A country of amazing steppe expanses, where you can not find a single living soul for many kilometers around, and national traditions, which are as strong as the warrior Mongol spirit, is gradually gaining traction in the tourism market as an exotic destination. During the trip, the main companions of the tourist will certainly become the bright and indefatigable sun, snow-covered mountain ranges and bundles of colored flags encircling Buddhist stupas.
Important points
- For a trip to Mongolia Russian tourist no visa required.
- Rent a car in the area where Genghis Khan was born, experienced travelers do not recommend. The quality of the roads and the condition of the cars offered leave much to be desired. Besides, in Mongolian steppes you can easily get lost.
- To buy tickets for trains or buses for transfers within the country, you will need a passport.
- The difference in prices for tickets of local airlines for Mongols and foreigners is very significant.
Choosing wings
Direct flights with Mongolia are carried out from several cities beyond the Urals:
- Aeroflot has flights on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. A direct flight on Russian wings will take a little over 6 hours, and a ticket will cost about $ 680.
- Mongolian Airlines also takes passengers on board several times a week. Prices start at $ 800.
- The flight will be much cheaper - by plane Turkish Airlines across . The price of the issue is from $ 550, the journey will take 13 hours without taking into account the docking.
- The Chinese fly to Ulan Bator from Sheremetyevo via. Air China ticket prices start at $ 650.
Travel to Mongolia can also be taken by train. The Moscow - Ulan Bator train leaves twice a week from the platform of the Yaroslavsky railway station in the Russian capital and arrives at the Mongolian railway station in a little over four days. Ticket price - from $ 90.
Hotel or apartment
The bulk of Mongolia's hotels were inherited by the republic from the times of socialist realities. Three-ruble rooms for the most part make up old Soviet-style hotels, but the "five" are already distinguished by the modern level of service and comfort. The last point is reflected in the pricing policy, and a hotel room in the capital with five stars on the facade will cost an average of $ 150 per night.
If you search, there are also modern 3 * hotels in Ulaanbaatar, but the price per day in such a hotel can shock an inexperienced tourist. A double room will cost $ 60-$ 100. True, for this money, guests receive wireless Internet, a fitness center, free transfer to the airport and shower accessories. In a word, the new "treshki" in Ulaanbaatar is quite worthy more stars than they were assigned.
However, standard accommodation options when traveling in Mongolia are only available in the capital and some large cities... Outside of them, the only tourist home is the Mongolian yurt. Yurt campsites are adapted for tourist needs and are equipped with quite civilized amenities. The cost of an overnight stay in a yurt starts at $ 30 for the most uncomplicated comfort.
Mongols also rent out private apartments in the capital, and this accommodation option is well worth considering. An apartment with three bedrooms, in which a company of at least six people will be accommodated without interference, with a kitchen, bathroom and the Internet on specialized sites, is easily booked for $ 40 per day. Prices for a private room in an apartment with a host hover around $ 15 per night.
Transport subtleties
Mongolia has a well-developed network of internal railways, air routes and bus directions. All roads in the country invariably lead to Ulaanbaatar, and therefore most transfers take place there.
Buses connect all cities and large villages of Mongolia. The trains are divided into reserved seats and compartments that are familiar to a Russian resident, and the cheapest seats are. The price of a ticket in a compartment from Ulaanbaatar to the border town of Zamun-Uud, for example, will be about $ 20. The cities are 750 km apart.
Intercity transportation of passengers is taken over by buses and route taxis... The fare is minimal, and the vehicles look absolutely identical to the Russian ones.
Nightingales are not fed with fables
In short, the food in Mongolia is hearty, the portions are large, and the prices are very nice. For example, a three-course lunch for two in a mid-range restaurant will cost $ 25, for a standard hamburger plus fries and drink at McDonald's you will have to pay $ 7, and you can have a bite of fresh pasties at a roadside cafe for only $ 4.
Prices for the most popular dishes in inexpensive Mongolian canteens are as follows: salad - $ 1, hot meat dish - $ 2.5, soup - $ 2, tea - $ 0.5.
Useful details
- Sunny days in Mongolia it happens up to 260 a year and the luminary in these latitudes is unusually active. Remember to pack a high factor sunscreen in your suitcase.
