Mongolia

From August 13 to 20, from the border of Mongolia to KHOVD .

The steppe

August 13th, we leave China today in the rain. The border area is a deserted area, as is often the case in these places. At Chinese customs, there are many people to check us thoroughly and rigorously.

Mongolian customs are a little more flexible and the passage does not require scanning of our bags, the passage is very quick.
We enter a relatively unknown country, probably as mysterious as China. A very quiet first day, we cover the first 50 km in the steppe with a wind in our favor, before reaching a village.

A few traditional points to address: SIM cards for phones and money. In some Mongolian banks, you can’t exchange money if you don’t have an account there. To get around the rule, the teller offers a Mongolian customer to make the transaction for us. The latter then receives a commission of 300 Tugriks, which is less than 20 euro cents. The minimum wage in Mongolia is 200 euros.

So many animals

Thursday the 14th, we set off quietly on the roads of Mongolia . Little traffic, but cars that smoke very black, no doubt due to the fact that we only find unleaded 92.

We drive through the Mongolian steppe, it’s really pretty but deserted to the max.
We camp near a yurt occupied by the owners of a Ulaanbaatar restaurant, located near a river. Since there is water, herds of cows, sheep, goats, and horses graze there. We drink river water, although it may have been contaminated by the animals.

Six unexpected visitors in the middle of the desert

On Friday, we continued into the steppe. The landscape was arid, with only a few houses along our route. The villages were sometimes more than 100 km apart, and all without any water. Today, we crossed only one hamlet with a small supermarket with sparsely stocked shelves. The owner cooked us a meal of boiled lamb and potatoes. It was good when you were hungry, but a bit bland. Tonight, we slept in the Mongolian steppe, in the middle of nowhere. Our only visitors were six camels that had arrived from nowhere.

A hotel without a shower

After a night well exposed to the wind, we leave our campsite. This is already the third day where encounters are very rare. The landscape has changed somewhat and the herds are fewer, the steppe has become even more arid. We are above 2000m altitude and the temperature has dropped significantly. After this long desert area we find a village, Manghan where we take the opportunity to eat; local food is on the menu.

We end our day at a country hotel where we hoped to take a good shower, but we’ll have to wait. The place isn’t equipped with showers and running water is limited to the bare essentials.

A city to recover

Last day in this first no-man’s land before reaching the town of Khovd. A road through the steppe where hundreds of camels live, sometimes entering the road and disrupting traffic. In Khovd, the owner of a guest house, which is fully booked, allows us to camp on his lawn. The owner is very welcoming and helpful.

Khovd is a town of 30,000 inhabitants located in a desert area. It depends on Russia for its electricity supply. There is a very large supermarket there, where you can find some European products such as President butter and wine from different regions of France.

We are taking the opportunity to extend our visas, as the basic duration is 30 days and that is not enough to cross the country.

Met :

• A couple of restaurateurs from Ulaanbaatar
• Lucie and Scott, two Australians
• Thomas a French cyclist.

Route: During these 8 days, we covered 471 km. You can find our map by clicking here or on our blog in the Asia Travel 2025 section.

Did you know: Mongolia’s currency is the Tugrik. The country is three times the size of France with a population of 3.5 million. The population density is 2.4 inhabitants per ^km² , the lowest in the world. (In France it is 105 and in Monaco around 20,000, among the highest in the world)