Tent heating in Mongolia

I am currently in Ulaanbaatar after sleeping a couple of nights in a traditional ger tent on the Mongolian plains. It feels good to be back in civilization (sort of) with an internet connection and a warm shower.

Staying in a traditional tent was an amazing experience though. The circular construction has a contained fire in the middle. We used wood to keep the flames alive, but since there are very few trees around it seems they normally use coal and manure for fuel.

Traditional ger tent in Terelj.

We had about zero degrees Celcius in the middle of the night, so it got quite cold after a while as the fire burned out, but I slept quite good despite various animal sounds just outside the tent. During wintertime it can supposedly sneak below -40 degrees.

An explosion of colors.

The valley in itself was really beautiful, where the few but colorful autumn trees framed the imposing rock formations. Here and there goats were climbing the steep hills. A perfect getaway from the smoky and noisy capital.

Riding to the turtle rock.

The people living in the valley were very friendly and it was interesting to hear Mongolians speak about their views on China, but it startled me how openly they disliked the situation. Genghis Khan once formed the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous land empire in world history ranging from Austria to Korea. Beijing was conquered in 1215 but today the roles are reversed. I asked what they thought of the new movie Mongol which is the story of Genghis, but they seemed to think it it was quite alright compared to earlier takes on the story.