5 Days Living in Mongolia's Gobi Desert - A WILD Adventure!
this is the Gobi desert visiting here has been on our bucket list forever but it always felt like this distant far away land that was totally Out Of Reach until we found ourselves unexpectedly in Mongolia guys we have made it we're in Mongolia welcome to Mongolia I just keep saying that we're in Mongolia over the next 5 days we'll be hopping in a van as part of a group trip to explore this incredible but rugged part of the country I have literally squatted in an open field and PE today because that's how few washroom are here it's for sure one of the hardest things I've done in a while we're about to experience first hand what it's like to stay in a traditional Mongolian gar it's actually surprisingly really cool in here considering how hot it is outside eat the food of the desert so I got buuz which is like a very traditional Mongolian kind of like dumpling thing live out in the wild I actually slept good but I'm really sore this morning feel like I slept on a sheet of wood which is kind of what I did and witnessed the most incredible l Landscapes of Our Lives I feel like there's just like nothing around and all of a sudden boom there are these Cliffs so grab your camel and join us as we leave paved roads behind in pursuit of the incredible wonders of the Gobi desert I swear if somebody was like a kilometer away and started whispering it sounds like you could probably hear them it's like watching a dog walking group yeah this is so cool you got to come guys Mongolia is where it's [Music] at hey everyone welcome to the middle of nowhere Mongolia I feel like we have properly come to the part of Mongolia that I was so excited to explore on this trip there is just like nothing but fields and horses I really didn't know what to expect I just expected I guess maybe a whole lot of Horizon and that's exactly what we're seeing here M tell me about the downside though over there all right guys so the toilet situation if you come and do this trip like be prepared bring your own toilet paper there's a lot of squatters which is fine everything's pretty clean um but yeah I also have pee on the side of the road using this as only my cover so you got to prepare yourself as you can see there's not really any trees to hide behind when you need to pee so legitimately like bring a scarf for a shirt and like yeah that's your cover over there's the out house we found by this random gasoline station gas station in the middle of nowhere guys I guess you can't really call it a random gasoline station there is a bit of a town over there but we have been driving for a little while even though it's just day one and the driving that we've done so far has been mostly just through Fields Fields Landscapes Greenery seen lots of horses and goats cattle but other than that we haven't really seen too much out here nope just La Stu it's kind of nice if you really want to get away and go somewhere secluded this is the place and just like that our tour to the Gobi desert had begun the drive on this first Daye is taking us 480 km away from mongolia's Capital City Ulaanbatar before we reach the Gobi desert region we drive through through the Mongolian step which is an area of grasslands that don't seem to have a lot of grass at the moment making our Drive extra bumpy we have officially left the road like the Cave Road we're on what they call the natural roads here in Mongolia which pretty much means there are no roads it's like a washboard man I feel like the landscape's changing already though we're definitely getting like more like Sandy deserty Vibes they slowly I feel like we can just drive anywhere we can we are yes we are how does how does the driver know where he's going I honestly don't know it's [Music] craing the Gobi desert is one of the largest deserts in the world spanning more than 500,000 square miles and after hours and hours of driving to the step we eventually crossed the invisible border into the goby desert and arrived at our first stop in the region which was more dramatic and extraordinary than we could have imagined [Music] [Music] [Music] It has been a very full day of driving today yeah but man getting out just like checking out like where we've come to so cool feel very very small properly in the middle of nowhere so the official name of this place in English is white stupa I can't quite pronounce the name in Mongolian but it is basically just like a plateau that looks down into this Valley that looks like it's like a red almost kind of wavy looking Hills and I guess this part of the world used to be underwater and there are evidence of that uh around the area but it's great to just look around from the top of these plateaus because you're so much higher than the rest of the Horizon you could really see so far into the distance and what's incredible is that it's so quiet here as well there's not a sound I swear if somebody was like a kilometer away and started whispering it sounds like you could probably hear them all right we made our way all the way down to the bottom of these guys and and I are totally getting fairy chimney vibes from cappadocia yeah in Turkey in Turkey yeah this does kind of look like this although I will say an awful lot less Alec I think what's really impressing me about the whole landscape is that these Cliffs it's only like appearing on one side so you won't be able to see it from the opposite side like if you're looking into the Horizon and I saw a sign that said that during rainy season Sometimes some of the livestock would fall over the cliff they won't even see where the cliff ends oh that or where the cliff start starts I guess but um it's kind of neat seeing it from the air we had the Drone up and you can see how the landscape it looks like honestly the entire ground just fell on one side and created this Jagged Cliff like as if they were giant continental plates it's really really [Music] neat [Music] looks like we found our home for the night she's right there all right guys let's show you our home for the night you can hardly see me there we go this is a g a traditional Mongolian Ger which is like um the type of house that Mongolians still use today um the nomadic Mongolians this house is actually meant to be be able to be moved to a different location at any time um as the Mongolians follow