Mongolia

Ulaanbaatar was somewhat nicer than I expected. The city is focused around Sukhbaatar Square, where a lot of the main attractions are. We timed our trip to align with Naadam, the largest yearly festival in Mongolia, so we probably got to see Ulaanbaatar at its best time of year. The city isn't particularly large, but it has plenty of things to do to keep you busy for a few days. We went to the Chinggis Khaan National Museum, which takes you through the history of Mongolia as you climb the floors, with a huge golden statue of the great Chinggis Khaan himself at the top.

On one of the days we spent here we went for a massive walk from our hotel north of Sukhbaatar Square all the way to the Zaisan Monument on the southern edge of the city, stopping at the Choijin Lama Temple Museum, Ulaanbaatar Park, the National Sports Stadium where Naadam was in full swing, and the Bogd Khaan Palace Museum on the way. We couldn't get the UBCab app to work with a foreign phone number so we also had to walk back, but it was a beautiful day for it anyway.

We spent most of our time in Mongolia driving around in a 78 Series Land Cruiser which we called "The Lion" (because it roared). While we saw a bunch of Toyota Priuses in places no Prius should ever have been able to reach, I would recommend getting an actual 4x4 car for off-roading, because some of the "roads" we followed did not deserve the name. We had a great time off-roading. Admittedly, probably 90% of the other tourists we saw had a Mongolian guide and driver, which is fair. But if you want the adventure and to save a little bit of money, self-driving is absolutely possible.

Getting here was our first major stretch of off-road driving, although some sections of the paved highway included their own challenges. The area is scenic and a great location for rock climbing, camping and general wandering around. It definitely makes for a good midway point between Terelj (or Ulaanbaatar) and Tsagaan Suvarga.

Dalanzadgad is the capital of Ömnögovi Province. It's not a very big city, and there's not a huge amount to do there besides the Gobi Museum of Nature and Natural History, which is worth a look around. We used it as a rest stop before continuing on to some of the main attractions on our itinerary.

Once again we found a need for shelter and cold beer in the desert, but this time we were hiding from the wind and the stinging sand it brought with it rather than the sun. Still, this was one of the most scenic places we visited, and it felt a bit like we were on Mars.

Our campsite looking out over the cliffs also happened to be the spot that all the tourist vans came to once the wind died down to watch the sunset, when the Flaming Cliffs live up to their name. We had a good opportunity to meet and interact with other tourists for a while, until they all went back to their cosy ger camps and left us to our tent.

The drive out of the Gobi was probably one of the hardest sections of the trip. From Bayanzag to Ongiin Khiid was easy enough, and we stopped to have a look around the ruins there before pushing on. From Ongiin Khiid we knew we needed to cross the river to get to Arvaikheer, and spent a while wondering whether a crossing would actually exist - until we rolled up to a brand-new concrete bridge at Saikhan-Ovoo, built well after our map was printed. The road to Arvaikheer on that side of the river is horrific, though, and we definitely felt the need to reward ourselves with another hotel stay once we arrived.

We stayed a night in the Orkhon Valley not far from Kharkhorin, intending to head back into the city the next day to fetch supplies for repairs (duct tape) before heading deeper into the valley. When we returned to the valley we had two French hitchhikers with us, who told us about a yak festival in Bat-Olzii at the far end of the Orkhon Valley. We took them on a rather rough off-road track down the valley, including a couple of small river crossings and some backtracking until we discovered that a brand-new paved road went all the way to Bat-Olzii, and wasn't on any of our maps. That made the rest of the trip much easier. We dropped the boys off to search for the yak festival and continued on our way to Ulaan Tsutgalaan.

Coming from New Zealand, Ulaan Tsutgalaan wasn't a hugely jaw-dropping waterfall, and the road to get to it from Bat-Olzii was easily the worst road we'd driven on so far, but it was still worth going to see and we had the bonus of an amusing interaction with a local who tried to ferry us from the carpark to the waterfall on his motorbike, which we were clearly not going to fit on.

After going to see the waterfall we crossed the river again, hoping there would be a bridge (and there was, another brand-new one!), to get ourselves close to the hiking trail to Tovkhon Khiid for the next day's mission. This was actually one of the more interesting places we stayed. It wasn't as scenic as some of our other prime campsites, but we got a real feel for the absolute freedom of just camping anywhere in Mongolia, seeing the herders in action in the distance and livestock wandering up to our campsite in the night.

Mongolian people are super nice, but they shouldn't be allowed to drive. I'm not sure what it is about getting behind the wheel here, but drivers seem to lose all interest in self-preservation. Once you get off-road, other drivers are no longer your biggest concern. Unless you are Mongolian and willing to take your Prius into the desert, get an actual off-road vehicle. A guide and a driver are probably also worthwhile investments, but not strictly necessary. We actually rescued a van full of tourists, plus their guide and driver, from a dry sandy riverbed in our superior vehicle.

I do not recommend driving in Ulaanbaatar unless you're used to driving in chaotic cities. There are taxi services in Ulaanbaatar, but we were not able to get any of the local taxi apps to work, and had to get the hotel to call a taxi for us when we needed one. You probably need a local SIM card, not just an eSIM, and maybe a local bank account too (we don't know, we didn't get that far), if you want to use UBCab. Otherwise you can probably get away with just walking everywhere.