Naadam Festival, Gobi and Karakorum Tour

Our staff will welcome you at the airport/train station  in Ulaanbaatar (UB), the capital of Mongolia.  and  and transfer you to a hotel.  

Have a rest until we take you for  guided walking city tour that will introduce you to the highlights of the city: The central city square with a grand statue of Genghis Khan and Sukhbaatar statue placed at the center as well. Museum of National History is located right next to the square will introducing Mongolia's history from early humans to modern era. Then choose to visit one of two museums from the following: 1. Choijin Lama or State Oracle Residence-museum displaying best samples of Buddhist artwork and religious masks. 2 The Fine Arts Zanabazar Museum displays old arts including   Buddhist arts, painting, folk arts and crafts, sculptures, carvings and embroideries.  

In the evening at 6 p.m you will be brought to watch a show of traditional music, throat singing and contortion. After the show  a welcome dinner is set for you. 

Today is the day to fee and enjoy Naadam celebration. Visit to the Naadam Festival stadium.

Naadam:

The word Naadam literally means ‘’Games’’. The festival is also locally termed "Eriin gurvan naadam" meaning "The Three Manly Games". The games are Mongolian wrestling, horse racing, and archery, and are held throughout the country during midsummer. Women have started participating in the archery and girls in the horse-racing games, but not in Mongolian wrestling.

In 2010, Naadam was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO.  It is not only famous among Mongolians but also in the world. Many tourists, guests and journalists come to Mongolia to take part in it.

The Festival starts with a transferring ceremony of the nine white banners from the Government House to the Naadam Stadium followed by a horse parade. Genghis Khaan used to use the nine banners during festive and peaceful times. Next, the magnificent opening ceremony starts. Traditional wrestling, archery and horse race are main highlights of the festival.

After attending the opening ceremony, go around outside the stadium to see anklebone shooting , eat Naadam main dish Huushuur /meat pastry/, and buy souvenirs, traditional clothes and much more. 

In the morning after breakfast, our staff will pick you up from your hotel and head to the  Hustai Mountain National Park.

Khus /Mon: Хус/ means birch in Mongolian. The Khustai mountain is covered with brich trees that cover 2080 hectare area and is  part of UNESCO’s ‘Man and the Biosphere’ reserves included in its World Biosphere listing of Nature Reserves. Its 50,620ha is home to the takhi, the Mongolian wild horse named horses of Przewalski, that were re- introduced in 1993 with support the the Government of the Royal Kingdom of the Netherlands, after they had gone extinct 4 decades earlier.

The park as well is home to red deer, marmots, black vultures, black kites and flocks of partridges and abundant flowers. On arrival we will visit the local information centre, guided to see takhi, have lunch at camp’s restaurant and continue drive to the Elsen tasarkhai. 

After passing by hundreds of horses, cows, sheep and goats graze alongside, soon there appear some stretches of sand dunes like a silken scarf laid across vast green steppes. This is the place we will overnight tonight with a local family. Get to know the local family members and hike around. We will have dinner with them and have rest. 

After breakfast we will continue our trip to Karakorum soum located in the Orkhon valley. Orkhon valley is a registered UNESCO World Heritage site due to the ancient historic  sites that it inhibits. 

A local monk will guide us around the monastery. You will be given a detailed explanation about the buddhism in Mongolia and daily lives of the buddhist monks during "A tea with a monk'' session during the trip.

Today the main attraction in this town is the monastery museum of Erdene Zuu which was  established in the 16th century by a Mongol khan as part of introduction of Buddhism as the main religion. The monastery then suffered almost a complete destruction during the anti-religion campaign of 1930-ies with just a dozen of temples surviving till present.

Enjoy some time in the peaceful surroundings of the monastery and take a glance at a few surviving artifacts of the old capital. Also visit the reconstruction of a monumental Buddhist temple dating from the 13th century, research findings are displayed in the local musuem.

Historic notes: Following the unification of the Mongols by Genghis Khan, Karakorum gradually became a capital city. Ögedei Khan, the 2nd son of Genghis Khan, developed the city further in 13th Century. By then numerous envoys, including William of Rubruck, dispatched by the Catholic Pope, and who popularized a cosmopolitan, urbane vision of the city, famously writing of a silver tree which sat in the palace of the reigning khan.

The city Karakorum was destroyed by Chinese troops in 1388. Later, under previous Mongolian prime ministers, parts of Karakorum, including the monastery of Erdene Zhuu, were rebuilt. 

Afterwards, have return trip to the Khushuu Tsaidam museum where ancient Tureg state relics are kept.  

Enjoy dinner and stay overnight at ger camp. 

Today we will start our trip to the South into the desert area. As we head to the South the steppe turns saline and semi-arid, vegetation gradually thins out and less people come across our way. We will not see a  human being for hundreds of miles, only endless sparcely vegetated plains, camels and mirages. You can say "This is middle of nowhere".

In the afternoon we will reach the Ongi river valley where the ruins of two monasteries that were destroyed during the Stalin`s purge. One of them is the Barlim Monastery located on the North bank of the river and the other one is the Khutagt Monastery sit on the South bank.  Founded in 1660, Ongi Monastery  was one of the largest monasteries in Mongolia and accommodated over 1000 monks at its height. During the purge carried out by the Communists, over 200 monks were killed and the temples were demolished. 

