared potato salad with each of us getting a beef and red beet root noodle dish. Towards the end of the meal, they started to clear out a table rather quickly before some eagle hunters came in to eat. Apparently, the first guy to sit is a three-time champion of the festival so I guess he was fairly respected here.
After lunch, they continued the competitions with a Girl Chase Boy sort of game. A woman basically chases a man on horseback, trying to catch and whip him as many times as she can… really popular among the women in the crowd I guess? This was followed by a tug-of-war on horseback with a headless goat skin. Admittedly, there was kind of less excitement in the air at this point as most of us wandered off to browse the shops again or just talk story… we were really just waiting for the closing ceremony results.
Sensing that some of our group really wanted to see the camel race the day before, Zero was able to arrange another chance for us to photograph some camels running for just a little extra 10000 MNT. I’m not the only one that feels Ayan really went above and beyond for these extra photo shoots… we saw a couple other vans here and there doing extra photo shoots but nothing like what Ayan was arranging for us every day. I’m not a real photographer but even I could appreciate the extra effort they put in at least.
At the actual shoot there ended up being only two camels… One of the camels wasn’t listening to the boy who was trying to jerk it around. They fought for a while and it kept escalating, eventually to the point where the kid threw a giant rock at it. Our group went completely silent when that happened and it really killed most of our spirits to even really do the photo shoot. One guy actually felt so uncomfortable that he just walked back to the eagle festival (we weren’t that far away). Shortly after that though, the kid mounted a horse instead at which point the camel was more cooperative and followed along. They did a couple runs by us but at this point I kind of lost the spirit of it all and definitely felt a little guilty. After the shoot, the group asked if they could take pictures of the young eagle huntress that came along (maybe the sister?) so she did a couple runs as well. I think photography is definitely not as fun when you start to lose the spirit of the moment… almost meaningless.
After the photo shoot, we made it back to the festival grounds just in time for the closing ceremony. First they announced the winners of the smaller games (Girl Chase Boy, Coin Grab, Camel Race, Tug of War), then concluded with the eagle hunters.
There were actually a lot of sixth place finishers, three fifth place, two forth place, two third place, two second place, and finally one first place winner. The winner, Arman, I think got to take home a 1.5 million MNT prize (about $563 USD). Turns out he was a student of Asylbek’s father, whose home we had lunch at in Sagsai.
After the closing ceremony finished, we had just a little time to do more shopping… I thought maybe the prices would’ve went down since it was their last chance to sell but the prices stayed the same. The only thing I was somewhat interested in was one of the hats but after talking with the seller, turns out it was Australian sheep and made in Turkey… why? I was told you could negotiate the price but I wasn’t interested anymore and just didn’t feel like going through the hassle.
Got back to the camp at 1800. I rushed to take a shower so I could pack my dirty clothes in the check-in bag but there wasn’t really any hot water in the shower yet so I had to make it a fast one. Packed my check-in bag so it could go to the airport by 2100. I only left some clothes in it along with my toiletries and an empty water bottle… I wasn’t about to trust leaving anything valuable in there with these sketchy logistics. After we gave the bags to the drivers we could only hope we’d see them again in Ulaanbaatar.
We had our final dinner in Ulgii at 1900. The group decided to give all the driver tips to Zero so he could split them up evenly since we’ve been bouncing between drivers each day. Since our group would start to split up beginning tomorrow, I made sure to exchange contact info with everyone before calling it a night.
Day 11 - 10/7/19
Our last breakfast at the camp was at 0730. Zero trusted me with all the boarding passes and so I handed them out, save for the baggage claim stickers which were all attached to my ticket.
Since we weren’t leaving for the airport until around 1230, some of our group went on an extra photo session at 0800 down by some river. Some of another group went to a museum trip in town but they didn’t tell us until the last minute so I skipped it. I actually just wanted to relax for once so it was nice to stay back in the quiet camp. Hung out in restaurant tent for a little while with Carol and Jenny. They had fun playing with the baby boy who also had fun playing with all their electronics hehe. Then I went to hang out with some grazing cows by the river, saw a dead fox, and took some pictures of birds… a nice quiet morning really.
The photo group didn’t come back until about 1145… apparently it took them longer than expected to find the right location on the river. We had a quick lunch at the camp and then had to leave by 1230.
The group all said goodbye to Iris, Viola, and Susie who were staying behind to do a home stay with one of the eagle hunters family.
Got to airport at 1245 (it was really close to the camp). Zero waited until now to tell us that the taller driver was driving for Ayan as kind of service for crashing into another employees car eheh.
Once at the airport, we all said goodbye to Zero who was staying behind with the home stay group. Too bad he couldn’t continue on with us for the last day of the trip.