- Renting an off-road vehicle with a local driver for traveling across the steppes and other off-road terrain is the best option for independent travel in Mongolia. Traveling according to this scenario will cost $ 70-$ 80 per day.
- A liter of gasoline costs about a dollar.
Best Trip to Mongolia
The harshly continental Mongolian climate is a real winter and summer with corresponding temperatures. In July, residents of Ulan Bator often observe + 35 ° C and higher on thermometers, and in the midst of winter, mercury columns drop to similar levels. The weather offers the most comfortable conditions for walking around the capital in spring and early autumn.
In the Gobi Desert, even despite the intense daytime heat, it can be very cold at night, and therefore the best time to travel to this region of Mongolia is the first half of autumn.
One of the most striking cultural events in Mongolia is the Naadam festival, which takes place in mid-July. The entire male population of the country takes part in it. The highlight of the program is competitions in typical Mongolian skills: archery, horse racing and wrestling. National triathlon winners receive a special patch on their hat and are respected by neighbors and colleagues.
For a week in Mongolia, I still could not understand what it is: outside "the sixteenth republic the former USSR"but inside - virgin Asia, or vice versa: outside - virgin Asia, and inside -" sixteenth republic "? The main emotion of a traveler in Mongolia is brain removal, and at every step. everyone does not care! " For the second part I will leave a story about the life of nomads, but for the whole of Mongolia these impressions are typical, or only for its western corner - I don’t presume so far.
There is also an airplane, but the prices for it are completely different: from Ulgiy to the capital by bus 80 thousand tugriks (about 2,000 rubles), and by plane - 350 thousand. The planes here are beautiful, everything that flew over us was turboprop, like this Fokker 50.
Specific transport (in addition to airplanes, of course) also gives rise to a specific attitude towards the toilet. There are no even the most miserable village sorts on the highways, there is nowhere to hide in the steppe, so the sanitary stop looks like this: half of the bus leaves, lined up and begins to relieve themselves. Or vomit - judging by the two journeys along the Ulgiy-Khovd road, a critical number of local residents have a weak vestibular system that fails on the passes. In a big way, you can sit down at a stone, but that is if it is. Women in this sense are not much more shy than men, so Mongolian buses can be recommended in every possible way for adherents of urinophilia. Squeamish people (like Olya and me) will have to be mentally prepared for all this. For example, in Ulgie there is a toilet without a door, facing the street:
Mongolia really looks like a "sixteenth republic" by the look of its cities. The same five-story buildings, low-rise stalinkas and even wooden barracks, the same garages, rusty playgrounds and garbage cans, and of course, glazed balconies in every way:
Familiar landscapes, if seen, or:
In some places, there is something else - barracks with unusually frequent windows and square pipes in courtyard boiler rooms cause me to associate with China during the times of Mao Zedong, whom I have never seen.
In general, the Mongolian city looks more neglected and uncomfortable than even in Kyrgyzstan or in the Russian North. In the same Khovd, they once laid paving stones and tiles, installed lanterns and benches, but without daily maintenance, all this was covered with debris and dust. New buildings look especially contrasting - nowhere in the former USSR are there such cramped courtyards without a single blade of grass:
Mongolian entrances are quite post-Soviet - that is, musty, covered with writing and pasted over with advertisements. But on the right, pay attention to a small detail - from the threshold, the stairs lead not only up, but also down: there are also apartments in the basements of new buildings!
In the centers of Mongolian cities, one can come across very nice stalinkas, mainly of administrations, hotels and houses of culture:
Twice - in Ulgiy and Khovda - we came across a stone clock. At first we joked that this is a very graphic expression of how Mongolians relate to time. But when we saw the watch for the second time, we realized that the hands on it were in the same exact position. What time is imprinted on them? Revolution, declaration of independence, some kind of victory?
But the main "feature" of Mongolian cities is that yurts literally jump out of the most unexpected places in them:
Let's say a yurt on the outskirts of a college - maybe there are hard workers doing repairs from somewhere in the steppe?
