Renewed and Present: My 5-Days Yurt Experience in Mongolia as a Nomad With No Shower

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From uncharted territories, breathtaking views, remarkable people and the nomadic yurt (aka Ger) living culture where showers (& toilet) are not part of the equation, Mongolia is an ideal place for adventurous souls seeking extraordinary experiences. Mongolia has, in SO many ways, pushed the boundaries of my personal growth and is a place I will never forget.

Why Mongolia?

I’ve always longed for a traveling experience beyond indulgence and sightseeing, one that I can actually interact with local people and be immersed in their culture. I found my answer when the opportunity to volunteer to serve orphans in a camp in Töv aimags (province), Mongolia came up.

The volunteer opportunity required participants to experience poverty in Mongolia and serve. Our mission is to visit underprivileged families and provide underprivileged kids and orphans with a summer programme, i.e. the longest school holidays where they have no home or family to return to. 

In a country where even tap water access is a privilege, it’s hard to feel “fully prepared” knowing that I am going to stay for 5 days outside of the city Ulaanbaatar without a shower or flushing toilets. 

The Ger (Yurt) District in Ulaanbaatar City

To better grasp the family background of those kids we are serving, we were sent to the poorest district known as the Ger district in Ulaanbaatar. Ger is the Monoglian name for Yurt. 

What is a yurt and do Mongolians still live in yurts?

A yurt is a traditional, portable circular, tent-like structure that has been used by nomadic cultures for centuries in Central Asia particularly Mongolia. It’s like a collapsible tent on the outside and a studio flat in inside with a little padded flooring. Its frame is made of wood or metal, covered with felt or other durable fabrics, usually with an outer layer of waterproof canva. The yurt can still leak a little bit under the rain. I was told that the ger door always faces south, to avoid cold winds from the north.

The majority of the people in the city live in a proper house or apartment except for those in poverty. As you might reckon, a yurt is a lot cheaper to rent than an apartment. Outside the city, 25% of the Mongolia population still live a nomadic lifestyle farming animals moving from 4 to 30 times a year depending on the size of their flocks.

Ger living in the city

Back to our Ger family visit. The experience was beyond verbal description. We basically went into an empty 15 square feet tent with rain dripping through a malfunction fire stove in the middle. There lived a single mom with two kids in a Ger that was basically empty except for a donated cabinet. Despite how we secretly felt sorry for her inside, the mom of two and her kids were delighted to see us. They greeted us passionately with biscuits and candies. Her elder boy ran in circles to give all 10 of us rounds and rounds of hugs and proudly showed us his collections of 3 plastic cars.

This little bundle of joy even ran out to play with the mud outside the Ger in the pouring rain. To the Mongolians, their living space has never been limited to the boundaries of their Ger.

I have this sense of detachment as I stepped out, as if it was a tedious work task that I wanted to get over with without letting the negative feeling sipped into me. 

The rain had somehow stopped right the moment we stepped out, and we were shocked to see not just one, but TWO rainbows.

I was told that rainbow is a sign that God remembered every livelihood he has created. Could it be a reminder that the worse the suffering we had, the more reward we will reap in the end? 

We continued our day by carrying coals for cooking food and lining up at the water station for clean water to experience a typical day of life in the Ger district. 

Travelling from Ulanbataar to TOV, our campsite

Rewinding back a little, some background about myself: I am a 100% privileged city girl with a maximum of 2 days of camping experience. On the coach bus are 45 other volunteers from both Hong Kong and Mongolia whom I have never met before. As our coach bus chartered across the plateau, I have brought with me my overworked soul, anxiety and sleeping problem (🤭hello old friends) wondering about what is to come…

We arrived at this endless prairie 4 hours later.

Dropping off our luggage at the yurt (ger), we are immediately faced with our first challenge, the smell of horse or chicken manure inside that would not go away. Luckily, we have to prepare for camp activities the next day, so I didn’t have much time to dread it. 

I was more excited and nervous about what was to come: will the kids like what we have prepared? Will the kids find it uncool? Will we be able to communicate with the help of one English-Mongolian language translator for 10 kids?

Meeting the Mongolian kids

Later the day, a total of 85 kids* were divided into smaller “families” for volunteers to take care of. When we get to the canopy to meet my “family”, my attention has shifted from all the worries to the perfect weather and view. The warmth of the sunshine took over my anxiety.

*All faced of the kids are censored to protect their privacy

I was told that in Mongolia, being in nature is to return home. In such a sparsely populated country with only 3 million population, many still choose to live a nomadic lifestyle outside of the city herding. People help and welcome one another out in the countryside. To me, being able to witness this side of the country is one of the best things I can do in Mongolia. 

In the evening, the kids threw us a little surprise performance of traditional Mongolian dances. The performance metamorphosed into a little dance party, from Hip hop to Ballet, and i was stunned by how ALL OF OUR Mongolian friends CAN DANCE (what have I been doing all my life😂?)!!

The Exciting Yurt Washroom Experience

Finally, we are back in our ger at night. It was pitch black inside and we were extremely grateful to have brought 1 camping light so we can at least unpack. 

Is there shower or washroom in a traditional Yurt?

The answer is *NO*. No shower facility in the entire campsite but there are two small stations of sinks built recently for hand washing. Washroom situation: we shared 1 washroom station for all 130 people. 

The  “washroom” is basically a dry pit with a little lid that no one ever covered and it’s a 6 minutes walk from our ger. Not-so-fun if you decide to answer the call of nature middle of night. The best wisdom we deduced over the trip is, don’t drink water after 8pm. Haha. 

