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Why Mongolia Was the Hardest—and Most Rewarding For This Woman Traveler
19 Plays29 days ago
Travel blogger Cat Xu takes us deep into the wild heart of Mongolia — a place she calls the most difficult and transformative destination she’s ever visited. From vast, unforgiving landscapes to unforgettable moments of human connection, this episode of Go Far Girl explores why the hardest journeys often leave the deepest impact.
Follow Cat: Nomadicated.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Kat's Journey
00:00:02
CHANTELLE KINCY
Hi, welcome to Go Far Girl. Today i'm here with Kat. She's a backpacker turned adrenaline junkie turned travel blogger. At 19, Kat left college and launched into a life of full-time travel.
00:00:13
CHANTELLE KINCY
Now over a decade later, she has visited 65 countries, van lifed across the Western US, hitchhiked solo, and built a life entirely on her own terms.
Mongolia: A Transformative Experience
00:00:22
CHANTELLE KINCY
So we're going to walk through today one of her most transformative and favorite trips, and that is Mongolia, which I know is not a subject that a lot of people are familiar with. So if you missed last week, you definitely need to go back and listen to all of her stories about how she started traveling and left college and has done all these amazing seasons of travel in her life. And then today we're kind of just going to focus on one of her favorite chapters, which is Mongolia. So Kat, welcome back. I'm so glad you're here again.
00:00:53
Cat Xu
Thank you so much for having me again.
00:00:54
CHANTELLE KINCY
Of course.
00:00:55
Cat Xu
um i always say it's never too it's never too early to start, but it's never too late to begin.
00:00:55
CHANTELLE KINCY
It was so much fun talking to you. I've just been thinking about all of your trips and I was like, dang, I wish I could go back in time, which I know you're like, shouldn't live with like those regrets, but I just started so much later than you.
00:01:08
CHANTELLE KINCY
And in such a different time in my life, like, I just wish I could be 19 and be like, yeah, this is what I'm going to do. That's so cool. like
00:01:23
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh, look at you. I put that on a calendar.
00:01:28
Cat Xu
actually No regrets.
00:01:30
CHANTELLE KINCY
the No rag rats.
00:01:32
Cat Xu
No regrets. oh
00:01:35
CHANTELLE KINCY
So tell us
Trans-Siberian Challenges
00:01:36
CHANTELLE KINCY
about Mongolia. How did you end up in Mongolia? How long were you there? Kind of walk us through.
00:01:42
Cat Xu
Yeah, so actually Mongolia, so the first time I ever kind of like solar traveled was that like one year long gap year. And Mongolia was the last country of that gap year. And to this day, it has been almost, it has been nine years.
00:01:59
Cat Xu
um That is still the hardest country I have ever been to. And I think in the last 10 years, I have met less than 10 people who have gone outside of the people that I met there.
00:02:09
Cat Xu
And even last year, I met a friend who had gone. He had asked me for some recommendations. And hearing his stories, I don't think too much has changed. um
00:02:19
CHANTELLE KINCY
It's still tough.
00:02:21
Cat Xu
It's still tough. He almost got hypothermia in the middle of July.
00:02:24
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh, gosh.
00:02:27
CHANTELLE KINCY
What?
00:02:29
Cat Xu
It's so cold.
00:02:32
CHANTELLE KINCY
But you ended up there on one of your first trips. I guess I didn't realize that that was your first, like, one of your first big trips. And that's
Nomadic Culture and Landscape
00:02:41
CHANTELLE KINCY
a rough place to start out.
00:02:41
Cat Xu
ah
00:02:42
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:02:43
Cat Xu
Yeah, so it was the last one. So I guess like throughout the year I had gone to, you know, I was traveling a lot faster back then. So I had probably gone to like maybe 12 or 13 countries. So it was part of like that whole like Asia group.
00:02:53
CHANTELLE KINCY
Mm-hmm.
00:02:56
Cat Xu
um But I had met and fell in love with somebody in ah in Nepal, but then he was in Japan. Yeah. And, you know, when we were in Japan, we were like, okay, like, let's do some crazy trips. So my parents or my dad lives in Shanghai and he decided to come to Shanghai with me to go and meet my dad.
00:03:17
Cat Xu
And then, you know, of course you have to go see Beijing. And that mean, this was pre-planned, but we were like, okay, we're going to go from Beijing and take the Trans-Siberian Railway to go to Ulaanbaatar.
00:03:31
CHANTELLE KINCY
okay
00:03:31
Cat Xu
And this was a 24 hour plus ride, maybe closer to 30 hours of straight train. And I had never done that before. um And this was a very old type railway where the toilets is, it's really just, you can only go to the bathroom while the train is moving because it is literally just a hole that looks over the railway.
00:03:55
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh my. Okay.
00:03:58
Cat Xu
Hence, you cannot go to the bathroom during station, like when it's stationary. So that alone should tell you what the quality of these trends are.