In Khovd, on the outskirts, there is a whole Yurt city. This is essentially a slum - people come to the city and do not build themselves a shack out of dung and sticks, but simply set up a yurt and live in it. Others settle down so much that they put fences around the yurt, fencing off the plots, but I think most of the inhabitants of yurtograds come to cities to earn money according to the season:
Even in the courtyards of rich houses, a yurt can stand, at least playing the role of a summer kitchen, veranda or living room. This is already Ulgiy - there is no yurt city here, but almost more yurts are placed in the yurts, and note that they are of a different design - in Khovda Mongolian yurts (ger), and here - Turkic (Kazakh-ui):
Mongolian cities are a very striking monument of what is called "false urbanization". Here in Khovd, on the lawn by central square a cow grazes:
42. photographed by Olya.
And one of Ulgiy's "tricks" is regular cattle driving through the city:
Cattle are far from the only animal notable in Mongolian cities. I observed the same thing in Kosh-Agach, that is, this is apparently a common feature for Zaaltai - here are kites instead of ravens:
They sit on wires, trees, roofs:
Circling over the garbage dumps:
47. photo of Olya
They dive into yards, hunting pigeons, puppies, kittens or meat for a dog while she sleeps in a kennel:
48. photo of Olya
So it’s no wonder that there are scarers on the power lines:
The Mongolian language is beautiful, although where we have been, it is represented mainly by inscriptions and pop music. I think the "clear letter" suited him much more than the Cyrillic alphabet: a continuous "hole was buzzed by uveschuur." But the meaning of the inscriptions in general is clear: "Come in, you go nuts!"
The contingent in Mongolia, if different from Central Asia, Kazakhstan or Altai, then not much: there are sloppy seluks here, and cute stylish youth. I don't remember gopniks here, and the police are friendly and not inclined to extortion - there have never been any stories similar to those in Central Asia in Mongolia. They say that here it is easy to run into drunks, but we did not have such experience, and from hearsay, drunken people are not aggressive towards tourists and in the worst case, they will fight. Again, as I understood from other people's notes, it is much worse than with aggression, here things are with theft - it is better not to leave things unattended, even at the borders.
Another unusual property of Mongolia is perhaps the easiest and most painless transition to democracy in history. Until 1911, it was a province of China, in 1921-90 it was quite a totalitarian socialist country, and in the 1990s it became democratic - without troubles and pogroms, without the "father of the nation" with iron order, without political hysteria. Since 2017, the country has been ruled by the fifth president, the Mongolian People's (formerly People's Revolutionary) and Democratic parties regularly replace each other in elections. Lenin in Ulan Bator was demolished only in 2012, but in Khovda one of the shops (!) Hangs the Order of Sukhbaatar - apparently, there is socialist nostalgia here:
But the red star coexists peacefully with the swastika. Mongolia sent caravans with warm clothes and meat, tens of thousands of camel cruises from Khovd to Biysk to help the USSR. Maybe there were Mongolian volunteers at the front, but in principle the Mongols did not fight against fascism. An important difference between Mongolia and the former USSR - there is no seal of the Great Patriotic War... Therefore, for the Mongols, the swastika is just a solstice:
Before the trip, I was sure that Mongolia had become a protectorate of China. But I would say, almost more Chineseized. The Tajiks are thrilled by the mention of China that the Ukrainians hear the word "Europe", but the Mongols have a long-standing fear of the Celestial Empire, for the sake of which it is possible to contact Russia. They say that closer to Ulan Bator, the Chinese influence is more noticeable, but Bayan-Ulgiy and Khovd definitely look to the North:
Here I would rate my knowledge of Russian at about the level of the most non-Russian-speaking places of the former USSR, such as Southern Tajikistan or the rural hinterland of Estonia. Every second person here in Russian can connect a couple of words, and in almost any crowded place there is at least one person who speaks Russian almost fluently. Moreover, - I heard about this from different people, - the Mongols are very conscientious in their studies, so if a Mongolian speaks Russian, then it is worthy. It is possible to explain in Russian here, and in any case it is much easier than in English. Knowledge of English, it seemed to me, correlates with age (typical of young people), but knowledge of Russian, in my opinion, does not correlate with anything - among young people and residents of yurts and among the older generation and townspeople, we came across all three cases in equal proportions. In general, the tightness between the two great powers is very noticeable here. For example, once we met a woman whose daughter is studying in Beijing and her son is in Tomsk.
