Trekking Mongolia

True or False: What should you do in Mongolia?
Answer: How much time do you have and what time of year will you be going?

While the Lonely Planet will ultimately be your first stop for details on visiting Mongolia, here are some things you should consider.

Time of Year
There is a balancing act between visiting a place to experience the best weather or its most famous cultural events versus a time of year when tourism is low, prices are lower, and your sense of a unique experience is greater. For Mongolia, the Naadam Festival occurs in mid-Summer (July to early August), where the three manly skill of Mongolia are on display: wrestling, horse racing, and archery.

(Interesting aside: Mongolian wrestlers wear an open "mini" jacket called a Jodog that exposes their pecks. Legend goes that back in the day when wrestlers could wear closed Jodogs, a wrester handedly defeating all opponents and then ripped open the Jodog to reveal her breasts. Consequently, all Jodogs going forward had to expose the chest, giving way to the flamboyant jacket worn today -- way more logical then removing the shirt altogether).

Unfortunately, the Naadam festival is when tourism explodes in the country for a few weeks, so visit another time. In late September into early October, there is the Golden Eagle Festival where you can watch eagles hunt for food on command in the beautiful Altai Mountains. Eagles. Hunting. On. Command. (You probably just booked your ticket for September 2011).

Arrival and Ulaanbaatar
If you are coming from Russia, I suggest the bus from Ulan-Ude. The bus took around 11 hours plus about 2 hours to get through Russian and Mongolian customs (i.e. 1hr 55min for Russia, 5 min for Mongolia), while the train can take as long as 6 to 11 hours just to get through customs.

If you are coming from China, the train track widths are different between the two countries, and changing the under-carriages can take a long time -- adding up to half a day to your ride to Beijing. Secondly, you'll most likely be going against the flow of travelers that primarily start their trips in Moscow, which means your English speaking company may be slim to none. Perhaps, don't come to Mongolia from China, unless you want that unique, solitary, outsider experience.

Arriving by plane will be the preferred choice for anyone coming to explore Mongolia on a short time schedule. When you arrive, you can make a convenient stop at the Office of Immigration just outside the entrance. At the Office of Immigration, tourists staying longer than 1 month are recommended to register in their first 7 days, and logically, required to do so before the month is up. Be patient, bring a pen along (you won't find one anywhere) and if you get frustrated, know that even if you find yourself filling a form out in your own blood in place of ink, it is far better than the bureaucracy of Russia.

Tours
Don't book tours in advance unless you have a group of 4 to 6 people ready to book. Otherwise, you should take your chances by staying at a local hostel/tour agency in Ulaanbaatar and coordinate with some travelers looking to do the same thing. Depending on where you go, a private tour could be $120+/day. But get 4 to 6 people, and you'll probably be around $40-$50/day.

Package tours can be anywhere from 1 day to 1 month, and a good tour operator will be willing to tailor a tour for any thing you want to see. Your tour should include three meals a day, 1.5L of water per day, a sleeping bag, a camping mat, transportation vehicle, driver, a poor to mediocre English-speaking tour guide, decent company, park entrance fees, a warm place to sleep at the end of the day, and a small taste of Mongolian nomadic life. For all the beauty Mongolia has to offer, you'll find the countryside uninhibited by red-tape and tourist crowds, and that means you'll be able to have an authentic experience beyond most tourist locales.

If you are thinking of traveling in Asia, Mongolia should be a long stop.