Motorcycling Through Mongolia
00:04:10
Cat Xu
um But yeah, there's...
00:04:10
CHANTELLE KINCY
So, were there sleepers? Were you in a cabin? Let's talk about this train for sec.
00:04:16
Cat Xu
Well, you could... Yeah, you could choose your class. So I think we went with second class of which there were like very small bunk beds.
00:04:20
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay.
00:04:24
Cat Xu
It was four to a cabin.
00:04:24
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay.
00:04:25
Cat Xu
And I remember um our roommate um roommate, there was an elderly lady who was, she just wanted to do the whole Trans-Siberian, you know, railway.
00:04:37
Cat Xu
So I think her trip was like, and I cannot recall, it was either three days or nine days and she was going to Novosibirsk and she was just going to be on the train.
00:04:44
CHANTELLE KINCY
Wow.
00:04:47
Cat Xu
which is which was wild to me because I thought 30 hours was already like very tough.
00:04:50
CHANTELLE KINCY
like, this is enough. Get me out of here. Yeah.
00:04:53
Cat Xu
Exactly. um And random interesting fun fact. I remember at the at the border, like ah you have to go and show your passport. And in the middle of the night, the train stops and we're like, oh, this is going to be like a break, a bathroom break.
00:05:08
Cat Xu
So half of us get off the train. And then all of a sudden we turn around and see the train rolling away. And a lot of people had only come off with like half their family.
00:05:16
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh.
00:05:19
Cat Xu
And we were like, wait, our bags. They didn't tell us anything. It's just like left. And it left for like
Unique Mongolian Experiences
00:05:24
Cat Xu
two hours. And turns out um the railway wheels are different from country to to country. So they needed to go to like swap them, but they didn't tell anyone.
00:05:34
Cat Xu
So like families literally were split apart and thought that they just like left.
00:05:40
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's terrifying.
00:05:41
Cat Xu
It was terrifying. It was in the middle of the night.
00:05:43
CHANTELLE KINCY
You're just watching it go away like, okay, bye, I guess.
00:05:44
Cat Xu
and ah We're like, all our stuff, all our stuff is in there.
00:05:47
CHANTELLE KINCY
like
00:05:50
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's wild.
00:05:51
Cat Xu
Yeah. So that was the first entry into Mongolia. and And a lot of the train ride, like,
00:05:59
Cat Xu
there's kind of just nothing. like Mongolia is this incredibly amazing and transformative trip, but also incredibly hard because I think if you were to compare to a thousand years ago, like outside of Ulaanbaatar, I truly think that not much has changed.
00:06:17
Cat Xu
And you cannot say that for most other places in this world.
00:06:20
CHANTELLE KINCY
Right. Right.
00:06:22
Cat Xu
Yeah. So...
00:06:23
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's such an interesting way of life. Like to think about it, they're just really isolated and in their own, in their own way.
00:06:31
Cat Xu
Yeah. So I might be a little outdated in these statistics, but there's about a more than a little more than 3 million people in the entire country. And if I'm remembering this correctly, about one third of them live in the capital.
00:06:45
Cat Xu
And the capital is pretty modern. Like, you know, it's got like taller buildings and you know it looks like a city.
00:06:49
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:06:50
Cat Xu
um 25% of them, like of the entire population is still entirely nomadic. So they live in yurts. They live very isolated from each other. I'm not even talking about like communities. It's like sometimes you go 30, you know, 30 miles and you see one yurt and it's one family with their 50 sheep.
00:07:10
Cat Xu
And another thing is with the sheep, I think it's like, I think there's like 50 million sheep in the country. Again, maybe outdated statistics, but just like compared to the number of population, it's it's wildly, wildly different.
00:07:21
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:07:25
CHANTELLE KINCY
So the families will just pick up everything they own
Survival Skills and Travel Advice
00:07:29
CHANTELLE KINCY
and, and move.
00:07:29
Cat Xu
Yeah.
00:07:31
CHANTELLE KINCY
Are they moving like with the weather, with the seasons? Is that why they're.
00:07:37
Cat Xu
I think they're also moving for um for for the livestock. So it's still like very nomadic in terms of like, you know, the the sheep graze here and then they kind of move.
00:07:41
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay.
00:07:47
Cat Xu
and And I don't know how often it is, um but two two of the coolest things to do in Mongolia, and I can only say that I've gone to one of them, is to go and see the Tzatan people in the north.
00:07:59
Cat Xu
So if you go to one of the largest lakes they have, it's called Lake Kosko. I could be saying that incorrectly, but it's like the largest freshwater lake and it's really beautiful. But from there, we found um somebody who was able to procure us some permits and take us on like a 12 hour journey um by car and then a six hour journey by horse to find this tribe because they move around all the time. They're never, you know, if I were to go back there now, I would never be able to find them.
00:08:30
Cat Xu
So they will like lead you to this community and they're like the reindeer people. So a lot of their livestock are reindeer and they ride them, they eat them, they milk them. I milked the reindeer, which was to this day, one of the coolest things I've ever done.
