The best travel conditions are met in summer, from June to September. Most tourist stays occur between mid-June and mid-August. Out of season, many camps in pre-filled (yurts camps with showers, restaurants...) and travel agencies are closed, but it is also at this time that you can enjoy exquisite Mongolian hospitality. You will have no choice but to sleep in the nomads'yurts - yurts that they make available next to them against a small price including wood heating, cottage and cover - during your country visit. It is better to travel with an agency that will provide you with a guide and driver who knows a good number of nomadic, serious and friendly families who are used to welcoming tourists. But unlike camp camps, you will not have showers during the entire stay... Think about wipes.
A single way of lifeMongolia offers a unique opportunity to discover the way of life of its nomadic populations. To appreciate his riches, you have to have slept in the cosy cocoon of a pre-filled, tasted the airag hardly fermented, enjoyed the buuz in family, gathered the perched herds on a horse... We must finally have participated in local festivals by sharing the joy of living and the generosity of people very attached to traditions of hospitality and hospitality. If you organize your stay with a local agency, you will be accompanied by a bilingual guide that will help you understand this unique lifestyle even better.A very nature natureThe first image that this country evokes is that of an almost pristine nature and whose vastness seems to deprive us of benchmarks. From the vast steppes of Eastern Mongolia to the endless platitude of the Désert desert, snow-capped peaks from the Altai mountains to the north of the country, Mongolia offers a wealth of incomparable landscapes. With 45 species of birds, 12 500 kinds of insects, more than 2 000 of which have been observed only in Mongolia, 138 mammal species of which some 2 800 are extremely rare (the wild camel, the bear of Gobi, the wild horse of......) and over plants, the country is a real concentrate of nature that seeks to be explored. Mongolia is therefore the ideal place for trekkings and hiking tours. By organizing your trip with a local agency, you will be guided by local experts and can admire the most beautiful landscapes of Mongolia.By changing euros for tögrög, every visitor is very soon a millionaire. The biggest ticket, that of 20 000 T, is just over 8 ! Life in Mongolia is not very expensive when you pay a Western salary.Food is cheap. You can easily eat 6 000 T in a guanz and make a gourmet meal for 20 000 T. Only fruit and vegetables are expensive generally, because most of them are imported from Russia, South Korea or China. The cost of inland transport by bus varies according to the price of petrol. Crossing Mongolia from Ulaanbaatar to Olgyi, 1 600 km, can be done with 70 000 T and 4 days of travel (in optimistic version). It must be recognised that cross a country as large as Mongolia with only 30 is not very expensive. On the other hand, renting the services of a driver is fast expensive if long distances are covered. At the end of 2016, 2 000 T had to be counted for one litre of petrol, or about 0,80 , which, compared to the rest, is expensive in Mongolia. With rates of USD 45 on average for 3 meals and one night in a pre-camp, housing is one of the most expensive items on the traveller's stock exchange. In Ulaanbaatar, however, it is possible to find very good guesthouses at US $ 6-8 at night in a small dormitory.FormalitésSince July 2014, it is no longer necessary to have a visa to enter Mongolia. For a tourist stay of up to one month, your passport is sufficient.
Mongols speak Mongolian. Russian is also sometimes understood or even spoken by all persons over the age of 40. The Mongols involved in tourist activities usually speak English, including the guides. There are also some Francophone guides, but their number is no longer sufficient to meet the demand in summer. For travellers who plan to travel alone, we must expect to face enormous communication difficulties. It is highly advisable to have a Franco-Mongolian or Anglo-Mongolian dictionary. It will be very useful because the population is literate to close to 98%.www.voyagemongolie.com: introduction to the Mongolian language (Book + 2 CD). Useful for a stay in Mongolia. 360 pages, 12 graduated lessons, many examples and exercises, a dictionary with over 2 000 entries. This Mongolian language method is ideal for travellers seeking autonomy and real contact with the Mongols.Learning language: there are different ways to learn a few basics of language and the offer for self-learning can be done on different media: CD, workbook or even directly on the Internet.
Mongolian currency is called the tögrög (or tugrik) that is written in abbreviated "T" or, more rarely, "Tg". The banking system also uses "NCD".Previously, tögrög was subdivided into möngo. But now there are no more pieces. The currency in circulation comes only in the form of tickets, where the national heroes Chinggis Mountain or Sükhbaatar on the one hand, and landscapes with pre-teens (yurts) and horses on the other. The tickets are 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1 000, 5 000, 10 000 and 20 000 T.
Mongolia's climate is continental, with short, hot and rainy summers, and long winters very rigorous (average temperatures of -24 ° C). As a result of the country's average altitude, temperature variations can be very important from day to day. The country has an average of 250 days of sunshine per year. Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital in the world.
© Dominique Auzias & Jean-Paul Labourdette