We were already checked-in for the flight but the security process was real slow, literally one by one. Departure was supposed to be at 1420 but the plane came late. Boarding didn’t start until 1450. It was a relatively quick turn around once we were boarded, taking off at 1510, but the staff was not friendly at all. Guess you can’t expect much with only one company flying in and out of here.
I guess since Ayan had booked the domestic flights, I wasn’t aware we would be stopping at another airport before Ulaanbaatar. This kind of threw a lot of people off as we started to descend not long after our first take-off eheh. This did explain the longer flight time that I was wondering about though. After about 20 minutes at Ulaangom Airport, we took off again but still had 2 hours 30 minutes left to Ulaanbaatar.
Landed back in Ulaanbaatar at 1940. The check-in baggage seemingly took forever to show up on the conveyor even though we had them checked the night before. I guess we were just thankful that they all made it at least. They didn’t really check our baggage claim tags on the way out… maybe I just have a trusting face? hehe I don’t know. We met our new guide, Puujee, who was also flying back with us from the eagle festival, then left the airport at 2040.
The yellow bus dropped us off for dinner around 2110 at New York New York, a weird karaoke restaurant/bar place. We said goodbye to Hill before the bus took him back to his hotel… he had to meet back up with his working group and so this was his last time with the group. Our group is slowly diminishing…
Dinner was a bit fancy I guess, maybe they did it on purpose as a sort of treat after all the ger camps? Everyone was definitely happy to be back in the city for a change (and a proper shower). I decided to relax the stomach anxiety a little bit and have a beer (was only 4900 MNT).
Traffic in the city died down by the time we finished eating. Got back to the Holiday Inn at about 2240 and quickly checked-in. Now we had to say goodbye to Steve since he was flying back home the next day and wouldn’t be going to Terelj National Park with us. Of our original group, it was now down to Carol, Jenny, Olivia, Robert, Elizabeth, and myself.
At least we were allowed to sleep in a little later the next morning… not meeting again until 0930. Didn’t have time to go shopping back at the State Department Mall because of the late flight tonight, but supposedly we’d be back early enough from Terelj tomorrow to do some shopping again.
Day 12 - 10/8/19
I went down for breakfast just after 0800… they had a nice omelette station today. The group met in the lobby and left the hotel at 0945, stopping near the State Department Store to pick up Elizabeth and Chris, who each had different accommodations. There were now 8 people in our new group… with Chris and Cecile joining us today. They were also at the eagle festival in Ulgii so we met them briefly there too.
The night before, Puujee had mentioned there was a shorter, rougher route to the National Park or a longer, smoother route… I kind of made a joke that rough roads are not a problem to us after going to the Gobi but maybe it was misinterpreted? We were definitely taking the longer route in the morning. Along the way, we stopped at another Nomin Supermarket for water, snacks, and to use the toilet.
At one point, the conversation in the van steered heavily towards peoples numerous travel accomplishments and lifetime bucket lists… I think these things are kind of pointless. I guess I try to think of my travels as a bonus and that we should try to enjoy what’s within our means. I personally don’t like chasing bucket lists, probably because part of me would get paranoid with actually completing it and it’d only be setting myself up for regret if I didn’t … I don’t need that stress in life. I’ve also noticed that nobody is an expert traveler no matter how many countries they’ve been to, and it definitely doesn’t necessarily make you a better person anymore than someone who doesn’t travel as much. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with bucket lists and all that, it’s just not for me and so it is admittedly difficult for me to sit through long conversations about it. Anyway, that was my one long rant for this trip.
Once we entered into the park grounds, I couldn’t help but notice all the glamour-like camps everywhere. There were just so many ger camps in this area, including Western-style buildings/cabins… to the point where it was kind of distracting/disappointing.
We first stopped for lunch at one of the more fancy camps, Terelj Lodge. The food was pretty good but I noticed a lot more chicken lately… maybe it’s like a gourmet thing here?
Left the restaurant around 1420. Not far away was Turtle Rock…. one of the main attractions in the park I guess. Thought we were just stopping to take a quick picture but there was also a big gift shop which I didn’t notice at first so we spent some time looking around in there too.
At 1500, we visited another family ger to do some horseback riding. It was included in the tour price I guess so most of us paid and extra 10000 MNT to take a short, walking ride… at most, just 30 minutes. We were here for less than an hour and a half total, leaving by 1625.
I honestly felt that this day was a bit underwhelming… and maybe it was a combination of things like losing half of the original group, coming off the high of the eagle festival, it being the tail end of the trip.. but I also didn’t feel like it lived up to the expectations set by the itinerary. It didn’t feel like we had a schedule today… almost seemed kind of lazy. The park and horse ride weren’t as great as expected and overall it just seems there wasn’t much effort put into this day. Maybe some better closure would’ve been to just finish the trip after the eagle festival?