00:08:41
CHANTELLE KINCY
Stop. That's so cool. Yeah.
00:08:44
Cat Xu
Yeah, rode a reindeer.
00:08:45
CHANTELLE KINCY
Are they welcoming when you, when you just like pop in on their community or they, or they're like, why are you here? Or were they,
00:08:52
Cat Xu
so I would say not often that people you know visit. like We were the only two that were visiting them. um But they do have like another tent that you stay in or you do like a homestay, and they are pure teepee-type style tents.
00:09:08
Cat Xu
you know There's like a giant hole in the center, so all like the hot air ah from the stove will go out. you know out On the outside of their tents or teepees, they've got like ah you know like the cheese or dried uh dried food just like kind of hanging there yeah it's very very different yeah and
00:09:25
CHANTELLE KINCY
Interesting. That's something. Yeah. Wow. Wow.
00:09:35
Cat Xu
in terms of travel and that's another thing another reason why it is so difficult is, and I heard that there are some improvements. So there are more roads than there were like nine years ago.
00:09:47
Cat Xu
um But from Ulaanbaatar, the city, um back then there were literally two highways. So one highway that went like cut east and west and one from north to south, you know, leaving the city.
00:10:00
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:10:00
Cat Xu
But if you really wanted to go anywhere, yeah you didn't really follow the highway. So the highway took you to the Gobi Desert and that was like pretty, you know, pretty, pretty like nice and easy. But if you wanted to see like, you know, their sites, which were very long distances away,
00:10:18
Cat Xu
um A lot of people there would hire ah driver or get a group together and kind of hire a driver or join one of those tours. um I was very lucky. my My ex was really good at the motorcycle.
00:10:30
Cat Xu
So we rented a really small off-brand random Chinese motorbike that I think was 125 or 150cc for this like off-road trip where we had like two giant bags.
00:10:43
CHANTELLE KINCY
yeah
00:10:47
Cat Xu
That bike was destroyed by the end of the week.
00:10:48
CHANTELLE KINCY
I was like, it probably couldn't even get like very. Yeah.
00:10:53
Cat Xu
It destroyed. um But it's so funny, like I would be the one navigating. Another tip, you have to download the entire offline map because even if you have a local SIM card, there is no service once you are outside of like a community and everything is in Cyrillic, which I do not know how to read.
00:11:09
CHANTELLE KINCY
Right. Right.
00:11:13
CHANTELLE KINCY
right
00:11:13
Cat Xu
So you're not really getting anywhere with the very few road signs that exist. So you have to have a GPS. I never learned like, you know, how to tell Northwest, Southeast, but during that month I got really good at knowing like, Oh, just move two degrees to the East.
00:11:31
Cat Xu
Cause I would be looking at this, I would be looking at this, at this map and then be like, Hmm, we're slowly getting off the path because this isn't even like a dirt path. Like sometimes like it is a dirt path, but it's like so small. It's like a single lane that at some point we're like, Hmm, yeah, just kind of go like five degrees to the East. And we would just like,
00:11:49
Cat Xu
divert and drive on grassland and miraculously we would find another trail that was like somehow on maps me it's wild it's so different
00:11:56
CHANTELLE KINCY
amazing.
00:12:00
CHANTELLE KINCY
It's kind of one of those things though, that like, you almost don't want to see it get modernized at this point. Right. Like, because that's what makes it special.
00:12:06
Cat Xu
exactly yeah exactly
00:12:07
CHANTELLE KINCY
And that's, I mean, it's going to lose all of that authenticity if there's like major highways everywhere and internet and all of these things. So it's kind of, even though it makes it challenging, it's kind of what makes it special.
00:12:20
CHANTELLE KINCY
Right. Like,
00:12:22
Cat Xu
and And I think it's one of my favorite because it was so difficult. And and another thing is, it it comes back to like the tenacity thing. It's like, oh, I know I can do it. And you know at the time you might be like slightly miserable, you know kind of hungry. Because that's another thing. if you like you know It's very unpredicted predictable unpredictable when you're on a bike or the roads are terrible. and Things just are so much further than, or sometimes it's just like a river and you're like, nah, that's uncrossable.
00:12:50
Cat Xu
And then by the end of the two weeks, we were just like crossing these rivers, like, like, like no problem. Like I would pick up my pant legs and like walk over about to be swept away with all my bags.
00:12:56
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:13:01
Cat Xu
And he would drive over with his motorbike. And in the first week, I remember we saw this tiny little stream and we're like, no, no, that's not the road.
00:13:04
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh.
00:13:08
Cat Xu
And it totally was the road. Yeah.
00:13:13
CHANTELLE KINCY
Did do you find people that would help you or were you guys just really like on your own while you were out there?
