A Cultural Getaway to Kharkhorin, Kharkhorin, Mongolia

Two days after my Gobi adventure had ended, I felt the urge to get out of the city once again and decided to join Alex in Kharkhorin, which he had left for the day before. I missed the rolling steppe, I missed the mountains, but most of all, I missed the animals and the local people of the small villages. Kharkhorin is a small town in Central Mongolia with just 9.000 inhabitants, located by the Orkhon River, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, at the easternmost foothills of the Khangai Mountains.

I had been debating for a while whether or not to go back to Central Mongolia, as I was afraid that it would ruin the first experience, when the amazing people from the Gobi tour weren’t there. But because I knew Alex was there, and because the alternative was going to a national park near Ulaanbaatar by myself, I decided to give it a go. I caught a bus from UB at 11 AM, and had a bumpy 6-hour drive through ever-changing terrain with Mongolian music videos on repeat throughout the journey. The bus driver made several loo stops (long-drop loos or just nature, of course) and also a long lunch break, so it was a comfortable ride. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).