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Summer in Mongolia

It's been some time since I wrote my last blog. I've been busy making a new sign for our guesthouse. Do you like it?

The sign on the door is the Ulzii Hee - it is one of Mongolia's traditional symbols and represents longevity. We also use it as a form of protection against evil spirits.

I have also made a sign for the main road coming into Kharkhorin as well as a brochure. My main purpose in setting up my guesthouse was to provide financial support to my family. It was also to help introduce Mongolia's beautiful and wonderful landscapes and cultural traditions to travellers. I also want to help my guests in achieving what they want out of their visit and make sure they leave with a good impression about Mongolia. 

I hope my new road sign and brochure will help to bring more people to my guesthouse. When they are ready I will post photos here. It is very exciting!

Summer is here and we look forward to welcoming you!

 As I said above, I want to help introduce Mongolia's cultural traditions to travellers. Did you know that I can arrange for you to experience a traditional live music performance here in Kharkhorin? B.Baasandorj is a local musician who likes to perform for visitors. This is a link to one of his performances. 

I'll be back in a day or two but please do get in touch if you are interested in coming to Kharkhorin. As we are now saying here in Mongolia....

Saikhan zusch bainaa uu? Is you summer well?

Saikhan Amraarai, Gaya

Introducing the Yak Festival!

Sainuu!

You may have heard of the Naadam Festival? This is one of our most famous festivals - here we call it Eriin Gurvan Naadam - the Three Manly Sports. 
The National Naadam is held in UB (Ulaan Baatar) on July 11th and 12th - the dates of the revolution when Mongolian revolutionaries, together with the Russian Red Army brought independence from China. This year Kharkhorin will celebrate the special Mongolian fectival "Naadam"from July 23-24. Stay at Gaya's Guesthouse in Kharkhorin to experience this wonderful holiday. This year, Naadam is extra special because Kharkhorin is celebrating its 60th anniversary! There will be traditional singing, dancing, and poetry on top off all the exitement of Naadam.

This is the 2013 Tsogt Ovoo Naadam - it is smaller than the Kharkhorin Naadam but all Naadam celebrations are great.

However, here in Mongolia we don't just have the one yearly festival. We have many smaller ones throughout the year as well. One close to me is the Yak Festival - held close to the community of Bat Ulzii based in the Orkhon River Valley.

The dates have yet to be 100% confirmed, but it could be around July 23rd. The festival programme includes yak races, yak polo and yak rodeo. (A lot of herders in the Orkhon Valley have yaks - this is why, they have decided to organise the yearly yak festival). As with most festivals in Mongolia, there will also be performances of traditional Mongolian music and dance. 

It is not just for tourists either - many local herders come to the festival to meet with friends and to have a short holiday as well.

I can arrange transport from Kharkhorin to Bat Ulzii. I can also arrange for you to stay at Ulaan Tsutgalan before or after the festival. This is the Orkhon Waterfall and is a beautiful place for horse trekking and walking. You can also swim in the waterfall as well.

The Orkhon Waterfall - taken by Ann Ang when I was with her travelling with Eternal Landscapes

Although July is quite a long time away I thought you may find the details of the yak festival interesting. Those are my thoughts this week. My ger guesthouse is open to all travellers. Please just get in touch - I am happy to help and would love to welcome you to my home.

Thank you for spending time on my blog. I will be back soon.

Saikhan Amraarai, Gaya

Come and be our guest!

April is here and so my family and I are starting to prepare for another year. Although my ger guesthouse is open in the winter, a majority of our guests visit from spring onwards. On travel forums such as Lonely Planet, travellers often ask if it is possible to travel independently in Mongolia. The answer is yes! 

It really is as simple as catch the bus from UB, let me know when you're arriving and I'll take care of the rest. Horse trek along the Orkhon River? Visit to Erdene Zuu Monastery? Spend a day visiting Ogii Lake with its beautiful bird life? I can help to arrange it for you using local people here in Kharkhorin.

Please do come. Phone me from UB and let me help you and welcome you as our guest. As  Ann Ang, one of our 2013 guests wrote on Facebook:

'Looking to stay at a ger in Mongolia? Gaya our very friendly host provides a good stay complete with vegetable buuz and hot shower (oh that is very precious)!'

Our quiet winter days

Here in Ovorkhangai Aimag, spring is slowly on its way. Although there is a covering of snow, the temperature is slowly creeping up. But this year, the winter has not been too bad for us. 

Although there are very few visitors, I am still busy in the winter. This is when I make my traditional Mongolian handicrafts to sell in my small shop. I would also like to improve my English but I really need to be in UB to do this and my daughters are at school here in Kharkhorin. 