00:13:19
Cat Xu
If we got lost and we found a yurt, like we did ask for help. um But, you know, people were very generous. um And this is actually another really interesting thing. You cannot, it's rude not to finish or, you know, to not accept, but also not finish anything that the locals give you. So it like if they give you tea,
00:13:40
Cat Xu
like if Because like food is kind of scarce. you know You're in kind of the middle of nowhere. So you know they really treasure it.
00:13:44
CHANTELLE KINCY
yeah
00:13:45
Cat Xu
and And Mongolian food is another topic. But there is not much going for it. like The Mongolian restaurants ah you know that are around, you you're like, oh, it's like you know really good barbecue and stuff like that.
00:13:58
Cat Xu
um But there, it is very limited on choice. like Not much grows on the step, vegetable-wise. ah They eat a lot of fatty lamb, which I am not a fan ah fatty lamb.
00:14:08
CHANTELLE KINCY
yeah
00:14:09
Cat Xu
um And a lot of flour and, you know, kind of like this fermented, fermented like ah fermented mare's milk is like their alcohol and this like cheese that they leave like on the top of their teepee.
00:14:19
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:14:23
Cat Xu
So it's it's very limited on the food. And, um all right, and I was saying that, like, when you're on a bike and you you're like, okay, our goal is to hit this town so we can get more food.
00:14:35
Cat Xu
You get there and it's too late. Or, in fact, there was no restaurant at all. Well, now you're not eating that night and you're not going to eat breakfast. So now in the morning you wake up and you're just have to, like, continue driving until you find the next community.
00:14:48
Cat Xu
And in that sense, it was, like, so difficult.
00:14:48
CHANTELLE KINCY
yeah
00:14:51
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:14:51
Cat Xu
Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:52
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's kind of demoralizing too. And you like have this goal and then you're like, okay, we're just got, we just have to make it this far.
00:14:56
Cat Xu
Yeah.
00:14:58
CHANTELLE KINCY
And then you're like, well, nothing's here. That's crazy.
00:15:02
Cat Xu
and Nothing is open and there's like nobody in town.
00:15:02
CHANTELLE KINCY
yeah. Yeah.
00:15:06
CHANTELLE KINCY
that's crazy
00:15:07
Cat Xu
Yeah,
00:15:08
CHANTELLE KINCY
so
00:15:08
Cat Xu
we would we would carry some ramen with us like just in case or even like with the water, we're like, oh, there's a river here.
00:15:11
CHANTELLE KINCY
yeah
00:15:14
Cat Xu
And then we go there and it's like it's like an area filled with sheep and cow and we're like, oh, my God, like we can't even drink the water here.
00:15:19
CHANTELLE KINCY
I was just going ask about the water. Yeah. i was just going ask what you guys did for water.
00:15:22
Cat Xu
Yeah.
00:15:22
CHANTELLE KINCY
Did you just have like filters?
00:15:23
Cat Xu
So. Yeah, so we had purifies at the time, honestly, life straw and stuff like that wasn't like the biggest thing. So I do remember having some sort of filter, but like I remember one time we were very desperate and we filtered it first through a sock and then boiled it.
00:15:41
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay.
00:15:41
Cat Xu
um And then we put it through, you know i think we had like purification tablets um at the time.
00:15:47
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:15:48
Cat Xu
So yeah, that one, usually if it's like running off of the mountain, that's what we took. And then we weren't like as careful, but like when you're in a field with sheep, we're just like, ah yeah.
00:15:54
CHANTELLE KINCY
Right. If it's like still. Yeah. Yeah. Scary.
00:16:00
Cat Xu
But yeah, yeah.
00:16:01
CHANTELLE KINCY
But those are life skills. Like if we go off grid, you'll be able to use your sock to save yourself. That's pretty cool.
00:16:07
Cat Xu
ah
00:16:08
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh.
00:16:09
Cat Xu
Yeah, and with the motorcycle repair, too, I think this is what was really cool. Like, you really had to be inventive of, like, how to fix things. So, like, at some point we had, like, a fuel. It wasn't a fuel tank issue, but um there was some. so Oh, no, it was a fuel tank issue. So it was just, like, leaking all over my leg.
00:16:28
Cat Xu
And there were a lot of other issues and thankfully, like my ex does know how to like fix a lot of things. um But at some point we just had a hole and we had taken some soap, like just like bar soap and kind of like melted it so that it was like, a like not like melted, but like, you know, so it was like a little bit like soft and just like duck stuck it in this hole.
00:16:33
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:16:51
CHANTELLE KINCY
Like a waxy seal. Yeah. Just tried to like, yeah.
00:16:53
Cat Xu
Exactly.
00:16:54
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:16:55
Cat Xu
Until we could go somewhere and like have a better fix. Or like we were missing a screw at some point. There was so much like ah suspension problems that a screw just like fell off or broke. And we were like, okay, well, let's just like duct tape this until we get somewhere where I could like fix it.
00:17:07
CHANTELLE KINCY
I love it.
