Discover Mongolia - Naadam Festival

Our adventure starts in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital city. There are no activities planned for today to allow for different arrival times. If you have time to explore some of the sites we recommend visiting Sukhbaatar Square, the National Museum and the landmark State Department Store. Around 6pm, say hello to your tour leader and fellow travellers, when we gather as a group for the first time to get to know each other and learn more about the adventures ahead. Your tour leader then ensures a big welcome by arranging a group dinner at a nearby restaurant. Want more time in Ulaanbaatar? Secure pre-tour hotel nights through your sales representative.

As we head out of Ulaanbaatar city, we visit the giant Genghis Khan statue at Tsonjin Boldog. Standing 130ft (40m) tall, the statue depicts the Mongolian ruler astride his horse and sits atop the visitor centre (itself 33ft/10m tall). It is possible to climb onto the horse’s head to get a closer look at Genghis Khan’s face. After, we continue to Terelj National Park, a large, protected area of green mountain meadows filled with edelweiss and other wildflowers. The contrast to the Gobi Desert is striking and it feels like being in a different country. We visit the Tibetan-style Aryabal Temple, a mountainside meditation centre with sweeping views over the national park. As we follow the walk up to the temple, we can read the inspirational sayings on placards every few steps. The climb to the temple is not difficult but does involve many steps and can be tiring. Tonight, we have our first night sleeping in a ger.

We leave Terelj National Park early this morning to drive back to Ulaanbaatar for Naadam Festival. The Naadam Festival celebrates the ‘three games of men’ (or Erin Gurvan Naadam): wrestling, horse racing and archery. More recently, a fourth game, knuckle-bone flicking, was added to the competitions. The festival is celebrated throughout the country but the biggest is in Ulaanbaatar. Over the next two days, we attend the grand opening ceremony before we watch Mongolians compete in all four sports. We also mingle with hordes of Mongolian spectators as the grounds around the stadium (where wrestling, archery and bone-flicking take place) and the horse races are filled with stands selling food, games, flags and various other things. The atmosphere is a big part of the experience and many Mongolians dress in their best traditional clothes for the occasion. In 2010, the festival was entered into the Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage list and is a great celebration of the Central Asian nation’s culture.

We drive towards Kharkhorin, making a detour to Khustain Nuruu National Park, two hours’ west of Ulaanbaatar. Khustain Nuruu is famous for the re-introduction of Przewalski’s horses (also known as takhi horses), which were once native to Mongolia and almost became extinct earlier in the 20th century. Through the efforts of several Mongolian and international organisations, these magnificent wild horses now roam in the steppes of the national park once again. We visit the Project Information Centre and take a guided hike to see the wild horses.

We continue our drive to Karakorum, the 13th-century capital of the Mongol Empire, making a brief stop to see the dunes of the Little Gobi along the way. Karakorum was established by Ogedei Khan and remained the Mongol powerbase until Khublai Khan established Beijing as the capital. Erdene Zuu (Hundred Treasures) Monastery was the largest monastery in Mongolia, built in 1586 under the direction of Abtai Khan on the ruins of the ancient capital. Much of the monastery was destroyed during Stalin’s purges of the 1930s, but an impressive wall with 108 stupas and several temples remain. After lunch, we visit the monastery, the modern Karakorum Museum and the surrounding area.

We continue along the paved road to Arvaikheer, the capital of Ovorkhangai Aimag, on the northern edge of the Gobi Desert. On the way, we visit the Shankh Monastery, once the home of the great Mongolian theologist Zanabazar. We should arrive at Arvaikheer mid-afternoon. In the afternoon, we have time to visit the local museum, which contains nature collections, stone figures and Turkic scripts, and possibly go to a local market.

Today is a long day as we head properly off the tourist route into some of the wilder parts of the Gobi Desert. After an early breakfast, we start our journey and rapidly leave the paved road behind. The landscape changes as we head deeper into the Gobi and the majestic Ikh Bogd should be visible in the distance, the highest mountain in the Gobi Altai mountain range. Eventually, after about nine hours of travelling (with stops), we arrive at our ger camp in the wilderness. This is the longest day’s driving but is also a trip highlight as we pass through some of the most spectacular scenery in Mongolia.