As I am not having to be always at my ger camp I can visit my friends. 15km from Kharkhorin live Tumee and his wife Jargaa. They are old friends of mine and live near the Orkhon River. I love the countryside of Ovorkhangai - especially along the Orkhon River. Winter is a time when we can visit each other and spend time together.

Tumee wants to offer horse trekking this summer so we have been thinking about safety. Mongolian horses are semi-wild  - they live in herds, led by a stallion who guides the horses to water, shelter and safety. The horses are hardy and adapted to living out in temperatures that can reach -45c, and are able to forage for food in any conditions. 

Here in Mongolia we do not ride mares as they are used for breeding and in the summer are milked  mainly for fermented mare's milk which we call airag.

Before the summer starts and we have  visitors I am going to write a safety guide for our guests to help them feel more comfortable when horse riding. Here are some of our ideas:

• Always approach Mongolian horses carefully and quietly- they are used to surviving on their own throughout the year and can be surprised by sudden loud movements. 
• Here in Mongolia, it is normal to keep the reins in only one hand. 
• Avoid loose clothing that might be flapping in the wind. 

Those are my thoughts this week. My ger guesthouse is open to all travellers. Please just get in touch - I am happy to help and would love to welcome you to my home.

Thank you for spending time on my blog. I will be back soon.

Saikhan Amraarai, Gaya

The Year of the Horse

January 31st was the start of the Mongolian New Year - we celebrate the lunar new year and this year is the year of the horse. I prepared for New Year together with my family - we made around 1000 buuz - Mongolian mutton dumplings.

The night before new year is called 'Bituun' this is when we all come together to eat - this means we will always be full for the following year. Family is a very important part of our new year and we all come together.

Together with my family -  my younger brother Puujeee, my sister-in-law Erka and their son Hashaa. Also with my mother Chatral and my two daughters Ganju and Nomioko

Before New Year, my mum was also busy making deels - the traditional Mongolian tunics. In Mongolia, we always prepare for the new year by making or buying new clothes and also by cleaning our homes. 

Although my ger guesthouse is open all year, I'm looking forward to spring when Mongolia starts to receive more visitors.  Our visitors help to support my family but most of all I enjoy learning from our guests.

Winter in Kharkhorin 

My ger guesthouse is open to all travellers. Please just get in touch - I am happy to help and would love to welcome you to my home.

Thank you for spending time on my blog. I will be back soon.

Saikhan Amraarai, Gaya

On Tour!

Back in October of last year, I worked as a trip guide on a short tour for Eternal Landscapes. The travellers stayed at my home and we also visited the Orkhon Valley and Khogno Khan Nature Reserve. I worked for Jess at Eternal Landscapes and really enjoyed the tour. It's a way of making a little extra money for my family and also sharing my homeland with others. I love to cook and I also spent time teaching Mongolian recipes.

This is me together with the Russian Furgon 4x4. It is a great vehicle! This photo was taken by one of my October travellers.

 My ger guesthouse provides my main living. However, because most visitors come during July for the Naadam Festival, spring and autumn can be very quiet here. If this spring and autumn are quiet then I will work again as a trip guide for Jess. Our October travellers said that:

'Gaya was excellent. She was very bubbly and made us very comfortable. We exchanged many recipes. I think we fell in love with Mongolia because of Gaya.'

This is me together with one of my October travellers and Sandag, a very good friend and an Eternal Landscapes driver. We are next to the Orkhon River

If you are short on time, you can always visit me directly from Ulaan Baatar. Once here in Kharkhorin I can arrange for you to visit locations outside of my town. I would not be able to join you on a trip but would organise it between my great friends - such as my friends Battumur and Jargal who are herders within the Orkhon Valley.

This is one of my guest gers taken by my traveller in October. I think this is a great photo of my home!

If you like the sound of visiting Kharkhorin, my ger guesthouse is open to all travellers. Please just get in touch - I am happy to help and would love to welcome you to my home.

Thank you for spending time on my blog. I will be back soon.

Saikhan Amraarai, Gaya

Made in Mongolia

Winter in Mongolia is a very quiet time of year for tourists. Although I keep three gers open for travellers, we do not receive that many people. I like to keep busy, so during the winter months, my mum and I make souvenirs for our small handicrafts shop.

Hand made and home made - our small souvenir shop!

My grandmother taught my mum when she was a child  how to make  traditional items  such as the Mongolian deel  and  my mum still enjoys making products by hand. Traditionally in Mongolia, deels have always been made by hand by the females of the family.

This is a recent photo of me together with my grandmother - Dolgorjav.She is 80  years old and lives in Erdenet, one of Mongolia's other cities outside of UB. 