The strange outlet for different plugs in the Khovd hotel is a clear evidence of the proximity of China with its cheap consumer goods to the whole world. Maybe that's why Mongolia seems closer to the Anglo-Saxon world than the post-Soviet countries, with the exception of the Baltic states.
Another property of Mongolia is that almost nothing is produced in it. In essence, it all comes down to mines and animal husbandry, but ore will not be sold in stores. According to statistics, 2/3 of imports to Mongolia come from China, 1/3 from Russia, but in the grocery stores of Ulgii and Khovd, the proportion looks rather the opposite. The geography of goods in the country itself, which is not burdened with the support of a domestic manufacturer, is impressive - Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Korea, Germany, Poland, Israel, Japan are replaced by a kaleidoscope on the shelves and showcases ... I remember how, before leaving, we bought 5 chocolates - and all of different countries... But many products are simply not available in Mongolia, because the locals are not interested in them - for example, we have not seen cheese in stores.
Mongolian products are few and far between, but everything we come across is excellent. For example, the incredibly tasty and very natural fruit water "Goyo":
Well, it's no secret for many travelers that the Mongolian stew is the best in the world:
And you probably ask - where is Genghis Khan? So - NO. For a week in two western aimags, we did not see a single monument to the Shaker of the Universe.
Mongolia is a country that can really surprise. Here, for comparison, are the impressions of the same year about Central Mongolia from Denis - see CONTENTS!
Mongolian Altai - there will be posts!
The land of Kobdo. First impressions of Mongolia.
The land of Kobdo. About nomadic Kazakhs.
Ulgiy. The capital of Mongolian Kazakhstan.
Ulgiy-Khovd. Mongolian road.
Khovd (Kobdo). The oldest city Mongolia.
Manhan. The land of the Zakhchins and the petroglyphs of the Stone Age.
Mongolian Altai. The road to Khurgan-Nur.
Mongolian Altai. Kobdinskie lakes.
Mongolian Altai. Back through Tsengel.
Non-Altai Kazakhstan - see CONTENTS!
Steppe Altai - see CONTENTS!
- The idea of a trip to Mongolia arose after our very fastidious friends had been there. Usually they stay in hotels of at least 4 stars, and then suddenly Mongolia! We lived in yurts, visited Khubsugul three times already, and they always talk about travel with delight. At the same time, there was still a visa - three thousand rubles. I was terribly sorry to pay 12,000 for my family, but this year the visas were canceled, and we decided to celebrate my birthday in Mongolia, because rest in Thailand, beloved by many, has become very expensive.
As it turned out, there is very, very little information about travel to Mongolia. Where to stay? What to see? What are the nuances when crossing the border? I literally collected information drop by drop. I considered the placement the most important. First of all, I did it. The choice is very, very poor. The most famous are the "Land's End" and "Silver Coast" bases. Both are close by. “Land's End” attracted by the presence of comfortable rooms, which we still did not use. But free-standing comfortable toilets, washbasins and showers were used to the fullest. We did not book the base through well-known sites just because they simply do not have any offers for Khubsugul. By the way, the weather in this place it is also not so easy to find out on the internet. The app on the phone cannot find either the lake or the village of Khanha, but claims that Khanha is a city in Thailand's Chai-Nat province.
So, we are going to a big company - 9 adults and 6 children, the youngest is not even a year old. We are planning to drive 4 cars. For a couple of two, I book a 3-bed yurt (800 rubles per person per night). Two families of 2 adults and 2 children in a 4-bed yurt (700 rubles per person). In this case, payment is only for adults. Children under 7 years old are free. The fourth yurt is mine - for a group of 3 adults and 2 children.
So, at the beginning of May, everything is booked. By the end of the month, 20% of the declared amount has been paid. The rest is at the base. We leave on July 2, return on the 6th. What to take? What to buy? What products are things? I read customs regulations: it is forbidden to import raw meat, and on the spot you can only buy lamb and yak meat. And we are somehow more accustomed to pork in kebabs. Further - you can bring 1 liter of strong and up to 5 liters of weak drinks. I recommend taking vegetables and fruits, this is not there at all. Looking ahead, I will say that the kitchen-tent, tourist chairs and tables were also very useful, in general, you need to equip yourself like on Baikal - you can't go wrong!
