ACCOMODATION
GENERAL INFORMATION
If new hotels are built and if the guest ger are now numerous, still now, during a trip in Mongolia according how long you stay and area visited sometimes the choice will be limited and often you will sleep to nomad families. Yurt camps, guest ger, tourist camp, sharing the life of the nomads in their own yurt: no comfort as we understand: the service, the price and the experience can be really different.
If you sleep to a nomadic family: according possibilities you can have a bed, a mattress on the floor (often) or just your sleeping bag as mattress. Nomad will provide, if necessary, blankets.
If you sleep on a guest ger who belong to a nomadic family, you will have your own yurt. You will have always interaction with the family by dividing meals and their daily life.
Toilet and shower: no evacuation system as we know, mostly is a hole on the ground sometimes can be closed, sometimes only some piece of wood on the hole! Toilet are far from the ger. You can note the will of Mongolia to put collective toilet in the village and in the touristic places.
Shower don’t exist in all tourist camp: read well the description and if no lines about shower and hot water this means that the camp don’t have them! In luxury tourist camp toilet and showers are okay and clean with hot water and mostly with washing machine. In a nomadic family no bathroom and no special place to process to own toilet. Toilet are on nature, the family will indicate you, take your toilet paper!
Public showers: all towns have public showers, clean and no expensive, you can buy soap, towels…
IN THE GERS: to experience traditional nomadic life will give a magic and unforgettable touch to your trip: don’t miss that opportunity. In the morning, before you leave, you should pay the lady around 6/8€night/person including the lunch (the driver will tell you the exact price). Take with you some presents who will be welcome. Appreciated presents, because they are useful, include: Swiss army knives, lighters, pencils and pens, exercise books and books to buy on U.B, clothes for everybody, soap, toilette accessories as comb, teeth brush… forks and spoons and knife and all you can use in a kitchen, thread and sewing needles please good quality!, scissors, cigarettes because Mongolian are fond of smoking, balls, pencils, t-shirts, caps.
HOTELS : in U.B. you can find hotels of different categories, guest houses (don’t expect for luxury, but hot showers, and reasonable prices can be a suitable accommodation) During Naadam is common that the rooms are made dormitory style. Sometimes on the small villages you can find small hotel with low comfort (10-15 euro/night) better you visit before to agree! Aimag capitals have now new hotels and also in countryside.
TOURIST CAMPS : are like camping site with around 10 very clean gers, (same used by nomadic families), a ger is used for showers and toilets (if you sleep at a nomadic family home toilet are outside…) another ger is used for restaurant. Price: 30/50 $/night/person including lunch. Some tourist camps don’t have yurt but small wooden houses, as roads are becoming better more and more tourist camp are created in touristic places. It’s also possible to find tourist camp less luxury and so less comfort (no shower, no hot water…)
GUEST GER : since few years guest ger are more and more. These smallest tourist camp (1-3 yurts) belong to nomadic families and so they can earn some money. No luxury, no shower but you divide all with the family. No ger restaurant so you will provide to cook. 10-15 euro/night/person.
Tourist camp as guest ger open from mild June to mild September, before and after really difficult to find some open.CAMPING : in U.B. isn’t permitted yet. In the towns it is better to ask permission to pitch your tent behind wooden barriers of a house to not be disturbed by drunken men and this is also the reason why you don’t have to pitch your tent on the running track who drive to a village. Also, never to near a river (inundation) or on the way of the flocks. For Mongolian mentality to pitch camp is totally natural and you can do it everywhere, but pitching your tent near a ger permits you to experience family life and animal noises… TENT: even if you think you don't need it, it’s better to take one with you because you might need to stay far from anywhere if you have a flat tire… the more independent you can be in the steppe, the better.
ELECTRICITY :
voltage: 200v frequency:50hz. On ger it’s difficult even solar panels. They don’t produce so much electricity and so you risk that family will stay without electricity. Take yours batteries…to charge all your devices. The drivers on the cars have a device to charge.
HYGIENE :
In the cities there are municipal showers (clean and cheap 1.00 € the shower, your driver will tell you) and with courage the rivers and lakes encountered can turn into bathrooms. If you wash in a stream or a drinker DO NOT SOIL IT WITH SOAP, because the animals will then drink this water as well as the nomads.
We can take wipes BUT they are not ecological, Don’t take with you so much clothes and toilet articles as you will not wash often your clothes and also yourself but don’t worry AS STRANGE AS IT MAY LOOK LIKE YOU DON'T FEEL DIRTY ...
