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Recommendations for Mongolian tours?

Off Course
#1

I’ve always wanted to take a horse-y vacation and I’m going to finally make it happen.

I’ve been looking at horse trekking tours in Mongolia next year but am wondering if anyone has recommendations on successful trips they’ve had (or know of anyone who had a good experience). I can get a good sense of the companies from their websites/videos/reviews but I’d love to get input about the different regions these tours go through and stuff like that.

I’m also lactose intolerant and allergic to dairy and am trying to find a company that is very trustworthy about accommodating food allergies haha, if anyone has experience with that. Otherwise I’ll probably just plan to cook for myself.

I have a lot of work to do in the meantime. I haven’t been on a horse in three years. :smile:

1 Like
#2

You do realize those Mongolian tours will be thru thousands of miles of practically deserted rough country, where accommodations and other resources are minimal, not the place to have special needs, like medical or dietary ones?

Shelli Reis from Spincity Reiners just went on one such trip, got back this week.
She is a super nice, friendly person and will answer your questions and give you pointers.

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#4

Oh yeah, I’m an experienced backpacker. I lived on the west coast for the past 5 years and did multi-day trips, including the Wonderland Trail. I can’t eat dairy and I’m perfectly fine with cooking my own food. Right now the tours I’ve found seem to have a group meal and a couple do have notes they understand food allergies and how they bring an added challenge to a trip like this. So that’s where my question comes from. I know there are people out there who companies and have life experience with catering toward food allergies so if it seems like they “get it” (some people treat it like you’re being high maintenance) it’s such a relief. But otherwise I’m totally fine with cooking for myself - just at a very early stage of info gathering and would love to hear if anyone had relevant trustworthy experience.

Thanks for the tip!

#5

Just getting where you decide to go in Mongolia will be a great adventure in itself.

Have fun and report back, if you have a minute and some to tell us, please. :slightly_smiling_face:

#6

Is cooking for yourself even an option for this type of tour? How would you carry your own food and cooking supplies? From what I understand these tours provide pack animals for carrying provided food and supplies.

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#7

Yeah totally. I mean it’s a bunch of people backpacking but with horses (my two favorite things).

See that piece of meat you’re cooking on a buttered pan? I’ll have the same thing, but with no butter. Because if I eat the buttered meat, I’m going to have explosive bathroom issues within 5 minutes. So it’s not exactly rocket science haha

#8

I wrote a book about the Mongol Derby, so I’ve done quite a bit of research into traveling there, although I haven’t been myself. I’m sure if you hang out around on the forum, you’ll find someone who has, or, you could email some people who have done the derby or traveled for more information (even if you’re not doing the derby itself).

Here’s a few tour companies with a social media presence:

http://www.mongolia-travel-and-tours.com/

https://stonehorsemongolia.com/
If your food allergy is pretty severe, I would (depending on the tour) bring your own food. Even Westerners with cast-iron stomachs often have issues adjusting to Mongolian food and dealing with, um, that particular issue while on horseback is not fun, especially since it’s not always easy to mount and dismount.

I wouldn’t expect locals you’re dining with to understand or be able to accommodate all that well. Fermented mare’s milk is part of the diet, and sometimes locals preparing special meals can be offended if you don’t partake.

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#9

How the hell did you write a book about a culture you’ve never personally experienced?

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#10

By interviewing people who had done the derby and doing research, just like all good writers do.

Look, I was trying to be helpful in regards to your question. I wasn’t trying to promote my book. There is absolutely no reason to be rude or unkind. if you don’t want to pursue the links I suggested, that’s fine, and you can ignore a post without lashing out.

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#11

Once you leave the bubble of the developed world, there just is so much less stuff and much more necessity to make do. If you land in a culture that fortuitously doesn’t use the diet things you are avoiding, that’s great. For example, South China would be a great place to avoid milk products but harder to be vegan. I don’t know much about Mongolian food en situ, though mare’s milk and yogurt come to mind! Most of the developing world cooks in oil, not butter, however. I’m not sure mare’s butter exists!