We went on a trip at 7 in the morning. The first car went far ahead due to the emergence of unforeseen circumstances. We correspond by means of SMS messages and applications, we find out that at the post near the village of Shaluty, where they collect money for travel to Arshan, they asked friends for their passports. To make sure they are really to Mongolia and not to Arshan. We were also asked for passports, but they did not look.
Now some numbers. The distance from Irkutsk to Lake Khubsugul is about 330 kilometers. You need to go to the village of Mondy, the road is asphalt. From the village to the border is about 10 kilometers. It is necessary to make a full refueling of the car in Kultuk and refuel in Kyren. In Mondy, the gas station is not guaranteed. So they write. But we refueled there in Mondy. In Khubsugul, you can refuel only in the village of Khankh, but only with diesel fuel and A-80 gasoline. There are 22 kilometers of gravel road from the border to Khankh.
In Mondy, at the checkpoint, passports are taken away for 10 minutes. There, at the border, we met a huge horde of cobwebs, so sprays must be taken. The columns of cars are passed in turn. First on one side of the border, then on the other. The passage time we got 2-2.5 hours. Drivers fill out declarations if they are carrying something heavy, more than 50 kilograms. My husband paid a fee of 70 rubles - all drivers pay it. Passengers fill out a declaration, if they are carrying something subject to declaration, they will say about it at the border.
At the Mongolian border, a registration form was filled out. The driver additionally fills out a sheet in which customs and border guards put marks. You will be told and shown everything. The border checkpoint is open from 9 am to 5 pm, seven days a week.
Here we are in Mongolia, we are driving away from the border, and then there is some kind of checkpoint with a barrier. Uniformed people collect 100 rubles from an adult for visiting the national park. If you do not show a receipt on the way back, you will have to pay again. Another important point is registration. When entering or leaving, you need to register with the village administration for 170 rubles per person.
When exchanging opinions with other travelers to Khubsugul, it turns out that someone paid for the children too. Someone paid not 170, but 300 rubles. In general, there is no clarity on this issue.
There is a gravel road from the border, closer to the village we see signs with the name of our base and now we are in front of the gate. We are looking for an administrator for a while and go to get acquainted with the location. And then it turns out that everything is in order with three yurts, and the fourth yurt is some kind of Khan's yurt. Let's go watch. This is the most extreme yurt, secluded, with its own territory. It has a huge double bed, a fold-out sofa, a table with chairs, a wardrobe with hangers, two bedside tables, two dressers, a stove, and a heater. There are 4 sockets in the yurt. In ordinary yurts, there is also a stove and a heater. Nobody warned us about this yurt, but it costs 4,000 rubles a day - somehow we didn't count on that kind of money. But in the process of paying, we are told that this is 4000 rubles from two adults, and for another 1500 rubles a day you will pay extra, in the end we agreed on 4000 for a yurt.
On the second day of our stay, we went to inspect the surroundings, in the role of guides - relatives, who are not in Mongolia for the first time. So, we leave the base in three cars. We are driving along some incredible road, all covered in stones. The road is worse only to Khoboy on Olkhon.
We drive up to the coast of Khovsgul. Lonely tent. If you want loneliness, take a break from everyone, then you definitely go to Khubsugul. Nobody around! Not a single soul. Ringing silence is simple! And we are going for the grayling, which you can catch with your hands while standing in the river! At least, our relatives did this last year! We drove in anticipation, we arrived, but the river was half dry, and it didn't even smell like grayling. We went to another lake, but there are no fish there either. We did not despair and had a picnic.
On the way back, we stop at Khanh. He's just on his way to our base. In one cafe we are told that only hushurs are available. I am surprised to learn that in Mongolia there are khushurs - chebureks. Let's go further. In another cafe, the choice is richer. We stop. We order poses for 30 rubles and for the first time try the national dish - tsuiwan (150 rubles). These are noodles, potatoes and meat. We ordered a medium portion, but it turned out to be large for one person.
