Motorcycle Riding in Mongolia – 7 Reasons To Go!
Mongolia is the latest destination to be added to Ride Expeditions’ growing list of hand crafted motorcycle tour destinations. The ‘Warrior’s Trail’ will offer our customers an incredible opportunity to explore this amazing country. It’s a unique place that we want to share with you. But let’s cut to the chase – what are our 7 Reasons to go motorcycle riding in Mongolia?
#1 THE LANDSCAPE
As soon as you leave behind the madness and bustle of Ulaanbaatar, the beauty and scale of Mongolia’s stunning landscape hits you like a sledgehammer. From the wide and open plains that border amazing trails, to the enormous hills and snow dusted mountains of the high country, this is scenery turned up to 11 on every possible dial. Mongolia is the perfect off-road motorcycle riding country and it’s just a flight away!
#2 THE TRAILS
While there are some roads in Mongolia, there aren’t many of them. So that means once you leave the blacktop, there are thousands of miles of tracks and trails that traverse the country to reach the remote communities that are sparsely dotted over the enormous landscape. In Mongolia it’s possible to experience day after day of incredible motorcycle riding on beautiful flowing trails without so much as seeing a tarmac road, let alone having to take your motorcycle on one. Of course the lack of roads also means there are few fuel stations when you stray further away from the beaten track, but don’t worry, our support truck has that covered!
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#3 THE LAKES
Dotted across this amazing country there are some truly beautiful lakes. From the enormous Lake Baikal that is almost 32,000 square kilometres to the spell-binding White Lake, where we sleep just a few metres from the shoreline, or the remote Lake Khuvsgul, our overnight stop at the end of a 90 kilometre trail. Whether you decide to just sit there and enjoy a cool beer at the end of the day, or go for a refreshing dip to start the morning these lakes are sure to leave a lasting impression!
#4 THE YURTS
With precious few cities or towns across this vast land, there are few opportunities to book yourself into top notch or even middle notch hotels – they are simply not there! But fear not, the Mongolian’s have more than made up for this with a lovely variety of yurt camps that are scattered all over and offer a wonderfully cosy place to spend the night. Built as they have been for centuries with a tall dome and heavily insulated walls, some of the yurts now have concrete floors, electric lights and comfortable beds. And if you’d like, a lovely chap will come in and fire up the log burner so it’s super warm and snug when you eventually make your way to bed.
Oh and just in case you were wondering, the tents are not called yurts in Mongolia, they are called gers. So now you know!
#5 THE PEOPLE
One fantastic and very noticeable aspect of traveling by motorcycle in Mongolia is that, without exception, even after a long day of sweaty and dirty riding, you are welcomed with open arms by the locals. Whether it’s an ingrained way of thinking that came from the nomadic warriors of yesteryear, or just a genuine warmth to fellow travelers it doesn’t really matter – it’s a beautiful thing to feel welcome as you travel.
If there was one particular moment that illustrates this, it was when we were invited into a wedding celebration at a remote yurt camp quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Can you imagine this happening back home – inviting a group of grubby trail riders into your home at your daughters wedding? Yet this is exactly what happened, the family sharing the wedding celebrations with us with a genuine and touching warmth. This is why we love adventure motorcycle riding – special moments in special places.
#6 THE FREEDOM
More than anywhere in the world we’ve ever ridden, the sense of freedom when off-road motorcycle riding in Mongolia is truly amazing. With no border posts, no fences, no walls and no boundaries, you can ride absolutely anywhere you want, whenever you want to. While there might be a web of loose trails and tracks between the more settled communities, if you want to head away from these and just ride into the distance, there is nothing to stop you.
On our recce trip we asked our mechanic who owned the land we were riding on. He looked puzzled and replied “We all own the land”. From wide open plains to cool larch forests, deep river valleys to sweeping trails tracking mountain ridges it’s all there for motorcyclists to enjoy. And Hell – you will enjoy it!
#7 THE MAN
As the world’s most famous and perhaps infamous Mongolian, the shadow of Genghis Khan – or Chinggis Khan as he tends to be known – reaches all over this amazing country, touching almost every aspect of life. From the moment you touch down at Chinggis Khan International Airport to the impressive statues of the national hero in the centre of the capital city, the proud nomadic traditions of the people that still live out on the plains as their ancestors have for centuries to the traditions of incredible horsemanship that are still evident, his influence is all over Mongolia.
But of course the most impressive tribute to Khan is the enormous steel statue of the warrior on his horse that commands the landscape on a hillside to the east of Ulaanbaatar, a site where legend says he found a golden whip. Standing at over 40m tall, this statue was completed in 2008 as a permanent and truly incredible celebration of the man and his legacy, the enormous structure pointing to his birthplace in the east of the country. Of course, on The Warriors Trail tour we visit the statue for a once in a life-time photo opportunity standing on the head of the horse, high above the wide plain.
And if the statue isn’t quite enough, the Chinggis Khan Gold label Vodka is one of the finest we’ve ever tasted!
So that’s 7 pretty compelling reasons to sign up to our Warriors Trail tour in Mongolia and experience this incredible country and it’s wonderful people.
It’s absolutely epic – we can say no more!