A Travel Blog by Andrea Marchegiani

Navrus Festival is a city parade held in Mongolia during “Navrus,” a highly celebrated holiday among the Mongolian Kazakhs in the Altai Mountains. Navrus celebrates the arrival of spring and the new year: what better opportunity to engage with local traditions?

If you are thinking of embarking on a journey to a remote, vast place at the edge of human civilization, Mongolia is definitely the country for you. The Altai Mountains have numerous adventures in store for you, here are a few of them!

You can’t explore Mongolia without tasting its rich culinary culture. Try everything they offer you, at least once! Here are 7 typical dishes, 4 popular drinks and 1 culinary oddity it takes courage to eat!

Attending an eagle festival is one of the best ways to get in touch with the culture of Mongolian Kazakh shepherds. The most important event of this kind is held in Olgii, in the Altaj mountains, but Sagsai festival is also noteworthy. It gathers a smaller number of tourists and therefore gives an even more genuine experience.

Xöömej, or khoomei, or Mongolian throat singing, is a unique vocal technique that will leave you stunned. Widespread in the Altai mountains, it is based on a specific throat sound emission which allows the singer to simultaneously produce two sounds. Born with the purpose of imitating the sounds of nature, khoomei is magical and hypnotic, able to transport the listener to another world.

Capturing the lives of Mongolian falconers has long been one of my dreams as a photographer: I could never imagine I’d be living with them, sharing the harshness of the climate, the hardships of sheep farming and the debut in society of the eldest son.

The Chinggis Khan Museum is the most beautiful museum in Ulaanbaatar. Modern, elegant and well thought out, it offers a historical tour of the country from prehistoric times to the present day. Make sure you don’t miss it!

Gorkhi-Terelj National Park and Bodgkan Reserve are two must-see destinations for enjoying the Mongolian wilderness. They are located near Ulaanbaatar, offering all kinds of outdoor activities and accommodation facilities equipped with every comfort.

There is no better place than Ulaanbaatar to get in touch with Mongolian culture and delve into the history of a fierce people who has greatly enriched the cultural evolution of the entire human species. The history of the city, the main attractions, the typical dishes and all you need to know before visiting the capital of Mongolia.

Ulaanbaatar is considered the ugliest, coldest and third most polluted capital in the world. It makes you want to stay away from it. But is it really so? Does it make sense spending a few days to visit it, or is it better to prefer other destinations?