Alison: On our first morning in Ulaanbaatar we booked an 8 day tour of central Mongolia through our guesthouse which seemed to cover all the main things that we wanted to see and do in Mongolia. As mentioned in our previous travel pod entry, we were very tired on our first morning in Ulaanbaatar having done a late night border crossing on the train into Mongolia and arriving very early.....I am blaming this for the reason I failed to notice that the tour we booked included 3 days of horse trekking! There are a million and one things we could say about what we saw and experienced on the tour so apologies for the length!

Day 1: Since no one else had booked up for the same tour as us on the day we wanted to do it, we paid extra to go on a private tour. We had breakfast early and loaded up our vehicle for the journey ahead. There are several different vehicles that are commonly used for tours - the old Russian army vans, Korean vans and Japanese Jeeps. Apparently the Korean and Japanese vehicles are more comfy but the Russian vans are recommended because they are a lot more sturdy and are better on rough terrain. We weren't really given a choice but we weren't disappointed to see a Russian truck when we emerged from the guesthouse. Our guide for the tour was the same girl that picked us up from the train station. Although she was only 19 and was quite dizzy, we decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and hoped she would able to give us lots of information about Mongolia.

Not long after setting off we were out into the countryside and were again amazed at how beautiful the scenery was. I'll let the photos do the talking on this one! Although we were supposed to be doing a private tour, we soon found out that a German couple were going to be spending the first couple of days with us and then we would split as they were on a shorter tour than us. They had a separate guide and van to us so we weren't really bothered that we had paid for a private tour.

On our way to our first destination of Khustain National Park, our vans stopped at a statue by the road. The German couple hopped out with their guide and were learning all about it whilst we were sat in our van with our sleeping guide! We slammed the door when we got out of the van but it still didn't wake her so we were left to look at it ourselves and try to listen in on what the other guide was saying. Alarm bells started to ring about how informative our guide was going to be.....

Khustain National Park is one of the many national parks in Mongolia but it is most well known for being home to the largest number of wild 'takhi' horses (also kownn as przewalski horses). They are very special as they have 2 more chromosomes to all other horses. These horses originate from Mongolia but over the years they became very rare and the last sighting of one was in 1969. Fortunately, prior to the wild horses becoming extinct in Mongolia, some of them were shipped to other parts of the world to be displayed in zoos so the species had not completely died out. Conservationists bred the horses and between 1992 and 2004 they were successfully reintroduced into Mongolia. Now there are around 400 wild horses in Mongolia and they are protected in 3 different national parks.

After an extremely bumpy and scary ride in our van down a dirt track (life flashing before your eyes kind of scary!), we arrived at the park. As it was the afternoon, there were no horses to be seen in the flat areas of the park due to the heat. We got out of the van to have a closer look but our guide kindly forget to tell us we were about to embark on a very thistley climb to the top of a mountain to try to see the horses.....in our flip flops (Mum - this was on par with your mountain climbing in jelly shoes!) After 30mins of shredding our feet on the thistles and stumbling up hill in our completely inappropriate footwear, we finally spotted them. They are light brown in colour with darker stripes on their legs, and they are much thicker around the neck than regular horses. We spent about 10mins staring at them whilst they stared at us before heading back down to the van.

Our final destination of the day was Khugnu Khaan Nature reserve which is famous for having mountains, forests, steppes, the Gobi desert and mineral waster sources all in one area. We arrived at our ger camp in the evening and practically stepped straight out of the van onto a camel! We rode around the area and saw mountains and sand dunes as the sun went down. It was a very peaceful end to the day. We spent our first night in a ger here. You will see in the pictures that a ger is a white circular tent. It is the traditional home of Mongolian nomads and the countryside is full of them. Inside they have proper furniture and a fire so they aren't too bad but the scary thing for me is that they are quite open to the elements. The sides don't always touch the floor so creepy crawlies can walk in and out at their leisure. The other new thing that we came across here were the toilets that the nomads build at their homes. The toilet is basically a hole in the floor with a wooden screen on 3 sides about 1m high and no roof. At first I was horrified about going to the toilet with so little privacy but actually the toilet faces the countryside so no one can see you and the no door or roof is a blessing when you are hovering over an eye wateringly smelly pit!

Day 2: Today we had a closer look at the sand dunes before a very long drive to Orkhon Valley which has a large waterfall and is where our horse trekking was due to start. We almost didn't see the waterfall when our guide took us to see it in the pouring rain and forget (or didnt know) where it was. We wandered around until we were completely drenched before calling it a day and deciding to try again the next day. Despite it being very cold, the ger was toasty warm with a log fire burning so we slept well that night.