We ended up taking the shorter, more direct dirt road back to Ulaanbaatar. The driver seemed pretty reluctant to do it even though it had been offered up to us as an option (I just wanted to get back in time to do at least a little shopping as was promised). The new road wasn’t expected to be completed for another month. Stopped at grocery store along the way for the toilet and I also ended up buying some chocolates.
A lot of the newer homes we passed by on the way back to Ulaanbaatar were so Western and out of place… definitely weird to see. One even looked like a miniature castle. Despite this route being rougher, we were told it’d take half the time of the longer route that we took in the morning (which is why we wanted chose it). At the rate our driver was going though, it ended up taking just as long.
By this time I was pretty much done with this trip mentally and I couldn’t wait for the ride to be over. Some people were literally talking out loud for the entire ride… and of course once we did get back to Ulaanbaatar we had to deal with the traffic in the city.
We didn’t make it back to the State Department store until 1930… we were told the day before it’d be around 1700-1800. Traffic was so bad that some of us joked about just getting out and walking. There was a group dinner still scheduled nearby, but since it was so late already, I decided to just skip it so I could have more time to shop and not have to rush everywhere… plus at the rate we were going, the store would’ve been closed after dinner. They still gave the rest of the group about 15 minutes to look around at the store but that wasn’t enough at all.
Since this was the last time I was going to see everyone, I said my final goodbyes to everyone at the State Department Store. I didn’t really want to duck out of dinner but I really just needed the time to allow myself some proper closure to the trip without the stress.
Went back up to the top floor of the mall. I was really only looking for two things… that ger candle holder from the restaurant and the silver ceremonial bowls. I asked one of the clerks if they had the candle holders and they just told me they didn’t sell them anymore. I did find a pretty nice silver bowl in the meantime, but it wasn’t quite nice enough to justify the $260 price tag and non-stop maintenance to keep it nice… at most it would’ve ended up being a really nice snack bowl. I initially thought they’d be more commonplace in the gers we visited but I didn’t once see a silver bowl being used throughout the trip. I did one last pass of the top floor just looking for any kind of souvenir and lo and behold! By what seemed like just pure luck I found the exact candle holder I was looking for! It was sitting in a glass case with other non-related items… the nearby sales clerk actually wasn’t planning on selling it because there was a very small chip in it but it was really hardly noticeable. They wouldn’t give me a discount for the chip but I was so glad to actually find one that I didn’t care. Sounds silly, but this was really a great pick-me-up to end the night.
Happy again after my finds, I walked back leisurely to the hotel and was back in my room by 2045 (for some reason I had to reset room key again). I decided to skip dinner since it was already kind of late and I had to wake up early for my flight so I just showered and packed before calling it a night.
Final Day 13 - 10/9/19
Checked-out of the hotel @ 0500 and my driver was already waiting for me in the lobby. This time, instead of Amara it was her husband that picked me up. There wasn’t much conversation other than him saying he was Amara’s husband but since there was no traffic it took only 20 minutes to get to the airport.
The check-in counter for my flight opened up just after I arrived. It took me a little while to figure out where the correct counter was since the international counters are past a security guard. Got checked-in and through the immigration check easily by 0540.
There were a surprising amount of shops after immigration. There was even a Gobi cashmere store although it was pretty expensive… a scarf was basically double the price (80000 MNT) of the EVSEG factory store we went to. They seemed to have a good exchange rate though, 2665 MNT/USD with the market rate at 2668. The shops seemed just a little bit more expensive than outside the airport. For convenience, they also take USD so fear not if you’ve already traded back your MNT.
Same type of plane that I arrived on with MIAT. 3 x 3 single aisle seating, no seatback monitors, old seats. Got lucky again with the empty middle seat. On time boarding, starting with business class, continuing from the back of plane… it was a surprisingly full flight. Captain Marvel and Toy Story 2 playing… geez.
Well then… what a trip! Just to recap briefly, I got to see all kinds of landscapes… hiked in canyons, on rocks, up sand dunes, and around cliffs… rode camels, held an eagle, played with a wolf, rode a horse…. saw a bunch of pikas, vultures, yaks, etc… watched eagle hunters do there thing, women whipping men on horses, and tug of war game with a dead animal corpse… drank fermented mare’s milk, ate a lot of meat…. met a lot of good people and took a ton decent photos. It definitely wasn’t the most glamorous or comfortable trip at times but it was definitely more than I expected or could’ve asked for. My thanks to everyone who made the trip what it was.
Until next time!