drrod
Site Supporter
I just got back from a 2 week ride across Mongolia. Eighteenth largest country in the world and the most sparsely populated. We rode about 1300 miles. 40:60 paved to off road
I went with the tour outfit "Renedian Adventures". This is the 3rd trip I have done with them. Previously I have done Africa and South America and find that they provide very good service without detracting from experiencing the local cultures. ie - it is not a Hilton to Hilton tour.
I flew from Calgary to Beijing and had a day there. Beijing has to be experienced to be believed. 37 million people!! Very crowded but in an orderly way if that makes sense. The city is very clean and when I was there, the air quality was quite good. Nearly all of the 2 stroke scooters and tuk tuks have been changed to electric and that must help a lot. Since I had a day, I took a trip to the Great Wall. Jawdropping level of engineering and construction.
From there is was off to Ulaanbaatar which is the capital city of Mongolia and where 40% of Mongolia's 4 million people live. It is a chaotic scene of new construction amongst the old. Traffic is complete chaos (it is one of the cities from the program "Don't Drive Here") and unlike Beijing, almost a total absence of scooters and bicycles.
The first day was spent getting all the group together (there were 9 of us including my daughter and son in law). In the morning we loaded up in a van and drove about 50 miles out into the country side to visit a HUGE statue of Chinggis Khan (Gengis Khan to us). This is a massive structure some 150+ feet high, made out of 250 tons of stainless steel. (those are people standing along the top of the horses neck). It was erected by private money, on the site where he supposedly found the "golden whip".
That afternoon we picked up our bikes and got ready to start the ride the next day. I rode an older BMW 800GS that had been dropped and dragged on all sides but ran great. I figured I couldn't do much more damage to it. All the bikes were what you would consider "used"!
We survived the traffic and got out of town. My daughter and I were OK in the traffic because we have ridden in many of the large European cities like Madrid, Rome, Prague but the rest of the group were a little intimidated but we all made it fine by following our Mongolian guide who ran interference for us. The thing about riding in Mongolia is that there are very few paved roads and virtually no gravel roads as we know them. This is what a normal road is like. You just drive off the hiway, down into what ditch there is, and strike off on mainly 2 track dirt trails.
This road led us to a National Park where the only true wild horses in the world exist. What we know as "wild" horses are really just feral but these are genetically distinct. They were almost extinct but were brought back by efforts of many around the world and were released back into this park where they are doing quite well.
We were lucky to see them as they are quite shy and have a vast expanse of land to hide in. This picture was taken with a 30X zoom.
We ended the first day at a ger camp. They are called ger's (pronounce gear) not yurts. Yurts are seen more in the western regions and Kazakstan.
I went with the tour outfit "Renedian Adventures". This is the 3rd trip I have done with them. Previously I have done Africa and South America and find that they provide very good service without detracting from experiencing the local cultures. ie - it is not a Hilton to Hilton tour.
I flew from Calgary to Beijing and had a day there. Beijing has to be experienced to be believed. 37 million people!! Very crowded but in an orderly way if that makes sense. The city is very clean and when I was there, the air quality was quite good. Nearly all of the 2 stroke scooters and tuk tuks have been changed to electric and that must help a lot. Since I had a day, I took a trip to the Great Wall. Jawdropping level of engineering and construction.
From there is was off to Ulaanbaatar which is the capital city of Mongolia and where 40% of Mongolia's 4 million people live. It is a chaotic scene of new construction amongst the old. Traffic is complete chaos (it is one of the cities from the program "Don't Drive Here") and unlike Beijing, almost a total absence of scooters and bicycles.
The first day was spent getting all the group together (there were 9 of us including my daughter and son in law). In the morning we loaded up in a van and drove about 50 miles out into the country side to visit a HUGE statue of Chinggis Khan (Gengis Khan to us). This is a massive structure some 150+ feet high, made out of 250 tons of stainless steel. (those are people standing along the top of the horses neck). It was erected by private money, on the site where he supposedly found the "golden whip".
That afternoon we picked up our bikes and got ready to start the ride the next day. I rode an older BMW 800GS that had been dropped and dragged on all sides but ran great. I figured I couldn't do much more damage to it. All the bikes were what you would consider "used"!
We survived the traffic and got out of town. My daughter and I were OK in the traffic because we have ridden in many of the large European cities like Madrid, Rome, Prague but the rest of the group were a little intimidated but we all made it fine by following our Mongolian guide who ran interference for us. The thing about riding in Mongolia is that there are very few paved roads and virtually no gravel roads as we know them. This is what a normal road is like. You just drive off the hiway, down into what ditch there is, and strike off on mainly 2 track dirt trails.
This road led us to a National Park where the only true wild horses in the world exist. What we know as "wild" horses are really just feral but these are genetically distinct. They were almost extinct but were brought back by efforts of many around the world and were released back into this park where they are doing quite well.
We were lucky to see them as they are quite shy and have a vast expanse of land to hide in. This picture was taken with a 30X zoom.
We ended the first day at a ger camp. They are called ger's (pronounce gear) not yurts. Yurts are seen more in the western regions and Kazakstan.
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