00:17:09
Cat Xu
Yeah.
00:17:11
CHANTELLE KINCY
But fuel was readily available? Like you didn't run out of gas?
00:17:15
Cat Xu
we we We never ran out, but we pre-planned where there was going to be fuel. So we would always ask people like, hey, where's fuel? And I remember there was a 200 kilometer stretch where there wasn't fuel.
Mongolian Festivals and Traditions
00:17:26
Cat Xu
And just in case, like we did map it out, but we also did bring extra fuel with us, you know, just like in a bottle.
00:17:31
CHANTELLE KINCY
So then you're carrying gas too on your with your bags and you're just...
00:17:35
Cat Xu
Yeah.
00:17:36
CHANTELLE KINCY
Wow.
00:17:37
Cat Xu
Yeah. We had a lot of survival gear.
00:17:38
CHANTELLE KINCY
How long were you there? Yeah. How long did you do that?
00:17:40
Cat Xu
It was almost a month.
00:17:43
CHANTELLE KINCY
Wow. Wow.
00:17:44
Cat Xu
Yeah. So for the first two weeks, ah so we spent a couple of days in Ulaanbaatar first. um So we had some of the survival gear, you know, we had both been backpacking, we met in Nepal, so we had some stuff.
00:17:56
Cat Xu
And then the first couple of days in Ulaanbaatar was really to be like, you you know, let's gather a bunch of stuff. And I remember the most useless thing we bought was a shovel because we were like, oh, you know, we're going to bury our number two.
00:18:09
Cat Xu
And then promptly after we were like, after two days, we were like, yeah, this shovel is a useless item.
00:18:13
CHANTELLE KINCY
yeah no for sure
00:18:16
Cat Xu
Like for the weight we're carrying, this is not worth it.
00:18:19
CHANTELLE KINCY
yeah no for sure
00:18:22
Cat Xu
Yeah. So we we gathered a couple of more things. Like we didn't have a stove. So we like, you know, bought a better stove, um you know, some random other survival stuff. But it it was really like every time we were in town, we were picking up like more stuff. We were dropping more stuff because you realize like this is the stuff you actually need.
00:18:39
CHANTELLE KINCY
rotating through like yeah this isn't as useful as I thought but what I really wish we had was yeah and then so I was saying did you have like a tent where you carry to sleep okay
00:18:42
Cat Xu
Exactly.
00:18:45
Cat Xu
Yeah. And, and even, oh, like even ever, yes, we tented. Yeah. We tented the whole time. Um, the only exception is I think we stayed in a yurt for two days, but of course that's like the thing you have to do. Like you have to stay at a yurt since you're there.
00:19:02
CHANTELLE KINCY
yeah oh my
00:19:04
Cat Xu
Yeah. And the TP thing. And this is actually the country, I don't usually want to go back to a country so adamantly, but Mongolia is definitely one of them. um The biggest thing I have on my bucket list, and this is like kind of ah one of those like lifelong type dreams is, and the other thing is, I don't know how to ride a horse.
00:19:24
Cat Xu
Yeah. But I want to buy a horse and I want to cross this country from east to west as if it was like the Silk Road times.
00:19:32
CHANTELLE KINCY
Girl, that's amazing.
00:19:32
Cat Xu
um And kind of do like a whole like, I want to document, yeah.
00:19:36
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yes. How long would that take?
00:19:41
Cat Xu
Three to six months, I would say.
00:19:43
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:19:44
Cat Xu
But the problem is I don't know how to ride a horse.
00:19:46
CHANTELLE KINCY
you You might want to start there.
00:19:47
Cat Xu
So I would need to...
00:19:48
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:19:51
Cat Xu
I would need to start there. And I think it's like the pure, like this is like pure survivalism. Like this is like, you need to, it's not just something like I, relatively speaking, I would say we went like kind of willy nilly in like the planning and, you know, knowing what it's like there, like this is one of those trips that like you really have to pre-plan everything.
00:20:12
Cat Xu
And yeah, I guess that would be like my adventure of the lifetime.
00:20:18
CHANTELLE KINCY
I can just see you with like your fur and the bag. I can just like visualize this whole thing already.
00:20:23
Cat Xu
ah
00:20:25
CHANTELLE KINCY
You've got like a bird on your shoulder. You're like, let's go.
00:20:29
Cat Xu
Oh, like I would bring like a fishing net. Like i I would like fish, which is also something that I guess I would need to learn.
00:20:31
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:39
CHANTELLE KINCY
But that's what would make the story.
00:20:39
Cat Xu
no
00:20:40
CHANTELLE KINCY
Like you would definitely have to document the whole thing because that would be such a cool thing for people to experience vicariously through you
00:20:46
Cat Xu
Exactly.
Adventurous Spirit and Future Aspirations
00:20:49
Cat Xu
ah Yeah, this is like documentary type like level.
