Recommendations for Mongolian tours?

[LilRanger]

I went to Mongolia for a month with Zavkhan trekking. I highly recommend them.

We had a support truck that carried most of the supplies (even the live sheep we bought a long the way!). It was a blast! Did not have the tummy troubles, but did eat weird combinations of every day food. (Pickles in your soup? Right next to that sheep’s head!)

There was butter, but no steaks, just everyone’s favorite, fried bread! That was named something that sounded (and sort of looked like) like “ballsack”. It was delicious.

I thought the accomodations were pretty damn lux, myself, but I’ve lived in a house with a composting toilet, so I may not be average.

[skydy]

How are Tour companies getting into Mongolia these days? Through Russia or China?
Neither seem like borders I’d want to be crossing with an American passport at this point in time, but that’s just me.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

@LilRanger

Zavkhan trekking

It looks like the website even has a section on food, and that fried bread sounds amazing:

FAQ | Everything You Need to Know About Joining Us

Thank you so much @Garythesquirrel! Hopefully, some day I will be able to make the journey myself (though not the Derby).

[LilRanger]

@skydy

How are Tour companies getting into Mongolia these days? Through Russia or China?
Neither seem like borders I’d want to be crossing with an American passport, at this point in time, but that’s just me.

We went through Beijing, but Seoul was another option. That was a while ago, so I don’t know what’s available now.

[stirrups1]

@Impractical_Horsewoman

FWIW, according to Kwong and a number of people who wrote online accounts of doing the Derby, there is often quite a bit of heavy drinking going on over the course of the race, so at least that’s something you don’t need to worry about building up a tolerance for!

I laughed out loud. I think my lack of tolerance is what got me here haha. I can’t imagine getting on horse today. That’s some sturdy stuff.

So I also posted in a Facebook backpackers group and got tons of info. Including a vegan woman that did the trek (and she was vegan by necessity, not by choice, which is a signal to me that she understands my concern about accidentally ending up in a bad bathroom situation while on horseback).

They were basically like yeah if you cook for yourself no worries but also there are big companies out there that will handle it. Zavkhan came up multiple times.

[stirrups1]

Yeah - wow. I guess it’s really hard to imagine a tour that is based off food allergies unless it’s one of those ones that causes instant death (peanut?)

It’s incredibly strange that they forced an entire group to eat a certain meal plan. Did the person with the allergy sponsor the tour or something?

[Scribbler]

@stirrups1

Yeah - wow. I guess it’s really hard to imagine a tour that is based off food allergies unless it’s one of those ones that causes instant death (peanut?)

It’s incredibly strange that they forced an entire group to eat a certain meal plan. Did the person with the allergy sponsor the tour or something?

No, as poster above said the trek company did not have room to pack extra pans or two meal plans.

[ShenanAnna]

I’d think that it takes a special personality to get the most out of a trip like this, one that is quiet, accommodating, and very open to and accepting of others’ differences.

[Xanthoria]

It was a peanut allergy Luckily the sufferer was incredibly gracious and sweet and while the tour operators hid the situation from us all until we found out, by then we’d got to know the sufferer and empathized. But it was entirely unfair to both the sufferer and to the rest of the group.

As Scribbler says, there was no room to accommodate two separate meal plans. And with an allergy like that there’s no room for error. Or additional pots and pans and ingredients.

[Brown_Derby]

Frankly, I would be more concerned about your lack of riding than a food allergy.

[Fiesta01]

@Willesdon

Some people are tourists, handed a pre-packaged “experience” on a plate. Some people are travellers and have experience themselves. Travellers are happy to pass on experience and information but tourists are often too wedded to their preconceptions and opinions to hear the advice offered.

This^ 1000 times!

[endlessclimb]

Yes. Not fair to you, or the horse.

[fordtraktor]

Well, I have done this. I used Peter at activeMongolia.com to make our arrangements. We did a 5 day horse trek in the White Lake region, then spent a couple of days in UB, flew to the Gobi Desert and did a camel tour there as well.

Peter is an excellent tour operator. You will need a translator and a driver. Very little English is spoken outside of Ulaanbataar.

Enjoy! Mongolia is gorgeous.

[fordtraktor]

Re: food…they will not be able to provide separate pans, most likely, but they can accommodate your dairy issue I would think. The food is heavy and you are likely to have some GI issues. My husband and I both came back with giardia.

[endlessclimb]

@fordtraktor

My husband and I both came back with giardia.

That’s it, sign me the heck up!!

(said sarcastically, but in jest, as I traveled extensively to strange areas for 5 years straight)

[fordtraktor]

Yeah, it was pretty bad until we figured out what it was, then it was quickly resolvable. Thank God for modern medicine!

Also, OP, if you go try to get your doc to write you a prescription for ABX just in case, and take any meds you might need. It’s impossible to find anything (and the writing at the pharmacies we tried were in Cyrillic so you can’t just figure it out easily unless you understand that alphabet). No English there, either.

You don’t need any sort of guide in UB, it’s navigable alone, even with the language barrier. English isn’t common but there are enough English speakers to get by.

Mongolians are lovely and absolutely adore Americans. Our military helps them a fair bit, and they are sort of stuck between Russia and China…we are good allies!

I have GI issues so I took like 5 big boxes of clif bars. I haven’t eaten a clif bar since. The food is not great, so take your own. I lost like 15 pounds in 2 weeks.

The actual trekking system is that you ride from one place to another with your guide and wrangler, and the driver meets you there with tents and food, etc. It is cold. We went in August and it snowed/was below freezing at night. Wear lots of layers. Gobi was warm during the day and cold at night. Great trip, all in all and would 100% do it again.