June 2026
Reading time: 15 - 20 minutes
Mongolia 2026
A Story written by Nayla
Listen
From Ulaan-bataar
to Tsaganuur
“We arrived in Mongolia!!!!”
After Japan and Korea where the vegetation is overgrown and the humidity is overwhelming, Mongolia is a completely a different planet.
“Are we on Mars or what?!?”
Nope! we are still on Earth! Even if there is no tree. Sand, wind and the storms dominate.
We are in Ulaan Bataar the capital of Mongolia.
It doesn’t really feel like we are in a CAPITAL!!!
There are 3.6 million people in Mongolia, all the population of Mongolia can fit 10 to 11 times into Tokyo, so you can imagine the big change.
We arrived at Cheke’s house and see Tonton Claude, Lena, Khuslen and Baggi again!!! Some friends from my childhood in Penang.
The fourth of June we celebrated my BIRTHDAY all together !!!!!!!🥳🥳
It was amazing celebrating my birthday with them since it was 8 years since the last time we saw them. We had blueberry cake.
We said goodbye and took of on our bikes to discover the Mongolian steppes.
The Landscape
How are we ever going to crosse Mongolia?
“You should be crazy to cross Mongolia by bike,” I wonder.
Because all we see is an endless plain of vast nothingness with an asphalt road. Cows, horse, goat and sheep wander here and there, and most of the time yaks, these hairy cows that you wonder if they took a time machine from the ice ages.
Ovoo is part of the landscape, you can describe it as a pile of rocks with a blue flag and sometimes animal bones and skulls on it. We throw a rock on the Ovoo and turn tree times around it. It’s for the spirit of the wind. Most Mongolian people believe in Buddhism and Shamanism at the same time and some people are even Muslim or Christian.
Some shepherds on their horse are leading their cattle to their Mongolian ger that they call “homes”.
The wind doesn’t seem to like us, because all we have is HEAD wind.
“Pffff! The wind should really help us out.”
The Wind Rise, The Thunder Cracs.
Storms, The Real Master Of This Land
We push our bikes in the steppes for 1,5 km from the road and camp.
The storms here are beautiful and intense at the same time.
They are grey blue with lightening everywhere. The wind howls and thunder cracks. Our tarp can’t hold itself, we have put it down and put all our stuff inside the tent, then shelter inside.
And sometimes it’s hail falling from the sky, and it hurts!
We understand that the real ruler of this planet are the elements.
The Culture
We need water, so we are heading to a village.
Just before the village someone calls out :
“За, наашаа хүрээд ир. Цай, талхнаас хүртээрэй.”
Which means “Hey there, come, come. Have some tea and bread.” So we go in and have some salted butter tea and boortsog, a long oily bread.
We chat and try to speak the language.
They speak little Russian, so it’s a little easier to communicate.
Mongolian is so difficult, they have two kinds of “R” one with the tongue and one with the throat. And they really like putting “R” in every single word.
We try to say words like mörr as a female horse and yama as a goat (It sounds like 山mountains in Japanese).
Then, they gave us some Aruurt, yogurt, that dried on the yurts during summer. Sometimes it’s sweet and sometimes it’s acid. Sometimes it’s as hard as a rock and you need to wait so it melts in your mouth or sometimes it’s a little less hard and you can take a bite.
We said goodbye, they gave us some water, Boortsog and Aruurt for the way.
It was a miracle that they didn't offer us other Mongolian food. For us, old mutton that is boiled for a century is an unforgettable nightmare.
