中北蒙古十日游／10 Day Central and Northern Mongolia Tour（Part One）

要看真正的蒙古，不能只是待在乌兰巴托。而要走到乌兰巴托以外，除了像当地人那样坐不可靠的公共巴士、计程车或搭便车外，就只能加入旅游团了。
Ulaanbaatar is not the real Mongolia. To see what Mongolia is really about, you will have to go out of Ulaanbaatar, to the famous Gobi Desert, to the mountainous and scenic Central or Northern Mongolia, or to the less travelled East Mongolia. To see the real deal, you either have to have lots of patience and wait for the unreliable public buses or take taxis, or you simply choose the easy way out and join one of the many tours to these destinations.

旅游团基本上分两种，一种是全包性质，一次过把钱付了就不必再烦恼，导游、交通、住宿和一日三餐等费用全都包在内。另一种就是只付租车子和司机与车油钱，吃饭、住宿和旅游景点入门费之后再自掏腰包，比较麻烦，但比较便宜。两种团的原理是一样的，一辆车最多能坐六个人，如果有足够的六人，费用就六个人分担。如果少过六个人，那每个人就得多付点钱了。
Basically, there are two types of tour groups, i.e. the all-inclusive type, where you hand over the money to tour operators right from the start and don’t have to worry about transport, accommodation or even food at all throughout the whole trip as there will be a guide who will take care of everything. The second option is to rent a jeep, pay for the petrol, form your own itinerary and just go. This option does not come with a guide, and even the driver does not speak English. You have to pay for the accommodation every time you get to a new place, and you will have to take care of the entrance fees to the various tourist sites. It is definitely more of a hassle, but the up side to this option is, it is totally flexible and you will definitely pay much less than the all inclusive tour. The underlying principle for both types of tour is, how much you will pay eventually, depends on how many people are there to share the costs. Each jeep can take a maximum of six people. If your tour has only four people, then the four people will have to split the whole cost.

决定好要跟哪种团后，还得决定你要去哪里，要去几天。因为新加坡护照在蒙古免签证14天，为了省钱，决定在蒙古待不超过两个星期，可是这一来就得为要去哪里而头痛了。因为蒙古地方大，从一个旅游景点到另一个旅游景点都很花时间，到戈壁沙漠来回就至少要六天，如果游中北部也最少要个七八天，因此就只能选择去其中一个地区，最后决定来个中北蒙古十日游。
After choosing between the all inclusive or the cheaper option, you next have to decide which part of Mongolia do you want to see and how many days do you want to go for. With our Singapore passport, I was able to enter Mongolia visa free for a stay up to 14 days. Not wanting to waste money on getting a visa, it means that I can only have a 10 to 12 days trip at most. Considering that going to the Gobi Desert takes at least six days to complete, and the other regions take pretty much the same duration, it meant that I cannot possibly visit all the regions in one shot, and can only choose between doing the Gobi, or to tour northern and central Mongolia. In the end, I opted for the latter. Needless to say, I went for the cheaper option. I paid 165 USD up front and all in all, spent about 50 USD on food, accommodation and entrance fees etc. (compared to 380 USD for all inclusive trip)

＊第一天／Day 1
前一晚报名这个团的时候，包括我在内，只有四个人。今天一到集合地点就被告知，凑足了六个人，费用大减，真开心。不过最后报名的两个人是一对韩国母女（母亲已经有76岁了！！），加上原有的三个韩国人，就变成了五个韩国人加一个新加坡人的全亚洲团。解决好饮食问题后，就浩浩荡荡地出发了。
I only signed up for the tour at the eleventh hour the night before and was told that, including me, there are a total of four people in the group. So I was pleasantly surprised to be told on arriving at the meeting point, that we have two more people joining the group, bringing the cost down by 80 USD per person. Of course it was great! Only thing was, just like the other three, the last two who joined us was from South Korea (a 76 year old lady travelling with her daughter!!). So there we were, five Koreans and a Singaporean, off for our ten days Central and Northern Mongolia jeep tour.

离开乌兰巴托不久后，漂亮的道路就变成了泥路，走起来自然没有先前那么顺，凹凸不平的路让我们有坐过山车的感觉。开始的前两个钟头还觉得很不错，之后就开始觉得累了，也就开始祈祷快点到达目的地。怎么知道我们要到四点多，才到达第一个旅游景点，迷尼沙丘。这还真的很迷尼，让我们一点也兴奋不起来。
Shortly after leaving, the beautiful asphalt road gave way to dirt tracks and muddy road paths. With so many pot holes, it felt more like a roller coaster ride than a car ride. At first we thought it was quite fun. But after two hours of bouncing up and down in the seat, we began to yearn for the asphalt roads that we have left behind. In the end, we had to drive for six hours, before we reached the first site of interest – mini sand dunes. And it really lives up to its name; it is really “mini”. The lone camel there throwing its temper, interest us more than the sand dunes did.最后终于到达了住宿的地方，是传统的蒙古包。非常宽敞，非常干净，还附带一个我们认为是四星级的厕所（有西式坐式马桶，没有异味，没有苍蝇）。晚餐主人准备了菜饺，不是什么人间级品，但过得去。
After another hour or so of driving, we finally reached our first ger camp. Ger refers to the little round tent that Mongolians live in. There are ger camps located all over Mongolia, some targeted at tourists, others for the locals. This one that we stayed in was really nice. A big and spacious ger and a four star toilet to boot (i.e. western style sitting toilet, no smell and no flies). Shower is offered at the price of 1 USD, but we knew water was scarce in this area, so we all forgo the shower. Dinner was vegetable dumplings, exactly what our host is eating. It’s definitely not the best dumplings I had, but it was acceptable. 吃完晚餐，突然发现我们看得到日食。其实当天上午就有日食，但只有在蒙古西部才看得到。我们看到的时候已经是傍晚，而且看到的不完整，所以不是真正的日食。因为没有很好的相机，所以无法拍到真正的日食。
Just when we finished our dinner, someone shouted that we could see the solar eclipse, and we all rushed out with our sunglasses and cameras. Actually, the solar eclipse occurred earlier in the day, viewable only from West Mongolia. So by the time we saw it, it was not the real one, hence we could not catch the complete eclipse. Supposedly, the next one viewable in Mongolia is 600 years later (I think). Didn't have one of those pro cameras, so this picture was the best I could get of the eclispe. You can see the sun in crescent shape towards the left. 之后到附近的小山走走，风景幽美，一路上还看到不少的牛、羊和马。山顶有一处专门让人供奉神明。
After that, we went to the hills nearby for a walk. The scenery was fantastic and we had cows, goats and horses for company. At the top of the hill, you can see a make shift shrine, adorned with offerings from the locals. 回到住处后，我们先和隔壁家的小孩玩了一阵子，然后就坐在草地上，等待日落和黑夜的降临。夜晚的蒙古真的是漂亮极了。我从来没有看过那么多的星星，而且我还第一次看到了流星，还不只一次哦！可惜我的相机没有那么好的功能，无法将这美丽的景致拍下。

Back at the ger, we played with the kids from next door for a while, then waited for sunset and for the stars to come out. Have you ever seen a whole sky of stars? That’s what you’d see in Mongolia. I had never seen so many stars in my entire life! And I saw a shooting star for the first time and not only once! It’s too bad that I was not able to capture the beautiful night sky on film.