livestock all around the country so this one has five beds in it cuz there are five of us in our group here today M's all settled in this is awesome this is the first time we'll ever sleep in a g yeah I'm pretty strued about it and we've got this for like the next few nights so um yeah super cool first things first though uh the bed is very stiff oh my God it's hard like it's hard it's more than firm it's actually just rock it's The Full Experience the Mongolian way otherwise really cozy gr it looks so small and squat from the outside yeah but inside actually has a lot more room than I expected like you can fully stand in this what else do you need there's so much room for activities here they were also telling us that under no circumstance should you lean on these posts or the door frame apparently that might topple the whole ger so something we just have to avoid by the way guys if you are watching this video because you two are planning a trip to Mongolia soon and you're looking for a tour company to book either this tour with or something similar to this we booked this with Four Seasons travel and so far our experience with them has been excellent you may have noticed in today's video that we have two guys with us Nuyama and tuya we also have a driver with us Bata and between the three of them we have so far had an excellent time so if you want to find their information we'll put it down in the description box below okay so like our Gus are right here right where we're staying tonight is just right here and just in front of us there is a pen of camels and then just look so cool so naturally we have to go and hang out with them for a little while they look so Majestic [Music] here we've seen camels in real life but I don't remember them being this big they've never been this big they also got two humps which I think is kind of unique they're both looking at me like who's this guy talking look how big his face [Music] is we spent the rest of the evening admiring the camels chatting with the kids who live on the property and eating spaghetti with meat sauce for our first desert dinner while making new friends with our tour [Music] group we had a beautiful sunset that was followed by an epic display of stars passing over our ger as we slept [Music] all right good morning I'm not exactly sure everything that's on my plate but definitely egg definitely bread definitely cheese cheese and some veggies we slept okay I actually slept good but I'm really sore this morning like I feel like I slept on a like a sheet of wood which is kind of what I did [Music] [Music] oh [Music] so it's kind of convenient as we've been driving along back on the paved highway there are a few of these markets along the road it's kind of funny though they always kind of say map kits all the time I think that might just be just how the translation works out or with the lettering or something like that but map kit if you see that it means Market oh snacked up tissues Juice coffee extra snacks all the Necessities for the desert there's also bottles of vodka there for like $88 so if you need some alcohol it's pretty easy to find out here and pretty affordable too ooho thank you a fun fact about Mongolia is that there are only 3.3 million people living in the country about 70 million livestock animals that's roughly 21 times more livestock than people through the window of our van we were seeing camels horses and goats and of course the Mongolian landscape wouldn't be complete without seeing a Prius in the wild as well after many hours of driving We Came Upon This Small City where we stopped into a local restaurant for lunch Miko's favorite meat eggs and rice but I went for something new so I got buuz which is like a very traditional Mongolian kind of like dump thing it looks amazing ground meat I'm not sure if it's like lamb or beef it could definitely be mut in here tomato have B it's good it's still really soft like the bottom of the dumpling it's still really soft when it's very salty so the onion garlic this really good and I have like 12 to eat by myself so they have served us some Mongolian milk tea so it's uh very popular here in Mongolia it is made out of milk tea like black tea salt and water looks like more like a microwaved hot milk oh that's interesting is it it's not as like milky you know it's not as thick it's like almost like watery and uh very salty I don't taste any tea in here appar it's very big in Mongolia it's called milk tea but it's definitely more milk and salt than it is tea I think if I added like cinnamon in it or something then I would probably love it all right we've been on the road another couple of hours just driving and driving along these incredible planes just like nothing to see for ages and then out of nowhere we get to the Flaming Cliffs uh which are stunning they're mostly famous because they're a really cool um archaeological site there's lots of fossils here I guess what made them most famous is that the first ever dinosaur egg fossil was found here so that's pretty cool so this has been turned into a national park and and they just preserve the area and do lots of digs around here although the cliffs themselves here are very beautiful and really cool to look at I think what makes this place extra special is a that there's just so few people here like I think coming to a place like this and having like 15 other tourists is really cool and number two is that like I feel like there's just like nothing around and all of a sudden boom there are these Cliffs Mongolia can do that for you yeah nothing nothing nothing and all of a sudden amazing something amazing although in some ways the the nothingness itself is truly what's drawing me to Mongolia right now I agree the expansiveness of of of the Horizon and just the fact that we could see so far I swear I can see the curvature of the earth here from from here[Music] [Music] oh [Music] not a bad view hey baby yeah you guys want to see the best toilet view ever come here so this is the toilet right just PE here it's actually not bad just really quickly it's a really nice washroom is a really nice wash probably the nice one we've had but then look at your view guys look at this view cuz over there some camels like is there more Mongolian toilet yeah I think if you just had none of this and you just squatting right there and just