In other words, the actual ability of the hosts to accommodate dietary restrictions might be limited because they don’t have access to 5 different supermarket chains plus Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.

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#12

A big part of many tours is staying with locals on the steppe. Mongolian culture isn’t as transient as it used to be, but there isn’t the network of hotels that accommodate Western diets in the same way. Of the people I’ve spoken to who did the Mongol Derby, I actually don’t know anyone with food allergies or intolerances, although a few of them did say some of the meals were a bit rough on the digestion. It’s a very meat-based diet (like a lot of hunter-gatherer cultures), and also fermented dairy. I don’t know if it would be impossible to avoid dairy, but it’s hard to guarantee it in the same way that you can, say, traveling in the UK where everything has a little label on. It would definitely be something you’d have to speak with the guide beforehand.

1 Like
#13

Exactly. But I don’t need access to a supermarket to cook for myself. I literally just use oil instead of dairy

Also do you have any actual recs for the mongolian steppes

#14

I can imagine it being rather complicated for a trek company to accommodate one person wanting to cook at all these nomadic village stopping points. Where you would need to push past folks who don’t speak any English, are using fairly basic wood or dung or kerosene stoves, and have been contracted to do mass meals for a dozen trekkers at set times.

My first suggestion would be to research what the daily diet is in the area you plan to visit and then see if dairy products are central or peripheral to that diet. Also perhaps you are only allergic to cows milk not horse milk?

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#15

Sorry, how is it complicated? Throwing a slab of meat on a side skillet is pretty easy. Just like: yes, that meat but if you give me dairy I’ll blast my ass off.

#16

Some ways people like the Mongolian eat is more of a ceremony than just throwing food on a skillet and gobble it.

They don’t have many resources, they use every bit they have and treat it like gold, have specific foods that fit certain times, rituals around eating, are whole different, interesting cultures.

Turists enjoy all that novel culture also, are there not just for a trail ride, but maybe some trekking companies do cater to just tourist trail riding trips?

Maybe someone you contact managing those trips will know more what all is out there?

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#17

Imagine you are at a busy restaurant and want to go into the back and cook your own meal while the staff are running around cooking for others.

Imagine you are in a yurt in the middle of nowhere and a couple of elderly women with no English have fired up their single charcoal brazier with scarce fuel to cook a large one pot meal calculated to feed say 12 people. And you come in wanting access to another stove, a frying pan, and a whole slab of meat for yourself. It may not be possible.

For that matter, imagine turning up at your inlaws big choreographed traditional Thanksgiving dinner and insisting that you be given stove space and ingredients to cook a Mongolian hotpot meal from scratch for yourself.

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#18

I think the best thing to do would be to contact different trekking companies and specify your needs and then choose a company based on their ability to meet your needs. I, personally, would not want to pack my own food, especially on these smaller horses. They likely have weight limits. A lot of these treks use ingredients that are available to them at the time of the season so they are limited with their accommodations. And yes, group meals are quite common. You’ve been given some good advice though you do seem resistant to accept it.

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#20

I don’t really know how to make it more clear. If you give me dairy you’re going to need a cleanup crew. My family is made up of successful football players that excused themselves to be gentlemens to fart.

It’s not hard to cook to avoid this. It requires less effort than normal lol. It’s just different. Imagine turning up to your inlaws choreographed Thansgiving dinner and they couldn’t knock out a portion of the pan for you.

These comments are literally why I don’t ride horses any more.

#21

People have been more than nice in responding to you. You’re being rude.

It isn’t Burger King it’s a long distance trek in the wilds of Mongolia.

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#22

Contact the trekking companies. They are the only ones that can tell you if your needs can be met, especially on a trail ride in a culture that thrives off of diary, meat and animal fat.

-or-

refuse all advice and shit yourself through the mountains of Mongolia. I’d like to know which option you choose when you do decide.

11 Likes

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