Acquaintance with the local cuisine continued the next day. On my holiday, I wanted to surprise the guests with something, and the base administrator suggested a horhog. Lamb is used for its preparation. The meat on the bone is cut into pieces. Ten to twenty smooth, fist-sized stones are placed in the fire. Meat and hot stones are placed in a metal vessel, which is often used as a milk can, salt and spices are added. Often cooked with vegetables (carrots, cabbage, potatoes). Next, the required amount of water is added, the vessel is closed with a lid and put on fire. Extinguishing occurs with heat from fire and from hot stones. The dish takes half an hour to cook. The contents of the vessel are laid out in portions, and guests are given hot stones in their hands. They absorb fat during cooking and become black and slippery. Horhog is usually eaten with hands.
We also tried a local delicacy - fried lamb liver wrapped in bacon. Very greasy for my taste! As for the Horhog, I got a hard piece of meat, and my friends got soft ones. In general, I did not like this dish at all. By the way, during the cooking process, our khorhog was taken away with the words "it will be faster on the stove." Somehow inauthentic. According to the rules, everything should go on a fire and with stones. I am disappointed with this dish. Cooking a whole ram costs 8000 rubles, half - 4000, and a quarter - 2000. We ordered the last one, it was more than enough for everyone.
Of course, we also tried Mongolian tea. And they prepare it like this: water is boiled in a cast-iron cauldron, tiled green tea is thrown into it, milk is added, boiled again until fully cooked, then salt, butter, fried flour, lightly fried lamb fat tail fat, ram bone marrow are added to it. Tea with such ingredients often serves as the only food for nomadic herders for many days. A thin layer of fat floats on the surface of this tea. They drink it without sugar. As they say, it is better to try it once, although for people with weak stomachs such a "tea drinking" may be fraught with not too pleasant consequences. To be honest, this tea is more like a soup.
The fourth day in Mongolia was devoted to trips to the surrounding area. So we saw that they were drying manure - they use it to heat the stoves in the yurt, but ours used firewood. We drive without a guide, at random, and now we stop at a very interesting place, by the way, similar to Olkhon. Obo is a sacred Mongolian place. The Shaman sanctuary Arvan-Gurvan-o, literally translated into Russian "13 o", is located on the protruding rocky Khanginsky cape. This place was consecrated in 2005, at the same time 13 new obos from large white boulders, which were brought in by several trucks, were laid, and the whole village was carrying stones and piling up the sanctuary. Shamanic rituals are practiced on this site, and today, fresh fireplaces and skulls of sacrificial animals can be seen near the central ob.
Later we walked along the rocks above the coast - the view is like in the Maldives. I’m also just sure that when you are abroad, you don’t think about how your phone calls your place of stay. And this is funny. For example, we are in Khubsugul, but the phone thinks differently. A similar situation was observed on the Phi-Phi island in Thailand.
This concludes my story about Mongolia. She is truly both distant and close. The country is located a little more than 300 kilometers from Irkutsk. But she is so far from us! According to development, according to customs, according to the standard of living. Although they say that everything is completely different in Ulan Bator. Probably, someday I will want to check it out. Do I want to go back? More likely no than yes. At least not in the near future for sure. Do I advise you to go to Mongolia? Definitely yes! To form your own opinion about this country.
On this page I will try to touch upon the problems that a person who is going to Mongolia may face (http://tomgem-planeta.ru/?page_id=155).
TOMGEM PLUS VIDEO. Western Mongolia. Pass Hashaki-Daba 2561m
VISA. We received a visa at the Consulate of Mongolia in Yekaterinburg. And this is not an easy occupation, it is easier to get a visa to Germany. Theoretically, this process takes two or three days, but in reality the person who does this is not there for weeks. To obtain a visa, you need an invitation from the Mongolian side. We received an invitation here www.legendtour.ru/rus. It cost 800 rubles per person.
TOMGEM PLUS VIDEO. Western Mongolia. Mount Tsast-Ula 4208 m
CUSTOMS. We passed customs in Altai, in Tashanta. MONGOLAN customs works from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon, always, except for Saturday, Sunday, holidays (Mongolian holidays), as well as several non holidays... Lunch from one to two, which, according to Mongolian arithmetic, is one and a half to two hours.