00:20:49
CHANTELLE KINCY
And just been like, yeah, no, this is amazing. I'd be like, you go. Like, that's crazy. I love that. So weather-wise, though, how does that work? Because it's pretty extreme, right?
00:21:04
Cat Xu
You, I would say that you can only go there between the months of June until possibly September.
00:21:14
Cat Xu
In the North, so like when we had gone to see the reindeer people in the North, it was either the end, i think it was close, I think we were there for mostly the month of August. I was still in a down jacket, like in the middle of the day, that far north, it's just cold.
00:21:31
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:21:31
Cat Xu
And I told you like a friend of mine had gone, actually, I think it was June. And he i think he had gone for the for maybe May until June and he almost got hypothermia, but he he was really unprepared. um So yeah, the weather is another thing where in the south and the Gobi, it's one of those, you know, it's like desert weather where in the night it gets chilly and in the daytime, it's extremely hot.
00:21:50
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah, it's really hot.
00:21:52
Cat Xu
Um, yeah, but yeah, there's like four good months where otherwise you you really have to be prepared with the weather.
00:22:02
CHANTELLE KINCY
So if you were going to do cross country, you'd really have to plan that out too. You'd have to take that into consideration and make sure you're the appropriate places at the appropriate times because that could get pretty dicey.
00:22:11
Cat Xu
Exactly. Yeah. and And I think it's mainly going into the northern mountains as well. Like maybe the center in the south is not as, you know, it doesn't get as cold as the north.
00:22:23
Cat Xu
um
00:22:23
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:22:23
Cat Xu
And another thing I wanted to say with the landscape. So the landscape is, you know like old green saver that like that like window screensaver where it's like literally just like blue up top and then like that grassy green.
00:22:37
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:22:37
Cat Xu
It's like, it's It's that everywhere. Like in the steppe, it's crazy because like everywhere you see here, it's like, you know, things are developed and somewhere in the horizon, there's like, you know, a random building.
00:22:50
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:22:51
Cat Xu
ah There, it's truly, there's so much land where there's just like nothing. And then all of a sudden, it opens up to this like canyon. that just like comes out of nowhere.
00:23:03
Cat Xu
It's so bizarre or like even the Gobi Desert, it's like really one strip of dunes that just like pops out of nowhere and on each side, you climb to the top of the dune, on each side it's just like step, it's just like grassland for ages and endless and it's it's just wild.
00:23:22
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's amazing. So it's just like otherworldly somewhere that we don't have any comparison to because it's so different.
00:23:29
Cat Xu
Although I have to say, in some places in Mongolia, ah ah sorry, in some places in Montana, um I think because the latitude is probably quite similar. There are some places in Mongolia, you know, they call it like big sky, where I do see some cross parallels.
00:23:44
CHANTELLE KINCY
Really?
00:23:45
Cat Xu
So if you don't want to go to Mongolia to see the same landscape, just go to Montana.
00:23:45
CHANTELLE KINCY
he
00:23:48
CHANTELLE KINCY
go to Montana.
00:23:53
CHANTELLE KINCY
Like travel dupe.
00:23:56
Cat Xu
Exactly.
00:23:58
CHANTELLE KINCY
Ride a horse in Montana instead.
00:24:01
Cat Xu
I mean, that's a thing to do in Montana as well.
00:24:02
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. ah You could definitely learn to do that there in a little like more controlled environment.
00:24:05
Cat Xu
yeah Exactly.
00:24:07
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:24:09
Cat Xu
Yeah, where you know you'll definitely have food in the morning.
00:24:12
CHANTELLE KINCY
exactly
00:24:14
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh my gosh. so okay. What if someone wants to go to Mongolia? Maybe not as hardcore, like maybe we're not going cross the country on horseback.
00:24:26
CHANTELLE KINCY
Like, what would you recommend? Like, how can you get a taste of this place? You know, can you, can you go light adventure?
00:24:34
Cat Xu
so i
00:24:36
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:24:37
Cat Xu
So I would say really read what to pack and what to bring. Because even if you do go with a group, like it is, um ah or not even a group, like it is like quite difficult, like in any method of vehicle, just because there's not that many roads.
00:24:54
Cat Xu
So if you ride a motorcycle, I definitely think that you should at least do like a couple of days of a motorcycle trip, like on either on your own or find another motorcycle. Actually, no, I would not recommend going like on your own, on your own, but find another motorcycle buddy and like, kind of like, you know, go together with.
00:25:10
Cat Xu
um But I think the most typical that I've seen, like if people don't know how to ride a horse and or um a motorcycle, you basically show up to Ulaanbaatar. And I'm sure there are like tours, you know, that you could like book beforehand.
00:25:24
Cat Xu
But if you go to Ulaanbaatar, um go to the hostels go to the hotels and there's like boards uh you know maybe there's an online version of this now but there's like boards of which you can find you know others like travelers who are seeking other travelers to kind of split the cost with so you can basically hire a driver And then you can either plan the itinerary, ah but a lot of times, like that type of like non, like not like super organized tour type, you actually would need to provide for that your driver. So like to make sure that he has food as well while you're eating and like that he has a place to sleep.