Dinner and overnight in at a ger camp. 

Today we will head to the famous Bayanzag or Flaming Cliff known as the first site where the first samples of dinosaur eggs intact in their nests as well as hundreds of dinosaur skeletons among them of several new species were discovered by Americans in 1920-ies.

In the evening you will see the cliffs glow with a fiery red light that seems to mimic the radiance of the setting sun. That is why it is called the Flaming Cliffs. The cliffs look astonishing from below or across the escarpment. But no matter which side you are or what time you go there, you can still witness the breathtaking magnitude and raw beauty of the place come to life.

Here we hike the eroded ravines of red sandstone and try make your own discovery. A picnic lunch will be served with the view of the cliffs as the backdrop. You may as well take a short trip to Bayanzag, a saxaul grove nearby. Saxaul is a desert bush that grows to a height of 2 meters and is a valuable soil supporting agent although the most popular fuel of local herders. 

Have dinner and stay overnight at a local ger camp. 

After breakfast we will hit the road further South to the massif of the Arts Bogd range with a summit named Ikh Bayan mountain standing at 2,477 m above sea level.

Here you will see petroglyphs dated to the period between about 2000 BCE (Bronze Age) and 1000 BCE (early Iron Age). Accompanied by the guide take a relaxed climb to see the petroglyphs.These are images of animal species, hunting scenes, humans riding and leading animals. Numerous ancient burial mounds are also scattered in the foothills.

After passing by the Arts Bogd range, the landscape dominated by distant rugged chains of sun burnt mountains, dry salt pans and sandy depressions will welcome us. This stretch of the way has the richest spectrum of colors.

In early afternoon arrive to the Khongoriin Sand dunes, sometimes called by locals "the singing dunes". Mongolians call them ”Khongoriin Els” meaning Khongor sand and are the most important sand mass of Gobi Gurvan Saïkhan National Park. Its area is more than 900 square kilometres (347,49 square miles). The dunes can reach heights, between 100 and 300 metres (328,08 – 984,25 feet) at their highest points. Khongor dunes are stretched for more than 180 km long and can reach 27 kilometres (16,28 miles) in width. The inhabitants name their imposing dunes ”singing dunes” due to the noise made by the wind when it moves the sand. Beyond the dunes, the steppe extends as far as the eye can see. Best time to catch some really good photos is the time of sunrise and sunset. 

Enjoy the dune climbing and listen to the “singing” from the dunes. They will give you interesting vibrations that create an avalanche.

Have dinner and stay overnight at local ger camp. 

Early in the morning, wake up and take photo of the sand dunes. This is the best time to catch the momentum of the beauty among the Gobi sand dunes.

Hike, climb and feel the warmth of sand. Stay overnight at the ger camp. 

Our destination for this day is another highlight of the Gobi, the “Lammergeyer Canyon”. It is nestled between the beautiful peaks of the Three Beauties Mountains and shelters a small "glacier" which remains frozen even on summer's hottest days. At the entrance of the gorge is a small museum displaying samples of the area’s animal world.

At the parking area we will leave our car and ride horse to the Canyon. There are Siberian Ibexes  /in Mongolian Yangir/ roaming around the steep cliffs. If you wake up and visit the canyon early in the morning, you would spot them. 

Have dinner and overnight at the ger camp.

In the morning we will head to the next destination, another highlight of the Gobi, Tsagaan Suvarga Cliff. Suvarga means stupa. It is sheer slope and was an old seabed with sedimentary structure created over 10 millions years.  The different colors of the ground represent different times.

Many people come to visit the cliff due to its unique formation with sheer slope, facing east, which from a distance seems to be the ruins of the ancient city or stupas in a row. That is where the name White Stupa come from. The average height of the cliffs is 30 meters high and 100 meters wide. The formation is over 50m in its highest point and continues 400m.

There is 2 famous sites for explore. First one is a interesting cave which is 70 m long Khevtee Bosoo agui (Lie and Stand Cave) and not so far from the site. Second option is exploring Del uul (Back Mountain) for seeing petroglyphs or rock drawings dated back to the Bronze Age. This is considered to be largest site of petroglyphs in Central Asia.

Have lunch on the way. Enjoy dinner and overnight at a ger camp. 

After breakfast, we will drive to Baga Gazriin Chuluu meaning Small Rocky Stone Formations in Mongolian. The site consists of 15km long and 10 km wide stone massif located 30 km to the  South East of Adaatsag sum of Dundgobi province. The highest point is Tahilgat Mountain /1768 m/ in the Northwest part of the stone massif.

The area accommodates over 20 kinds of medical herbs and many species of animals such as wild sheep, ibex and marmot exist here, Surtiin am is one of many beautiful places in Baga gazriin chuluu massif. This is a narrow canyon with asp, birch, white whicker and elm tree, as well the ruin of a stone temple and the site of 2 yurts where monks lived and meditated since the seventieth century.

Have lunch on the trip. Enjoy dinner and overnight at ger camp. 

Our Gobi trip ends here and we will drive back to Ulaanbaatar. Have lunch on the way. Stay at a hotel in the city. 

Our staff will pick you up from the hotel and give a ride to the airport. Safe flight back home!