TOMGEM PLUS VIDEO. Mongolia. South Gobi. Sands near the village. Bogd.
To enter with your car you need an INTERNATIONAL driver's license. They were not useful to us. In general, the transit time depends on the case. At the entrance to Mongolia, the Russians issued us in ten minutes, and the Mongols tormented us for an hour, not counting a two-hour lunch. On the way back, the Mongols issued us in fifteen minutes, and on the Russian side we stood for about three hours - there was a long queue, the procedure itself took fifteen minutes.
TOMGEM PLUS VIDEO. Mongolia. South Gobi. Lonely saxaul.
LOCAL RELATIONS. This is the question we asked the trucker at customs. He told us in detail about fuel, roads and fords. And after the question about the attitude of the Mongols to tourists, it froze ... As it turned out, there was something. Most of the locals are tourists like "come in large numbers", that is, at best, nothing. Therefore, if anything, do not hope that the locals will pull you out of the sands and swamps. The Mongols, with very rare exceptions, do not speak Russian and English, except at gas stations. However, if the Mongols in their Mongolia get lost and ask for directions, then they remember both Russian and English, and even sign language.
TOMGEM PLUS VIDEO. Mongolia. South Gobi. Weathering caves in granites.
They began to perceive us as tourists in Bayankhongor and to the east. But crime is simply felt by the skin, especially in the northwestern cities. Archi, local vodka, they drink a lot, drunk driving is the norm.
TOMGEM PLUS VIDEO. Mongolia. South Gobi. Stone partridge.
ROADS. Much has been written about the roads of Mongolia, but it is simply impossible to describe them completely. Imagine that a part of the Moscow-Peter highway, a couple of kilometers, is being repaired. And there is a detour on the dirt road, with all the bumps, dust and other delights. These are the best sections of the Mongolian federal road. But the worst is the “washboard”. Its maximum manifestation is 130 km in front of the city of Altai. The ripples on the road are gigantic. With a half-wave length of 40 centimeters, its amplitude reaches 20 centimeters. Cars are just pouring in. Lowering the tire pressure as much as possible will help.
TOMGEM PLUS VIDEO. Mongolia. South Gobi. Sands of the Datsyn-Tsav tract.
New roads are being built in Mongolia, but ... all at once. And you can often see a picture - on a 100-kilometer section of a well-dumped road, one single grader is busy leveling it, sometimes one roller helps him. So this is not an urgent matter. Nevertheless, separate sections of asphalt, 20-60 kilometers each, already exist.
TOMGEM PLUS VIDEO. Mongolia. South Gobi. Jeyran.
And further. If you book a tour with a rented car, do not settle for UAZs. Not only that, most likely you will not reach it. In forty-degree heat, you will not breathe air, but dust, while regularly deforming the top of the car with your head. http://tomgem-planeta.ru/?page_id=155
FUEL. I will talk about diesel. There is it in almost all settlements. We refueled at the red PETROVIC gas stations. The cost of fuel is 45-55 rubles. The fuel quality along federal highways is high, in every way better than in Altai along the Chuysky tract. And far from federal highways, the diesel is very bad, in the sands the car boils on it. So in the desert it is better to pour fuel into the tank from the stored canisters.
TOMGEM PLUS VIDEO. Mongolia. South Gobi. Datsyn-Tsav tract.
HOTELS. This is a very big problem. If this is an expensive hotel, from 1200 rubles, then, as the Mongols themselves say, they are "not for sleep." The girls scream all night. If this is a cheap hotel, you will listen to the showdown of the drunk Mongols until the morning. We were lucky with accommodation only twice - the Seoul hotel for $ 40 in Bayankhongor and the Khan Uul for $ 100 in the city of Dalandzadgad. These are real business rooms, differently better than the business in Moscow Izmailovo.
PRODUCTS. No problem. Large cities are full of shops with all kinds of products, and prices are half ours.
TOMGEM PLUS VIDEO. Mongolia. South Gobi. Dunes of Hongoryn Els.
