Month: August 2017

Traditional Mongolian clothes are very nice, unfortunately mostly older people wear them.
As you can see in today’s picture – the older man is wearing beautiful clothes (Deel) with an interesting belt; a young one is wearing just jeans and a T-shirt.

Each ethnic group in Mongolia has their own traditional clothes. There are different clothes for men and women, some special ones for summer or winter, etc. I heard that the most unique are traditional Mongolians head wear; apparently they have hundreds kinds of hats!

If you want to see different traditional Mongolian clothes – visit Mongolia during one of the bigger festivals, e.g., Naadam festival (later, I’ll tell you more about this event).

Mongolia is an empty country, well, almost empty. 😉
There are about 3 million people living in Mongolia, and 40% of the total population lives in the capital!

Typical Mongolian family is quite big. Usually, Mongolians have at least four children.
When I was in Mongolia, I saw many young pregnant women, as well as women with small children.

The majority of Mongolian people belong to Khalkha Mongols and Kazakhs.
However, there are many ethnic groups living in Mongolia, often having a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle.
If you have a chance, talk with Mongolians or spend some time with nomads – it can be a very interesting experience!

In the 16th century, the Yellow Hat Buddhism came to Mongolia from Tibet. These days, Mongolians are mostly Buddhists, however Mongolian Buddhism is different from Tibetan one.

Mongolian is the official language of Mongolia.
Russian is known by many.

What about English?
I guess, Mongolians learn English; but in general, don’t expect that a random person can understand English. Even your “English-speaking” guide may not understand you so well; he may speak English and be able to explain you a lot in English, but he often uses sentences learnt by heart.

Mongolia has a continental climate with extreme low temperatures in winter (up to -40°C or even lower) and extremely high temperatures in summer (up to +40°C). Of course, the weather varies a bit from region to region.

So when is the best time to visit Mongolia?
I was there in August and it was great. However, July seems to be the great period because of the Naadam Festival; on the other hand it may be too warm for enjoying the Gobi desert.

Mongolia is called as the “Land of Blue Skies”.
There are apparently about 250 sunny days a year.

I’m not so sure is it true. Anyway, the name is nice. 🙂

Do you know what Mongolia has in common with the Great Wall of China?
The Great Wall was built because of Mongolians; well, kind of.
The Great Wall was built to protect China from the various nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe, e.g., from Mongolia.

p.s. Today’s picture shows the Gobi Desert; it’s not the Great Wall of China.

Mongolia shares their boarders with only two countries, i.e., Russia and China.
And this affects many aspects of Mongolia.
Apparently, Mongolians don’t like so much China; Russia is definitely the favorite neighbor.

Welcome in August on my blog.
This month, I’m taking you to Mongolia.

Have you been to Mongolia?
I only spent in Mongolia about a week, and mostly explored just one region. However, I think, I was lucky to see one of the best sites of Mongolia. Hopefully, you’ll agree with this sentence after seeing my pictures in August. 🙂
Well, there are many beautiful places in Mongolia, but the Gobi desert stole my heart. 🙂