Mongolia's biggest problem is how to live up to the exotic myths and legends that surround it!  Yes, it's an ancient Buddhist Kingdom - but the capital is a flourishing mixture of bars, nightclubs, patisseries and internet cafes.  The Government strives to portray Mongolia as a modern country for foreign investment - and then a nomad rides into town and ties his horse up outside the Central Department Store.  It's worth trying to think outside the box - because today's Mongolia happily combines ancient traditions with present-day services, and it's only the foreigners who can't get their head around this; for Mongolians, there's no problem at all!

Ulaanbaatar is fun to visit, but it isn't especially Mongolian.  The sparse pasture of the steppes kept Mongolians on the move - the idea of 'cities' is fundamentally alien to Mongolian tradition.  Ulaanbaatar (then called 'Urga' - 'Ulaanbaatar' means 'Red Hero' and is a communist-era name) only sprang-up at the end of the C19th. If you want to see real Mongolia, you must head out of the city. 

The majority of Mongolians don't live in cities at all - they pursue the continuing tradition of nomadic lifestyles that date back thousands of years.  It's easy to become romantic about this, but in fact nomadic life is often harsh - Mongolia's bare steppes offer little shelter from biting winter winds (down to -45C in mid-winter) or scorching summer heat (up to +40C). Sanitation is an open ditch, and water may have to be brought many kilometres.  We have trips which offer nomad-stays, but we emphasise that these are for hardy travellers - no compromise is made for you, you must fit around their living conditions. Mongolian nomads still eat the simple and basic diet their forefathers ate - mutton and sheep-milk, and unsalted hard-dried cheese, with no vegetables - which might be interesting to try once or twice, but it quickly gets repetitive, and the fatty mutton is not to everyone's taste. Elstei provides an alternative - but also offers traditional Mongolian meals too.  You have to be ready for off-road jeep travel for long journeys - Mongolia has tracks rather than actual roads.  Most Mongolians still live in gers - the traditional wood-framed felt tent of the steppes, whose design has not changed in thousands of years.

A great way to experience life in the Mongolian ger is to stay at Elstei Ger-Camp. The accommodation is entirely in traditional gers. Showers and toilets are available from April - October meeting modern standards (sorry to purists looking forward to crouching over a mosquito-infested trench). There is a cafe serving both traditional Mongolian meals and a choice of other food (including vegetarian). The location, although only one hour from Ulaanbaatar, is as remote as anywhere on the steppes, and there are great opportunities for walking - or riding, with local nomads as your instructors (you pay them locally).

Don't mistake Mongolia for Thailand or Cambodia - life here is harsher, due to the climatic extremes. The deep winter snows (2m and more) cut nomad families off for 4-5 months a year. All the more reason to celebrate when summer permits, and the Trial-Of-Skill-and-Strength games called Naadam date back to before Genghis Khan himself (Genghis himself was famously crowned at the Naadam festival).  Although the Communists 'centralised' Naadam (to 'keep an eye on it') to the second week in July, its origins as a local festival still continue, and local naadams still take place - there is even one at Elstei.  Naadam 2005 Dates: National Naadam in Ulaanbaatar 11-13 July.  Regional one-day Naadam at Elstei 13 September.

Mongolia is a sparsely-populated country and lacks good international transport connections, even with its neighbours - there is only a once-weekly train service to Beijing, for example (due to frosty relations - as China lays claim to large territories of Mongolia - they will not increase the timetable).  You should note that this once-weekly train service does tend to create 'bunching' of people waiting for it to depart from Ulaanbaatar - there is almost nothing we can do to prevent this, despite the headaches it causes us. Two ways of avoiding the peak-season log-jam (in September) would be to take the Inner-Outer Mongolia itinerary (which takes the more frequent short-hop cross-border train to the fascinating city of Huhetot, richly endowed by the T'ang Emperors) - or to travel earlier, when the weather is better anyhow?