PUBLIC CATERING. There are problems. The restaurants will most likely offer less edible local food. It's easier to eat in cafes in the markets. Here you can eat buuza - a kind of mantopelmeni, pasties, rice with meat. It's delicious, and 150 rubles were enough for three of us. Better not to eat in yurts between cities. Firstly, it is not tasty, and secondly, it is expensive. And it will take an hour and a half, since they will most likely start cooking from scratch.
TOMGEM PLUS VIDEO. Mongolia. South Gobi. Dunes of Hongoryn Els.
CURRENCY. Along the south federal road accept ONLY tugriks, and banks accept ONLY dollars for exchange. In North-West Mongolia, you can pay in tugriks, dollars, and rubles.
NAVIGATION. A map and a navigator were used for orientation on the terrain. Map - an overview map of Mongolia at a scale of 1: 5000000 with schematic roads, settlements and mountain ranges... This turned out to be enough. There were maps of provinces with a bunch of roads and a bunch of villages, but in reality these were not villages, but migratory camps, and Mongolian country roads are generally a mirage. That is, provincial maps are completely useless. What you can't do without in Mongolia is a navigator. We had a GARMIN MONTANA-600 with uploaded general staff maps 1: 500000. He did not lead on the roads, but showed the direction. And on the terrain there were enough roads to follow these directions. In general, they did not fornicate, and even the lost Mongols were pointed with a finger where to go. And further. Mongols rarely imagine that they are more than 50 km from their camp, village, city. So it's better to rely on your strength.
CONTINUED HERE.
(Salvador Dali's film "Impressions from Upper Mongolia" on April 17 at the Dodo bookstore on Solyanka)The film is beautiful, unusually modern for the 1970s and confirms my recent guess: Dali, who for some reason in Russia is considered a reference surrealist, is not really a surrealist (he broke with this movement even before the war), but one of the first real postmodernists. To evaluate it according to the criteria of modernism is deliberately to miss the mark.
But even the viewer of the twenty-first century, Dali manages to be hooked. The viewer of our generation is ready, after 20 minutes of watching, with joy ("wow!") To recognize the well-known genre of mocumentari - but in the final Dali (100% natural) with disarming frankness says: I cheated you, all these hallucinatory images are just moss on the walls the old castle and the cracked paint layer in Vermeer's paintings. And it turns out that this is not a mocumentari at all, but simply an essay about art and the boundaries of knowledge. However, already at the moment when, somewhere in the middle of the film, Dali declares that his work is entirely inspired by narcotic mushrooms from Upper Mongolia, this is so obvious trash that the viewer should have guessed what's what. Dali cheerfully anticipates the judgments of ordinary people (they say, "What did this Dali smoke to draw such a picture?") - this is a trick of the same kind as the "psychoanalytic" commentary in the ending of "The Black Prince" by Iris Murdoch, a parody designed to knock down arrogance from a profound reader / the viewer imagining that he already understood everything.
The film's cultural density is on the verge of a neutron star. The mythical Upper Mongolia is an evil parody of Roerich's Shambhala (and how boring and pale against this background Roerich!) Presbyter John "a crocodile who burns trees with his urine), and the psychedelic hobby, which is relevant for the 70s. The shot where Dali paints a portrait of himself painting a portrait of Gal, which in turn is reflected in the mirror - of course, not just a commentary on his own picture, but also a quote from "Menin" by Velazquez, one of Dali's favorite artists. And much more.
However, this density leads to gloomy thoughts about the fate of the erudite in the XX century. XX century. - the century is anti-cultural in its moods. Some wanted to throw off the burden of culture for the sake of accelerating the pace of progress, others - for the sake of returning to naturalness and naturalness, and still others - "because you can't write poetry after Auschwitz." And what about someone who does not want to throw this baggage off his shoulders? Yes, and he wants to, he cannot, because for him it is not a burden, but scuba gear with oxygen? So it turns out that the only way out for him is to become a postmodernist.
In this respect, Dali is akin to Tolkien and Umberto Eco. All three are people of a colossal, alien to their era of elitist scholarship, which in the 20th century turned out to be unnecessary and suspicious for the intelligentsia, and all three found a lively response in popular culture. But Tolkien played this script as a tragedy, Eco plays it as an existentialist drama of the absurd, and Dali played it as a comedy. And, apparently, he enjoyed it.