If you like the sound of learning how to make some traditional Mongolian souvenirs, my ger guesthouse is open to all travellers. Please just get in touch - I am happy to help and would love to welcome you to Kharkhorin and to teach you.

Thank you for spending time on my blog. I will be back soon.

Saikhan Amraarai, Gaya

Cooking with Gaya!

Although it is deep winter here in Mongolia, there are still travellers who visit my country - mainly they come on the Trans-Mongolian train. I have just had Yvette and Alison to stay, two students from Australia who are studying in Shanghai. They came to Kharkhorin on December 22nd and I tried tomake sure they had the warmth of Christmas.

My guesthouse in the snow

I very much enjoy cooking and love to teach my guests how to cook Mongolian food. One of the easiest dishes I teach is Mongolian buuz or dumplings. Here in Mongolia we mainly eat them filled with mutton but I like to teach how to make vegetarian dumplings as well.

Some made by me, some by my guests. Can you guess which is which?

You can try making them at home. They are very delicious - especially with some chilli sauce or some Korean kimchi.

First, thinly cut or mince cabbage,carrots.red and green peppers and potatoes (if you're making them with meat then the meat has to be in very very small pieces). You can add any vegetables that you like but this is what I can easily buy in Kharkhorin.

Add few some onions and you can also add some steamed rice.

Then flavour them with some salt and other appetizer. After that mix well. The cabbage will emit some soup when some salt is added so it is unnecessary to add any water.

Try and slice the vegetables as thinly as you can

Mix flour and water together until you get a dough and then cover your dough to relax for 20 minutes. After that roll your dough then cut it off into pieces all the same size. Roll out the dough nto mini circles - this is where you will put your prepared vegetables or meat. After that.  nip the edge of your rolled out dough.

This bit can be a little difficult!

At last steam your buuz for 20 minutes on a medium heat. You can make a lot of dumplings as they an be saved in the freezer!

If you like the sound of learning how to make Mongolian food, my ger guesthouse is open to all travellers. Please just get in touch - I am happy to help and would love to welcome you to Kharkhorin and to teach you.

Thank you for spending time on my blog. I will be back soon.

Saikhan Amraarai, Gaya

Why visit Kharkhorin?

My ger guesthouse is located in Kharkhorin  -  considered one of the highlights of a visit to Mongolia. It is roughly 335 km from Mongolia's capital city Ulaan Baatar but did you know that Kharkhorin used to be the capital of the Mongol Empire? Kharkhorin is also the home of Erdene Zuu Khiid - the oldest monastery in Mongolia. In more modern times, when Mongolia was part of the USSR, Kharkhorin was a state farm. My home town is an area  important to the history of the founding of the Mongolian Empire and of Buddhism in Mongolia.

The Golden Stupa at Erdene Zuu

Mongolia's weather can change very quickly and sometimes Kharkhorin is very windy and dusty. If you visit on day's like this, it can be hard to imagine what Kharkhorin once was. There is now a really good museum - it is small but with lots of information on the history of the area.


Kharkhorin is located close to the Orkhon River and since 2004, the Orkhon River Valley and Kharkhorin have become part one of Mongolia's three World Heritage Sites. Even if you are not that interested in history, I think Kharkhorin is a really interesting place to visit. Erdene Zuu is beautiful and so is the Orkhon River. 

The Orkhon River

Above my ger camp is a hill that has artefacts left over from Ogodei Khan’s capital city including one of the four turtles said to have been located at each of the main city gates. This hill provides a great view out over the entire town and the surrounding steppe and I think it is a great location to watch the sunset from and to spend time imagining just what the capital city of Ogodei Khan must have looked like.

Both my daughters Ganju and Nomioko  like to walk by the river and into the mountains. I think you will too. My old school friend Jargal and her husband Tumee are herders who live close to the Orkhon River in the summer months and then in mid-September move around 25km away. They are happy to offer horse trekking along the river and I am happy to organise this.

If you like the sound of Kharkhorin, my ger guesthouse is open to all travellers. Please just get in touch - I am happy to help and would love to welcome you to Kharkhorin.

Thank you for spending time on my blog. I will be back soon.

Saikhan Amraarai, Gaya

Where are we?! How to find us!

If you have visited Mongolia before and maybe UB or one of Mongolia's small towns, you may know how difficult it is to find an address. You may have the address but  many districts and roads do not have signs and it is easy to not find the address that you are looking for. I thought I would help you to find our guesthouse.

Kharkhorin is a small town in Ovorkhangai Aimag. Some guidebooks list it as its old name of Karakorum. It is roughly 355km from UB on an asphalt road (also sometimes known as the Millennium Road). 

