The tour we took to visit the Tsaatan reindeer people in northern Mongolia was supposed to include a night in a ger with a yak-herding family. The problem was, when we got there we didn’t see any sign of yaks. In fact, it became clear they’d sold the animals to make more money from tourism. …
Category: Mongolia
Staying With The Tsaatan Reindeer People | Mongolia
Deep in the northern realms of Mongolia, not far from the border with Russia, lives the Tsaatan people, which roughly translates to the reindeer people They’re a nomadic group of around 400 people who live in Orts (teepees) and herd reindeer. They rely on the reindeer for survival in such a remote area of…
Shaman Ceremonies & Wrestling at a Mongolian Reindeer Festival
While volunteering in Khuvsgul, Northern Mongolia, we learned a reindeer festival was happening not far from our camp. The region further north of us was home to the Tsaatan nomadic reindeer herders and some of them come down to the lakeshore during summer to make a bit of extra money from tourism. We were actually…
Volunteering At A Yurt Camp In Northern Mongolia
After a 13 hour overnight bus, we arrived in the town of Murun, in northern Mongolia. With heavy eyes we began wandering around the sleepy town in search of an area where shared taxis depart – but it seemed to be a lost cause, and everyone we asked just tried to call a taxi friend. …
Exploring Terelj National Park | Mongolia
On our first full day in Mongolia, we made our way to Terelj National Park, just a short distance from the capital, Ulaanbaatar. There was a direct bus at midday, but we wanted to make the most of the day so we opted to depart at 7am and take three separate buses. The first city…