Day 3: Today we said goodbye to our German friends and met our new Danish horse trekking friends. After seeing the waterfall we prepared to get on the horses. We were very nervous as neither of us had ridden a horse before and we were hoping that this was where our guide would come in handy and offer us some support.......no. She was petrified of horses after falling off several times in the past and kept asking why we had chosen to do such a dangerous activity! Teaching us how to ride the horse was a 2 minute job - pull the reigns left to go left, right to go right, back to stop the horse, and say choo to make him go faster. We were told that Mongolian horses are very twitchy and sensitive so we needed to be very careful not to frighten them. My heart was racing by the time I had to get on and I was wondering what we had got ourselves in to. As we set off with a Mongolian herdsman and a guide who can't even ride a horse herself let alone teach someone else (and with no helmets or safety gear on), I was rigid with fear and my horse wouldn't do what I wanted him to as he seemed to be very hungry all the time. He kept trying to eat grass as we walked which wouldn't have been so bad if my reigns weren't so short but as it was, every time he put his head down to munch, he almost dragged me off. I had to keep dragging his head up and show him who was boss but I started to get blisters on my hand so the herdsman who was leading the trek tied some rope around the saddle and the reigns so the horse couldn't put his head down to eat. This worked perfectly until my horse decided to show me who was boss and sat down whilst I was on him to have a grassy lunch! It is funny now but it wasn't at the time. He did this twice and the second time was really dangerous because you have to get on and off the horse on the left and in my panic, I got off on the right which made him go a bit crazy. Luckily the Danish guy who was with us was up for a challenge and he swapped his slow coach horse for my hungry horse!

We arrived at our next ger in the afternoon and it was a kind of guesthouse ger with a nomadic family. We were invited into their home for our first cup of Mongolian tea and it actually wasn't too bad considering it consists of hot milk and salt. We were also given a dried milk biscuit which looked so good but tasted like a cross between smelly old socks and vomit! Nigel was sat across the room from me and was given his biscuit first. I knew I was in for a treat when I saw the look on his face on that first bite! That evening we had some free time so we headed down to the river for a freshen up and to wash our hair. There are no showers or washing facilities in the gers so it was much needed!

Day 4: Just as we thought we were getting used to horse riding, everything got a whole lot more advanced today. Our first day involved flat fields and the occasional hill or rocky patch but the second day brought rivers, bogs, long stretches of large loose rocks/boulders and an extremely steep mountain climb and descend. As it had been raining heavily all night, the conditions were perfect for horse riding novices to tackle this terrain ;) I will remember this day for as long as I live because it was completely terrifying. The first up hill mountain climb was probably the worst as it was wet and muddy and there was lots of loose rocks. The horses never fell over but they were tripping up and stumbling all over the place. I was so relieved to get to the top until I realised we had to do the same going down! Nigel had a bit of a hairy moment when his horse leapt off a particularly large boulder!

The fun still wasn't over when we got over the mountain. Next we walked through a very muddy boggy area that was dotted with trees and bushes. The horses would be splashing along but occasionally disappear up to their knees in mud so you would have the occasional frightening drop. I don't remember breathing during this section! Then they would decide to try to avoid some sections and walk through the bushes/trees instead.....cue wrapping your arms around the horses neck and hanging on for dear life! My favourite part of the day was when we saw the ger camp and knew we were almost safe and started to relax when we hit another concealed bog and the horses fell so far in that the water came up to our knees.....oh how we laughed (when I say laughed, I mean screamed!).

The ger guesthouses was again with a nomadic family and it was next to the most beautiful lake. The area is called Eight Lakes although there are actually 9 lakes. It is not quite impossible but is extremely difficult to get to this area by car and should only be attempted on foot (a very long walk) or horseback. Where possible we love to try to get off the beaten track and see places that fewer tourists get to see so despite our terrifying ordeal, it was all worthwhile when we saw the scenery. After another cup of hot salty milk, we got back on the horses and headed off to see the other lakes. The land was fairly flat and grassy so was a piece of cake to ride a horse on after the earlier terrain. We were choo chooing our horses and actually galloping between the lakes! I felt like the lone ranger! Not bad considering the day before was our first time riding a horse :)