looking at camels that's as natural as it gets it's as Mongolian as it gets I've literally done that today so if you come on this tour I have literally squatted in an open field and peed today because that's how few washrooms are here cuz there just are no amenities like there's just nothing as far as the I can see so prepare yourself for [Music] that it doesn't look like it from the map but this second day of the tour was the longest driving day so we were very glad when we finally arrived at our home for the for the night all right tonight's menu is chicken soup and rice it looks amazing another meal with our tour mates and The Surreal Mongolian Landscapes was followed by a beautiful cloudy Sunset before we tucked into our ger to rest for day three which was going to be the best day of this adventure good morning this morning we have got a delicious breakfast of egg sausage on toast what do you call this again it's like BLT oh BLT that's prob how's your sleep um my sleep was actually pretty good um except that I was hot oh it was hot last night yeah it was hot so funny we packed for so many um we packed so many thermals and sweaters and long underwear and stuff going to be so cold yeah we bought all this new stuff in Japan to warm us up here in the goby desert and it's just been so hot I think in the middle of the night I went I woke up after used to watchh them as like 2:00 in the morning when you step outside the G it feels like you're in a completely different role it feels like you're a different planet because also the Stars like the stars just like amazing here the stars were so good the wind was just right and it was so dark out here there's not a single point of light it was tempting to sleep outside instead yeah it it really felt like a different world yeah and then you wake up and then you're like oh yeah that's right we're still in a different world this Mongolia before starting this goby desert tour we had been warned by other Travelers that the distances on this trip were no joke Mongolia is a big country so to get from one stop to the next always took at least a couple of hours but we were rarely without entertainment running we wouldn't see another car for 100 kilometers but somehow our heads were always on a swivel as we dodged horses camels goats and even the occasional deer while it's true there might be faster ways to get around the country going Overland gave us the chance to really understand how out of this world the Mongolian Landscapes can [Music] [Applause] be [Music] we have officially made it to where we're staying today this is our ger very similar to other ger that we've been staying in the past couple days but this one has six beds so it's a little bit bigger it's got a little bit more room it's actually surprisingly really cool in here considering how hot it is outside we have now also officially made into the Conor and L's National Park which basically means we are deep into the Gobi desert it's just incredible being here we were driving for a couple hours today um but we actually got in to our campsite now around 1:00 which means we'll have lunch here and basically spend the rest of the day here well I officially feel like we are definitely in the desert the sand is just like popped out of nowhere it's like driving driving driving and it still looks like desert but then it's just like Dunes these Dunes I think are considered like the singing Dunes when the wind goes a certain way through them they're supposed to sing I'm not hearing them sing but that's what I read which is really cool this place is so expansive I it's really hard to tell when you're in Mongolia how far distances are like you can see for so long and you're like oh I could probably walk there but like it could be like 40 km you know like it actually might be a really long way so the dunes they're massive I can't tell if they're like a 20 minute walk or like a 3our walk one of the big activities we had on the schedule for today was cam riding which is a really popular thing to do in this area however based on our own experiences with the tourism industry and camel riding around the world we always choose not to ride camels in this case the Shepherds had already herded the camels to our ger so to not let their efforts go to waste our group chose to enjoy the gobi with the iconic two humped camel in a way that we all felt comfortable with camel and I going for a walk in the goby desert it's definitely a unique experience a very unique experience I got to say this is the first time that we've ever walked like a camel as if it was like a dog like as if we were walking a dog to like a park [Music] yeah how do we look I think we make a cute couple although I think he needs he needs a bit of a grooming yeah you know his skin feels a little like he's got eczema I think he's a little on the dry side apparently this is the time of the year where the camels are losing their winter fur yeah so they all look a little bit Shaggy mhm I didn't know but the humps are actually full of fat so that's what they use as their store I thought they was filled with water I know but totally not true it's full of fat so they can go many many days without without food it's like watching a dog walking group yeah dog moms in La casually walking our camels this is how we do in Mongolia you know [Music] C [Music] all right so next up is we're finally going to explore the giant giant Dunes the thing is they look big but they look even bigger when you see the actual people on the de and you see how tiny they are they look like tiny little ants that's how you know it's massive yeah this going to be [Music] tough it feels like every step I take up it's actually just effectively half a step because I slide down a little bit so close baby all you have to do is go all the way up there oh my God this is always so much harder than it looks that's where we started I cannot believe we're up this high already but we have still so much more to [Music] go it's for sure one of the hardest things I've done in a while but Nicole is already up there and she says the view is so good it better be worth the view you guys it's so good come on honey drum roll please it's honestly so epic how epic is this like it's so good this is so unreal is it worth it it was so worth it but I'm wondering if anybody else brought a tripod or is