November 2016
Mongolia was a country that I’d wanted to visit during my earlier trip to Asia in 2014. At that time, I planned on flying directly to Ulaanbaatar, the capital city, but the visa regulations had changed at the last minute (so annoying when visa regulations change at the last minute and the websites are slow when it comes to breaking the news) I returned to Beijing, the capital of China, and instantly located the Mongolian embassy. There was no online E-Visa application any more and no visa on arrival, so it was annoying, expensive, and time-consuming, and I needed to readjust my schedule (This was the case in 2016, not sure about now). Instead of flying to Ulaanbaatar, which was the expensive option, I was more interested in flying domestically to Erlian, a Chinese city right on the Mongolian border, then staying there for a few days, afterwards crossing the border, by land, and then staying in Zamyn Uud, a Mongolian town right on the border with China.
So my plan was set. I left Dandong, the closest Chinese city to North Korea, and took the train directly to Beijing. A few hours later I arrived in Beijing and went directly to the Mongolian embassy, signed out all of the forms, and gave them my passport, my picture, and a payment of about $50. They told me to come back in three days, which was ideal. I then booked my flight to Erlian from Bejing, which was only an hour and a half away and luckily daily flights available. That suited me perfectly and that only worked out at about 40 Euro each way, compared to 450 Euro roundtrip from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar.
So I arrived at the Mongolian embassy after 3 days, got my visa, flew to Erlian (still to this day Erlian remains one of my favorite cities in China), and checked into a hotel right on the border. A few days later I did the land crossing. Unfortunately, the customs officials won’t let you do the border crossing on foot, unlike the China/Hong Kong border, or the China/Macau border, instead, they make you cross over in a jeep. That was perfectly ok with me at the time. I paid a local about 50 RMB, 7 Euro, to cross the border and he kindly waited for me during the whole crossing. Firstly, I cleared Chinese customs, then jumped back into the jeep, secondly drove for about three miles through no man’s land, until I reached the Mongolian emigration hall, they scanned my passport and visa and stamped me through into Mongolia. It was the most interesting border crossing ever, mainly because I was in the Gobi Desert, a place that I’d read about so many times, and the temperature had sharply dropped and it was now -10.
Busses were going directly to Ullanbathar from Zamiin Uud, though I was unwilling to make such a long trip at that time, instead, I just spent a few days in Zamiin Uud. There wasn’t a hell of a lot to do in Zamin Uud, it’s not a tourist town at all and I just happened to be the only tourist there, but it’s a very popular trading town. There were hundreds and hundreds of jeeps going through the main village, mostly stocked up with copper, gold, and jewelry, along with other Mongolian products.
I enjoyed staying there, mostly for the uniqueness of the place, being able to say that I was officially in Mongolia, and feasting on the local food, for example, Khorkhog, a popular barbeque dish and my favorite Mongolian dish, Tsuivan, a Mongolian stew and Budaatai khurma, along with other amazing dishes.
I then located another jeep on my departure the following day, once again paying the driver 50 RMB, and went back to Erlian again for a few days,( a city that I’ve missed a lot, still really surprised that the tourist industry is limited there) then flew back to Beijing. It was worth doing the trip and getting a flavor of Mongolian country life, though there was still a piece of me that wished I had chosen to go to Ulaanbaatar instead.