00:26:00
Cat Xu
um And then he he kind of, you know he's ah he's a tour guy as well, but you know, you're kind of like taking care of him. um And then otherwise, the other option is to kind of sign up for those tours, which you should definitely wait until you get to Ulaanbaatar because it's it's definiteefan it's like it's like hiking Everest Base Camp. like It's just so much cheaper once you actually arrive to the city and you see all those like local outfitters.
00:26:19
CHANTELLE KINCY
which are there. Yeah.
00:26:22
Cat Xu
yeah And then those type of trips, you know you can go anywhere from like three days to like a couple of weeks.
00:26:23
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:26:28
Cat Xu
um I think one thing... The best thing about going in the summer, and we were really lucky to have gone there for, it's either at the end of July or the beginning of August. Right outside of Ulaanbaatar, they have a festival cut called Nadam.
00:26:44
Cat Xu
And I think that was in the first days we were there, too. So it's it's um it's like a local it's a cultural festival, I guess you could call it. But like you see those like old stereotypes of like the Mongols who are on horses. So they're like doing those like um like those wrestling matches.
00:27:03
Cat Xu
And then also like how accurate you are with an arrow or they're like horse racing and like shooting arrows. It is so cool. So cool.
00:27:15
CHANTELLE KINCY
That'd be fascinating though. And what a great way to like start your journey into the country too, is just kind of be immersed in this and surrounded by all of these things. That's really cool.
00:27:24
Cat Xu
the throat singing, it's almost hypnotic. Like if you hear it in person, it's a hypnotic.
00:27:29
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:27:32
CHANTELLE KINCY
So different.
00:27:32
Cat Xu
Wow.
00:27:32
CHANTELLE KINCY
Like you just don't get those experiences everywhere. That's so cool. I've been trying to think this whole time.
00:27:36
Cat Xu
Yeah.
00:27:37
CHANTELLE KINCY
I don't think I know anyone besides you that's been, I've been trying to think.
00:27:43
Cat Xu
Yeah.
00:27:43
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah, it's just really a unique spot.
00:27:44
Cat Xu
Literally in 10 years, I've met less than 10 people who've gone
00:27:49
CHANTELLE KINCY
Which is really cool.
00:27:50
Cat Xu
It's, yeah, which is, it's wild.
00:27:51
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:27:53
Cat Xu
So anytime somebody was like, oh, yeah, when I was in Mongolia, I was like, you've been to Mongolia?
00:27:53
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:27:56
CHANTELLE KINCY
You're like, I've been to Mongolia.
00:28:00
Cat Xu
Exactly.
00:28:00
CHANTELLE KINCY
You're in a little secret club. That's so cool.
00:28:03
Cat Xu
ah
00:28:03
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:28:05
Cat Xu
yeah And every time somebody asks me what my favorite country is, I'll usually say Mongolia just because it's so different. But also it's one of those things where I'm like fishing for like, oh, have you also gone?
00:28:15
Cat Xu
Yeah.
00:28:16
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. Yeah. You're trying to find someone like judge the reaction there. Cause either way you're a bad-ass about it.
00:28:21
Cat Xu
Yeah, exactly.
00:28:23
CHANTELLE KINCY
They're like, that's cool. You've been, I've been to, or like, Whoa, that's so cool. You've been. So either way you're winning with that.
00:28:28
Cat Xu
Exactly, exactly.
00:28:29
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:28:30
Cat Xu
Win-win. but
00:28:32
CHANTELLE KINCY
hu I love that so much. So that's on your bucket list. Where else is on your bucket list to go? What do you got coming up next?
Conclusion and Travel Resources
00:28:40
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:28:41
Cat Xu
So I think like specific location wise, you know, there's like so many places in the world I want to see. it's It's an endless bucket list, which I genuinely think is the best thing that I've ever done for myself. I started a bucket list more than 10, like before I started traveling, I had a bucket list.
00:28:56
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:28:57
Cat Xu
um But like the top things on my list is I don't necessarily want to summit them all, but I want to attempt to summit them all is ah go to the, you know, hike the tallest mountain of every continent.
00:29:05
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay.
00:29:11
CHANTELLE KINCY
Cool.
00:29:12
Cat Xu
um So I've done Everest Base Camp and I don't really think I have an aspiration to actually reach the summit. But, you know I'll like count that good. um And then I also want to walk a country.
00:29:24
Cat Xu
And I think I've selected Iceland to be that country. um Just because, you know, every couple of miles you go, it's like a completely otherworldly, different landscape.
00:29:34
Cat Xu
And it's not like so big that it's like undoable.
00:29:35
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:29:37
Cat Xu
Like I have no dreams of like walking Russia or something like that.
00:29:38
CHANTELLE KINCY
Right.