Nigel: Day 5 - After another night of not getting much sleep (especially after I had left the ger to go to the toilet and was unable to find my way back for about 10 minutes due to the freezing fog that had descended over the area), it was time to head back down the extremely steep mountains that we had horse trekked up the day prior. Our herdsman had said that if the terrain was still wet, which it had been on day 3, we would the walk the horses down. Fortunately for us it had dried up enough for us to ride the horses down! As Alison mentioned before, our training was minimal and consisted of about 2 minutes of instructions, and even this wasn't given by the herdsman but by one of the tourists who was on the tour. Luckily his girlfriend had ridden horses for several years and came with experience and knowledge of riding. One piece of advice she gave when going down hill was to lean back as it helps the horse. That's easier said than done especially when you are going down a 45 degree slope which the horse is sliding down and it wants to go through the the trees instead of sticking to the path, and also wants to eat grass, whilst perched on the 45 degree hill. I did have one scary moment when heading down. It was not far from the end and although the horse was hungry, I thought I wouldn't let it eat until we reached the end..... Big mistake. Similar to the movies, the horse had both front legs up in the air and then bolted off to the nearest bit of grass to eat. It was a bit scary at first but like a true experienced horse rider (i.e. 2 days) I had it under control!!!!! When we approached the end, the horses must of known that as they started to gallop through the field and down the hill to the waiting vans and the next group who were setting off. One of the persons in the group had very little experience in horse riding and thought we were very experienced and confident riding the horses.......if only she had seen us 2 days earlier when we didn't even want to move in case the horse ran off.

As we were still with the other couple, it was decided that we would stay at the same Normadic family as we had 2 days previous and that they were going to make us a special Mongolian meal from the goat that they had bought (or knocked over) earlier in the day. The process includes heating stones up on the fire for around 40 minutes and dropping them into a large steel pot which contains water, meat, veg etc, and let it cook for another hour. Unfortunately, we must have had the left overs as every piece we got was chunks of fat and you nearly lost your teeth trying to eat the little meat we did find. We were also pleased to find out that our van was the one they used to cut the goat up and then lay the meat out in the back. So not only did we get a raw deal with the selection of meat, we had to endure the smell the next day.

Day 6 - After 3 days of horse riding and 5 days of not having a shower, we were thankful that we had adjusted our itinerary to include a visit to the hot springs. Situated in the middle of nowhere and one of the hardest journeys, in way of bumpy road/tracks, we arrived mid afternoon. Although we were still staying in a ger, we had the use of shared shower facilities and the ger was overlooking the source of the spring which meant that you could see the steam come off the water when the temperatures dropped at night. Although we had a dip in the spring pools when we arrived, we decided that we would venture down early in the morning so we could sit in the warm water but have the cold air hit our faces. Our ger did come with several creatures of the crawly kind, which put Alison on edge for a while especially since several of them seemed to like climbing in bed with us. When asking the other group if they had the same problem, it appeared that it was only our ger which attracted the spiders. Lucky Alison.

Day 7 - Today we visited Karakoum the former capital of Mongolia. Built in the 13th century it has been destroyed on several occasions and rebuilt. As the capital of Mongolia, it didn't last very long and was subsequently relocated to Beijing which was under the control of Gengis Khan at the time. The remains of the city were used to build a monastery in 16th century. The monastery is housed within an area which is secured by high walls and within are several buildings. With our guide and the other groups guide, we set off to view the buildings and the contents therein. It was not long before we were starting to get bored of looking at, what we thought we virtually the same things (about as bored as reading this entry - if you have got to this part). After a quick view of the buildings, that we were allowed to enter, we were off to the museum. Before we went there we had time to write a postcard and post it in the local post box. The post office looked like all the other ramshackle shops which were situated outside the monastery walls and we thought that it wouldn't get back home. To be fair it made it and it didn't take long, so we take back what we said.

The museum is a newly built building and was very modern for the area and if anything, due to its modernism, it looked out of place. Before we entered we were told that the museum had free WIFI. That was it.... for about 10 minutes everyone one in the group were on their phones and not paying much attention to the artefacts or what was being said. As the other groups guide led the tour around the former capital, it was our guides turn to take the lead and explain things. First thing she said was regards to the building and that information was incorrect and the other guide had to correct her. That was the end of her guidance. Also unbeknown to us, our guide didn't know that there was WIFI available. It was only when she saw me on the phone that she asked Alison. Her face when she knew she could get on the internet was almost worth the money we had paid for the tour. As long as she had a good time!!!!

Day 8 - This day consisted of driving back to Ulaanbaatar and getting to our hotel. It had been a great experience and tour guide aside, we had a brilliant tour and we saw some amazing landscape but we were ready for our hotel comforts and an indoor toilet!!!