BootsnAll Travel Community

I was thinking about doing this internship in Mongolia but was just wondering if anyone had been there, lived there and what they thought. I thought it was so funny in Lonely Planet's Dangers and annoyances section; ususally every country, city or area I've seen it says the very basic (and duh) be more alert of your possessions in train stations, don't walk down dark alleys, don't hitchike, etc whereas Mongolia (mainly I guess Ulan Bataar) had this laundry list including watching out for drunks and stray dogs. Who knew? Any suggestions?

a friend and fellow bootie (bunglegirl) just passed through and blogged it: www.me-go.net/rtw/blog/category/mongolia/ not exactly an intership but at least something...

I haven't lived there but I spent a month there travelling in 2004 so maybe I can help.

I never had any problems with drunks in UB, there are plenty of them but they mostly keep to themselves. And it seems non-stray dogs are much fiercer than stray dogs, so make sure their owners know you're there. This is in the countryside, haven't seen any stray dogs in UB.

Other than having my bag and finger slashed at the black market in UB (the sensible thing would be not to take a bag, or just a plastic one), I haven't run into any problems. It seems LP is exagarating as usual. Getting run over by a car is probably the biggest realistic risk in UB, can't think of anything you should be worried about in the countryside. Hitch-hiking is fairly common and I haven't experienced or heard of any dangerous situations in respect to that either.

My boyfriend and I traveled for more than two months in Mongolia and found it to be quite a peaceful country in general. We frenquently overnighted at herdsman's ger, camped by the road, and never felt unsafe. Hitchhiking is a common way to get around, we did it once and met a nice family who we later spent a couple of more days with. Drinking is quite a problem there and it's a good thing to watch out and stay away from the drunks if you can. We had a driver who got so drunk at the end of the 100 mile drive he could barely walk and we met other travelers who had to take the driver seat over from their guide; we had a drunk trying to start a fight on the bus, another one blocking our way with his horse, and several more who came to our tent at midnight looking for a drinking partner. As for dogs, yes, we were chased by barking dogs once in the far west when the house owner didn't bother to call them off, but chances are rare and we had no problems elsewhere.

one day, i will travel overland from italy to mongolia, following the route of the ass-kickingest traveller who ever was, john di carpine di plano who walked there to deliver a letter to ghengis kahn's grandson

13th
century

Hi, i go often there so maybe I can help everybody who want to go there and make a wonderful trip. we have wonderful contacts to hare a jeep or to rent a horse or do anything you are dreammed to do.

you can also see my webpages: www.virtualtourist.com/m/1f26a/6d6 and sp find many information to prepare a trip there.

have a nice trip

just also contact me for more: angy8@bluewin.ch

Graziella

[Edited by JessieS 28 August 2006, 10:45]

We just had a tele article on Mongolia and Ulan Bataar in particular focusing on the homeless children as young as single figure ones who had left homes because of drinking parents.
Seems as though UB is suffering much like a lot of other soviet influenced places the article claims as a result of post USSR communist rule and there being something of a void of non-state employment/income.
The kids supposedly live in sewers or underground service tunnels where hot water pipes create a warm environment for them in winter - Footage showed kids emerging from uncovered manholes in main throughfares so if all that is true, pay to watch where you are walking, and Mongolia is known for extremes of weather, so be prepared for that too.
Very obviously a world of the haves and have not.

When I was in Mongolia, all the expats and locals told me that most of the underground kids were dumped there by their most likely drunk parents who then went back to the countryside. Who knows what the real scoop is.

I had mixed feelings about Mongolia. I wanted to love it so badly and was challenged every day to not hate it. I had a eight yr old boy with a rusty little knife and brick try to mug me (no such luck), a drunk jeep driver who stole a horse from a local to get home (in the Gobi this is), a guy spit water on me in UB, and a million other little things happen.

If you go to Mongolia, go fresh and not from other places you really liked bc it's a challenging place to be in- way more than somewhere like India where there are areas of "western-ness". By all means, go. It's like being on Mars and makes for good stories that can start "And on the 14th day of eating more gamey mutton we came to a frozen river in the middle of a hot desert."

Good luck!

PC