00:29:41
CHANTELLE KINCY
Right. Well, that's good.
00:29:42
Cat Xu
Yeah.
00:29:44
CHANTELLE KINCY
Because that might take a minute.
00:29:46
Cat Xu
Exactly, exactly. Like Iceland, I like think that's doable in like a month.
00:29:50
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah, that's cool.
00:29:53
Cat Xu
Yeah, I think those are like the top, ah the top, like those are like lifelong experiences where, you know, pre-planning expected.
00:29:53
CHANTELLE KINCY
I love that.
00:30:00
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. Yeah. Very awesome. You're so inspiring. You're just a badass.
00:30:05
Cat Xu
um Thank you so much.
00:30:05
CHANTELLE KINCY
I love it. ah That's cool. So any last words her for people about Mongolia? Just get out and do it again. We're back to Nike. Just do it.
00:30:16
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's our creed.
00:30:16
Cat Xu
Yes, just do it.
00:30:17
CHANTELLE KINCY
that's our creed
00:30:18
Cat Xu
Yeah. I would definitely say Mongolia. If this is your first time um traveling, I probably would not necessarily recommend Mongolia. It is a very shocking place ah to begin.
00:30:32
Cat Xu
But if you look at it the other way, if you can handle Mongolia, you can handle literally anywhere else in the world.
00:30:36
CHANTELLE KINCY
You can do anything. Yes.
00:30:37
Cat Xu
You can do anything.
00:30:38
CHANTELLE KINCY
So who's it for? It's for the adventurous, right? It's for maybe like someone who's like a little savvier traveler.
00:30:45
Cat Xu
People who love the outdoors.
00:30:48
CHANTELLE KINCY
There you go.
00:30:48
Cat Xu
Like if you want to see something like complete and same with the culture. Oh my God. Like it's the culture is so different to anywhere else that I have ever been. Yeah.
00:30:58
CHANTELLE KINCY
And not for picky eaters.
00:31:01
Cat Xu
Not for picky ears. I remember my last day leaving. I met somebody who was gluten gluten free and vegan. And I was like, I don't know how you're going to survive out there.
00:31:12
CHANTELLE KINCY
You're like, wow.
00:31:13
Cat Xu
Like you're gonna eat like pickled vegetables and and that's it.
00:31:19
CHANTELLE KINCY
That's exhausting.
00:31:21
Cat Xu
Yeah. Yeah. like na I cannot imagine.
00:31:24
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. like You might be changing your tune in two weeks. We'll circle back.
00:31:28
Cat Xu
Yeah. Yeah. Foodies probably need not apply.
00:31:34
CHANTELLE KINCY
There's no Michelin stars on the step.
00:31:35
Cat Xu
No.
00:31:40
Cat Xu
New business idea.
00:31:40
CHANTELLE KINCY
ah Yeah. But how do you sustain it is the question.
00:31:47
Cat Xu
Yeah, the the foot traffic is not amazing.
00:31:47
CHANTELLE KINCY
Because it's... Yeah.
00:31:49
Cat Xu
That
00:31:52
CHANTELLE KINCY
You're like TikTok living all the time. You're like, oh, wait, no, that doesn't even that doesn't even have a reach. What the heck is happening?
00:31:58
Cat Xu
but is if you can even get service.
00:32:00
CHANTELLE KINCY
Exactly.
00:32:02
Cat Xu
well
00:32:03
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh, gosh, I love it. So I'll put your links back in the description for those of you who want to follow Kat. um Go ahead and just tell us again where they can find you.
00:32:13
Cat Xu
Yeah, so I have two travel blogs that I'm working on. So my US-based one is called daytripnomad.com. um And then if you want to follow me along with my world travels, ah my other site is called nomadicated.com.
00:32:27
CHANTELLE KINCY
Very cool. and do you have Mongolia content on Nomadicated?
00:32:31
Cat Xu
Unfortunately, it was way before I started my travel blog.
00:32:33
CHANTELLE KINCY
Way before. Yeah.
00:32:34
Cat Xu
So yeah, no.
00:32:37
CHANTELLE KINCY
But if they have questions about Mongolia, they can reach out to you through the blogs and you can kind of help guide people in the right direction because like said, you're kind of the expert on it because there's not a lot of information out there.
00:32:40
Cat Xu
Feel free to reach out. Yes.
00:32:48
CHANTELLE KINCY
So if someone wants to get brave, they can.
00:32:49
Cat Xu
Exactly, exactly. I will be happy. i will be happy to help you plan your Mongolian
00:32:55
CHANTELLE KINCY
add you to the club. Look at that.
00:32:57
Cat Xu
trip. Exactly.
00:32:59
CHANTELLE KINCY
ah So cool. Thanks for hanging out with us again, Kat. I sure appreciate you.
00:33:04
Cat Xu
Thank you so much. Okay, bye.
00:33:05
CHANTELLE KINCY
All right. We'll talk to you soon.