Kharkhorin - my home town. Kharkhorin was known as Karakorum and was the ancient capital city of Ogodei Khan and other khans after him

There are daily buses from UB to Kharkhorin (both cheap and reliable) that go from the Dragon Centre in UB (located 10km west from Sukhbaataar Square. The ticket price is roughly  18,000 Mongolian Togrog. You can get to the Dragon Centre by a local bus or by taxi  - it is one of the biggest bus/auto  stations in Mongolia. In summertime is it very busy as many Mongolians are coming in and out of the city by bus  travelling to different aimags and rural areas. If you are travelling in the summer,  you should buy your ticket the day before.

On your arrival into Kharkhorin, you are most welcome to come at stay at our ger guesthouse! If you contact me before (using the following phone numbers or email address) then I am happy to come and collect you from the Kharkhorin bus station.

Email: gaya_0303@yahoo.com
Phone:  +976 99893809 / +976 96333809, / +97688445699

If you like to be independent, you can ask your bus driver to let you off at the gas station named PETROVIS. From Petrovis our guesthouse is located 600m away and it's quite easy to find from there. If you stand with your back to the gas station, you can see that there are ger districts opposite you. You should go to the right side of  the PETROVIS gas station then cross the road, and our ger in the first row (left hand side) at the bottom of the hill.  Our guesthouse is the fifth gate which is blue.

(Remember, I am very happy to collect you from the bus station if it sounds too confusing!)

This my family dog who will greet you! His name is Baatar which means hero in Mongolian. He is our guard dog as well but is very friendly to our guests so don't worry! 

Just be careful, when you get off the bus, there are other guesthouses that say they are Gaya's and then will take you to their guesthouse. You do not have to stay at ours but if you would like to then just be careful of the above!  

My ger guesthouse is open to all travellers. Please just get in touch - I am happy to help and would love to welcome you to Kharkhorin.

My friend Jess (who is the owner of Eternal Landscapes) is helping me with this blog. You can always email her as well.  

Thank you for spending time on my blog. I will be back soon.


Saikhan Amraarai, Gaya

Our home is your home

Our ger guesthouse was founded in 2003. My main purpose in setting up the guesthouse, as well providing financial support for my family was to help introduce Mongolia's  beautiful and wonderful landscapes and cultural traditions to travellers and at the same time help our guests in achieving what they want out of their visit and  make sure they leave with a good impression about Mongolia. 

Jess from Eternal Landscapes is helping me with my guesthouse blog. I have been looking for photos for her to put on the blog and found these.

These flowers are planted by my mum  - Chantsal. She was born in 1955 in Kharhorin and although she is now retired she worked at the flour factory here. My grandmother taught her when she was a child  how to make  traditional items  such as the Mongolian deel  and  she still enjoys making products by hand (which we sell in our small shop). Her favourite time of year is autumn although in the summer she likes to drink airag (mare's milk  - Mongolia's traditional drink) and to plant the vegetables and flowers in our guesthouse yard. 

This photo was taken back in June of this year. Jess has brought a group of three over (Sarah, Stacey and Alison) and they were learning to make their lunch - vegetarian dumplings. My hobby is cooking and I enjoy teaching people how to cook Mongolian dishes. There is usually a lot of laughter!

Now in Kharkhorin, the temperature is -8 (at night at the moment it is around -17 to -20). Although it's cold, our ger guesthose is open all year so if you're thinking of visiting then please do get in touch. My home is always open to travellers.

Thank you for spending time on my blog. I will be back soon.

Saikhan amraarai, Gaya

Welcome!

I thought I would introduce my family. Then you know who we are!

Our family!

I'm on the left. There is also my oldest daughter Ganchuluun (who we call Ganju) - she is 13 years old. There is also my youngest daughter Nominchuluun (who we call Nomioko) and she is 9 years old. My mother's name is Chantsal (and her friends call her Chantsa). 

This photo of my family was taken at my ger guesthouse. We live in Kharkhorin in central Mongolia. It's located in Ovorkhangai Aimag - if you look in a guidebook it may list it as Karakorum (it was once the capital city of the Mongol Empire and is home to the oldest monastery in Mongolia - Erdene Zuu Khiid).

Our home town!

My ger guesthouse is open to all travellers. I can also help to arrange horse treks as well as transport to other places such as Ogii Nuur - a beautiful freshwater lake.

My friend Jess (who is the owner of Eternal Landscapes) is helping me with this blog. You can always email her as well.  

Thank you for spending time on my blog. I will be back soon.

Saikhan amraarai, Gaya

Gaya's Guesthouse Blog!

Thank you for visiting my site. I am still working on learning how a blog works but will be hopefully posting a few pictures tomorrow. Finger's crossed!