it just me that's so bad just got this like huge heavy backpack of electronics and it's this is a freaking hard height this is absolutely screen saber we have to we have to stay for a while guys I'm setting this as my yeah we have to the colors this is definitely one of those screens that comes up on like Windows you know like definitely screen saver of the day it is so good [Music] 0:25:57.680,1193:02:47.295 [Music] [Music] [Music] so just like that all the tourist cleared out which is all of like six people from Korea they're over there but we have this sand dun to ourselves so we're just hanging out taking some photos feeling lucky it is really really gorgeous here and the sun is coming down like the dunes are beautiful this is what you come to Mongolia for yeah the place to yourself you have a whole and as far as the eye can see on either side Mongolia but seriously Mongolia actually you know what's kind of interesting I learned that only 5% of the Gobi desert has sand dunes so it's like hard to get here like it's really hard to get here which is probably why there's just not a lot of people here yeah I mean definitely hard to get look look at where we started over there somewhere I think I could probably there we go get a little bit this is so cool you got to come guys Mongolia is where it's at looks like cotton candy over there I the clouds are so straight it looks like a second R be ocean waking up next to these huge sand dunes was a pretty epic way to start day four even though we've been in the Gobi desert for days now being surrounded by Dunes just made it feel more real to chop it off this ger site was so quiet besides us the camels and the family that lives here there was just this adorable puppy as far as the eye could see as magical as this spot was we had another destination to check out that turned out to be totally different from our previous stops on this tour through the Gobi [Music] [Music] so after quite a bit of driving and some lunch we are at our main stop for today this is the Yol Valley and Yol I think is the name of a bird here but this Valley has this Trail right in the center so now we're just walking the valley and I think we got about a 3 km walk ahead of us and hopefully we able to see some rivers and maybe maybe some snow they say um I'm really excited for it because it's a beautiful day and I love this change in landscape from where we were yesterday at the Gobi desert it's not much Greener and more mountainous and there's a lot more Wildlife again like as we're walking you could already see some wild horses on our right that is just walking with us so yeah hopefully we'll have a great walk so I think it's been 4 days since we've seen natural water and out of the middle of nowhere water starts right here this is where you come if you need to survive I guess all right so from horses now we have cows and then over there they look like they almost look like Yaks we passed many Yaks as we followed the stream of water further into the valley the pass through the mountains got narrower and narrower until we eventually came to an area with a layer of snow and ice Mongolia gets very cold Winters filling the Yol Valley with snow and in the narrow Caverns that don't get direct sunlight it's possible to find snow and ice here year round you'd think in a desert we would not come across snow or ice and yet here it is like you just can't get away from it you know I really feel like we're in Canada right now between the Rocks around us like the mountain faces the crispness crispness of the air that's uh breezing over the ice it really feels like Canada except for the fact that there are Buddhist prayer flags hanging on the face of that wall over there so that's kind of the tell tell side that we're not in Canada is somewhere completely different and we saw Yaks coming in and we saw Yaks so yeah once again not Canada but it is uh it is giving me that [Music] feeling well the valley was beautiful but we have made it to our last G site of this whole trip and we are going to round out our trip by learning to play the national game of Mongolia yeah wow can you show me again which one is it uh this one is a horse horse ankle oh this one is a camel okay this one is a sheep this one is coat goat oh okay wow they all look the same to me we discovered the object of the game is to get to the end of the ankle bones that one to do that you roll four ankle bones and depending on the way they land you get to move spaces forward it's pretty cool it's nice and simple nice and simple it turned out the game of Mongolia is essentially a dice game but instead of dice you use polished animal bones because they're easier to find this far into the [Music] desert definitely the weirdest thing about this game is I smell the meaty bones there's a there's a definite Aroma in this room I'm like meat even though these have been cleaned they look really clean we didn't quite understand all the rules nor could we really tell the bones apart but somehow rolling animal bones and sharing drinks with our new friends and a g was the perfect way to cap off the final night of this Mongolian Adventure good morning everyone it is the final day of our tour and that means that today we are driving 650 km all the way back to Ulaanbaaatar it's going to be a super long driving day there's really not going to be a lot for you guys to see so we're going to put down the camera and enjoy the remaining time that we have here in the Deser once again we booked this tour before season's travel we've had an absolutely amazing experience with them exploring the Gobi desert if you want to see this tour or any other tour that they offer around Mongolia make sure you check out the link in the description if you enjoy this video make sure you hit subscribe and come along with us for the next adventure here in Mongolia thank you guys so much for watching see you in the next one also okay if you look at the camel like straight on from the nose forward does this not look like Sid from I from Ice AG okay so my camel's name is Sid because I swear from straight on we've decided that camels camels look like sit from Ice AG hting there for oh I know this part now yeah to dve you have to put this at the end of your video no you need to put Mongolian Road singing your [Music] int this is like not even Africa
2024-03-06 15:13
