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To travel in Mongolia is easy… if you have stacks of money! The most convenient is to hire a jeep (driver & petrol included) for a min US$80/day. Or, you can sign up for the many packaged tours on offer, for even more money. Otherwise, you had better have plenty of time and patience, as we were soon to discover.

We spent our first 3 days in UlaanBaatar (Capital of Mongolia) trying to hook up with other travelers keen to go North to the famed Khovsgol National Park, in order to share the cost of a jeep. Visited guesthouses, put up notes, deliberately chatted people up during breakfast, but no luck. Everyone was either going to the Gobi, don't have much time to spare, or felt it was too cold up north. So we decided to do it on the cheap and make our way there the way locals would.

But there is no proper public transport system in Mongolia. So getting from 1 place to another can be pretty frustrating and sometimes painfully uncomfortable. Officially scheduled bus and train are few and goes to very limited places.  To arrest this problem, the local uses small Russian minivans, the most common mode of transportation. Taking one can prove to be quite an adventure. It means going to the right bus stand, asking around for a van going your way, finding out when the driver's departing and then WAITING... Til the driver successfully packs his van like a tin of sardine, with as many passengers and goods without permanent damage to his vehicle. Else, come back tomorrow!!! So local! We had to experience this for ourselves...

On the 2nd leg of our trip to Khovsgol. A 13hr ride in a Russian minivan. The picture was taken during the 3hr wait for other sardines to appear. 15 adults and 1 child fitted into an 11 seater. The driver's motto: There's always room for one more!!! We couldn't move for most part of the trip, except up and down with the rugged terrain. Shyan is claustrophobic, so it was one hell of a ride for her. She was a popiah skin away from freaking out.

After 3 days of asking, waiting and bumping, we finally arrived at Khatgal, gateway to Khovsgol National Park. The 1 thought in my mind, This better be worth it!

Our Russian minivan. For 13hrs only half my butt fitted on the seat, while the other half was on someone else's lap!

As it turned out, Khovsgol was awesome. We hired 4 horses and a guide (the one extra horse is for carrying our bags and food supply) and trekked 4 days by the western side of Khovsgol lake. We made pit stops at nomad families' ger, for a rest and a cup of tsai (Mongolian yak milk tea), and some snacks, usually homemade bread and yak milk cream, or some yak cheese biscuit.

The guide brought us to a ger camp run by a weird family on the first night. The kids, even their father would barge into our ger every 5 minutes, without knocking, talking non-stop in Mongolian. Then they sat on the bed and watched us cook dinner, and eat it. Then I offered them some of our dinner, hoping that they'll leave us alone. And they did. The dad left our ger happily with our pot of veg soup, and the kids followed.

Shyan on the horse back.

Sunrise in Khovsgol.

Then the sun sets.

Shyan's favorite lone tree.

Our guide Baya, he don't speak any English except 'ok' and 'sleep'. The only way to communicate with them is by using a Mongolia phrase book.

He's Mogee. The family let us spent 2 nights in their ger, sleeping on their bed. They make yummy bread and yak cream. And delicious dinner, or maybe we were just hungry.

Snow on Day 2. Sudden weather changes are commonplace. We kinda experienced all 4 seasons on this trek.

Shyan was trying to toast her bread on the heater fueled by pine woods. Silly girl, but it actually works!

Loading our jeep, getting ready for another bumping ride.

Sunset in Tsagaan Nuur, White Lake, in Central Mongolia.

Erdene Zuu, the oldest monastery in Mongolia, located in Ghengis Khan's ancient capital.

A few common things in Mongolia might jusy drive you crazy...

1. Shower facilities is rare outside of UlaanBaatar, even in guesthouses. Mongolians, if they need to clean themselves, will go to a puplic bathhouse.
   
2. Most vehicles that you travel in will break down at least once. But don't worry, the drivers are usually excellent mechanics if they have not had too much vodka.
   
3. Pick-pockets are everywhere. This is a serious problem in Mongolia. There is a special police department that handles only such cases.
   
4. There are some nasty homeless kids in UlaanBaatar. One of them snatched the bag of fruits we had just bought, right off Shyan's hands. They will come to you and try to put their hands into your pockets. As much as we pity them, they are quite annoying.
   
5. There are too much mutton in this country. The people, their clothes, their ger and even their money smells of it.
   
6. Temperature drops below 0 degree at night, and gets very cold especially staying in a ger. The hardest part is to get out of bed into the cold to add more wood to the little red coals left in the stove, or worse, start a fire from scratch. I'm pretty good at it now. Shyan goes to bed fully geared with beanie, gloves, 3 layers of clothes, a sleeping bag and 2 blankets.
   
7. Often, people have no sense of privacy… they don't knock before coming into your ger.
   

Hilarious to see a guy use a screwdriver to open his door in order to get out.

Public phone service is available everywhere in Mongolia. Each local call cost 100 Togrogs (13 cents).

Even the pit toilet, the way to go in the countryside, makes such a lovely shot.

Running water don't exist outside  the city. If you need water, fetch some from the lake and boil it!

Villagers buying water from a mobile vendor. Same way they buy wood and charcoal for cooking  and heating.

Oto, our minivan driver checking the brakes.