WHAT TO TAKE TO MONGOLIA
I always overpack on toiletries, even when I just go to stay the night at a friends house. Luckily my guidebook told me to not take many, since there aren't many showers outside of the capital. So, I took half of my normal amount, yet still overpacked on toiletries. Here's what I actually used in a month of travel in summer (June), where I barely changed my clothes and took an average of 1 bath (glacier water) or shower (luxurious!!!) each week. I was on horseback much of the time, and outdoors everyday.
- 1 small travel bottle of shampoo and conditioner : You can buy this anywhere
- 1 medium bottle of sunscreen-- mostly for my face, hands, and arms, which were the most exposed to the sun
- 1 travel bottle of hand sanitizer : buy it in UB supermarket (maybe) or bring it from home-- not available in villages
- 2 packs of wet wipes : you can buy Dove brand in Mongolia everywhere-- even in the countryside. Perfect if you feel stinky and no bath is available. Also, it's nice to wipe down when it's really hot out!
- 1 roll toilet paper : Buy it in Mongolia, and keep it with you always. Ger camps do NOT provide. On this note, I wasn't really looking, but I did not see feminine hygiene products, like tampons and pads, for sale in villages. I brought my own from home, but I'm sure you can find them easily in UB or in a village if you have your phrasebook. I never did figure out what happens to these products, especially the plastic parts, in ger camps. Maybe this trash get burnt or buried. I did see female condoms for sale in the village pharmacy, but not male condoms. But, they must be there and I just didn't notice them.
- Clothes : I'm from northern California where it is hot in the summertime (over 100 degrees in the valley) and cold in the wintertime (it rains, but no snow, except in the mountains). I did fine by bringing a bit of everything. I did not wear shorts at all-- jeans and shirts and a hat. Actually, I had 2 hats - 1 wool warm hat and 1 sun hat. I would also recommend a rain jacket and extra socks. -----The sun is so strong, so be careful of sunburn! Mongolia is at high elevation, and the weather changes quickly, even during one day. For example, at 9 am it was cool and sunny. By 1pm it was hot and sunny, and we got on our horses to ride home. At 3pm we had to rush to a nearby ger, and tie up our horses as fast as possible just as the lightning and hailstorm crashed down on us! We sat in a dimly lit ger for 30 minutes while my guide chatted with the family and I ate yoghurt. At 4pm we continued home, but in a hurry in case it were to storm again.
- Car charger for all your batteries, to plug into the cigarette lighter - phone, camera, laptop.... Also, bring a splitter, so more than one battery can charge at a time. The splitters can be bought in Mongolia, as I saw them in many tourist vans. ---In homes, devices can be charged on the car battery, if the proper charging device is available. Even though my USB charging cable connected to the charging device, my smartphone would not charge, since the battery wasn't strong enough. I was told later that there are other devices I could have had. Check this out when in UB.
- Photographs of my home, such as my house, family, friends, food, garden, festivals. A variety is good, since everyone is interested in something different, and it's a nice way to share. I kept an album to share on my phone, which included a photo of men in kilts from a Scottish festival I'd recently attended. At a ger camp in the Gobi, a guide who was interested in my photos, told the mother of the family that owned the ger camp about how Scottish men don't wear underwear underneath their kilts. Funniest moment: the mother enlarged the photo and scrolled all around trying to see if there was anything interesting showing. Unfortunately for her, the kilts came down to the men's knees, so she didn't get a view of anything interesting. But, it did distract her from mending the felted wool ger insulation. And, it is one of my most memorable connections-- 3 women sitting on the ground in the middle of a massive Asian desert checking out Scottish men.