Adventurous Seoul: Mongolia: Land of Blue Skies and Nomadic Hospitality

I just got back from Mongolia this this morning and although I'm tired, exhausted and going back to work tomorrow, I HAVE to blog so I can remember everything!

Mongolia is a place that I didn't think about going to until the past few years. After seeing friends' pictures and hearing their stories, I knew I had to go. After a lot of research and knowing that we had a week and half to spare during summer vacation; my travel buddy/ awesome friend and I decided that now was the time!

Mongolia is a land-locked country in east central Asia. It borders China and Russia. The capital is Ulanbaataar and is home to close to 50% of the entire country's population making it the most sparsely populated country in the world. Most of the population has developed a nomadic lifestyle.

We landed in Ulan Baator (UB) on a Sunday evening and for about 15,000MNT (~USD7.50) headed toward Meg's Guesthouse and Tours in the center of the city. We went out to dinner with some of the travelers staying at the hostel (I always love hearing people's travel stories). The next couple of days were spent eating horse meat, being super tourists and more meat eating.

Chinggis Khan: founder of the Mongolian empire

Meg, the hostel owner, helped us organize a tour through her company. It was a 7 day tour spanning 1700 kilometers (1056 miles) on extremely bumpy roads. We slept at ger camps and in real actual gers with nomadic families! We ate goat meat and drank the local Vodka. We went to the bathroom out in nature. We ate a lot of yogurt. We went 5 days without showers. Our hiking shoes got muddy. We drank goat vodka. We road on double-humped camels. We bought cool souvenirs. We hiked sand dunes of the GOBI DESERT. The trip definitely exceeded my expectations and if you haven't added Mongolia to your Bucket List then do so now and GO. We've decided we want go back and see more of the country, the next time with husbands, though:)