Packing Essentials for Mongolia Washroom or toilet

A headlight is a must for walks outside of the ger to the washroom or anywhere else at night. We’d all carry a water-repellent bag to carry all our toiletries like toilet paper, wipes, toothbrush, toothpaste, and face wash and cream all at once. There is a separate handwash station with sinks for handwashing that is another 8 minutes away, so we try our best to minimise the back and forth by making sure we have packed everything.

My funny Yurt sleeping experience

I felt so lucky to be in Mongolia in July where the weather is perfect with no rain (thanks god!). The smell inside the ger was gradually fading. I’m warm enough with a 5 degrees sleeping bag as the weather in TOV dropped from 30 degrees Celsius to 10 at night. We were advised to plug our ears to avoid bugs when we sleep. Yes, you will get used to having small grasshoppers climbing onto your face haha.   

Unfortunately, The floor was not too flat in the ger (especially after it rains), funny enough, I kept sliding off my inflatable mattress. Eventually, I gave up on the mattress on just slept directly on the floor in my lovely cocoon. 

Half Awake, Full of Love

None of us really have enough sleep, but our next days were so activity-filled that no one had the time to worry or complain. We all began swiftly to set up our art & craft, science and “collaboration” booths for kids to experience over the next 3 days. 

It was the first time we get to teach and know the kids at the booth. I was so glad that even the Mongolian volunteers who accompanied the kids were enjoying themselves thoroughly!

In the afternoon, we have to prepare physical games for the kids to move and learn about teamwork, we did a little game of trust where a guide have to lead a blindfolded kid to walk a distance with obstacles. There was so much laughter that all my worries in Hong Kong seemed trivial. 

In between activities and lunch, everyone just dance, play sports, guitar or trumpet at the prairie. Interestingly, here I don’t feel out of place even with so many strangers. 

Everyone is a stranger, but also no one is a stranger.

Day 3 of Our Camp: Making Friends with the Mongolians

The third dat at the camp, we did a small hike up a very small slope near our campsite as Mongolia is mostly flat. We had to chance to bond with the Mongolian volunteers, which mainly consisted of bright young boys and girls in their early 20s. Among them there were ballerina, soccer player for the national team, future dentists and many bright and strong university graduates. Confession, prior to my research for the trip, I can barely tell the difference inner and outer Mongolia, and here I am, with this bunch frank, hospitable, fun-loving, hardworking, gracious, humorous and stylish youngsters sharing with the vision of the growing urbanisation of their country. We are definitely showered with hospitality and care as some even offered to carry us down the slope on their back while we struggled.

Some Mongolian volunteers shared with us touching stories on how they were once the kids in the orphans camps. They was more than eager to come back to serve the kids now that they have grown up and graduated. Roke, the head translator, also a MIT grad, said that he felt that his hearts is with the orphanage, even after graduation. That really speaks weight in my heart. 

Thoughts After Dark By the Ger

Back in Hong Kong, I have trouble letting my guard down while sleeping in new places. The surge of panic somehow made it way back to my bedtime the third night.

Then I recalled what the Mongolians had taught me: “but nature is home and I am actually home”. 

I think to myself, for the first time in a long while, maybe, I am exactly where I need to be.

Everything is a Micro-adventure in Mongolia

I was really exhausted at this point piling up nights of little sleep. Normally undersleeping would be the key cause of me lashing out. I was amazed that I wasn’t even remotely cranky.

I guess it was just the small surprises each day. At the point, everything is an adventure to me living in the campsite. Every walk to the washing stations I’d bumped into different people, star gazing while I walk, even the running around 1km to get our supplies feel more joyous than tired.  

I think finally understand what it means when F. Scott Fitzgerald in his novel Tender is the Night says about how those small uneventful moments that turn out to be the pleasure itself. Small moments become happiness when you are fully present in a community of people that you feel safe with.  Since the invention of iPhone, I haven’t felt so peaceful not checking it for days.

The Goodnight Song Under the Stars

At night, these 85 kids will run over to us, holding hands to form a circle and sing a goodnight song as it gets dark. I don’t think I will ever get over the feeling of having so many kids running over to hug you, wanting to hold your hands. 

A Carnival in the Priaire

Our second last day of the camp was an amazingly fun carnival we threw for the kids. Kids was literally running to us with the coupons we gave them to redeem supplies. They also enjoyed the cotton candy, games stations we prepared. It brought us immense joy to see all kids laughing with us while we also played. I couldn’t help but wonder if this is how Peter Pan feels in Neverland. Is this what people described as a “wholesome” moment? 

Mongolian Kids & the Hearts We Have Touched

On the last day, we had our final debrief and reflection in the canopy and was all packed up for the trip back to UB. A stubby kid came over to thank one of us. He said “Thanks for telling the other kids who tried to bully me that the black dots on my teeth are medicine but not dirt,….thanks…” as he sobbed and hugged us, and this is just one of the many loving feedbacks we received. 

Coming to the camp for 5 days, we set off as half tourists and half couriers delivering material to the orphans. We ended up with with warm and glowing hearts. I never thought that our actions and words of encouragement can touch a kid’s heart in the short time we stayed. 

Looking back, I was in a challenging place in life and had to fundraise for my trip. I had serious doubts if I can give when my glass is half empty. A friend advised me to give regardless. She said gently, “when you give, volunteer or serve, you might not get something back directly in return, but trust me, YOU WILL, in so many other ways. 

I think I finally understood what she meant, and this Bible verse I once saw summed it up perfectly 

“Give, and it will be given to you”

– Luke 6:38

Conclusion
Volunteering in rural Mongolia is a magical experience in all of the ways I’ve described above and more. So magical that I wish everyone around me can experience it at least once. It has forever changed my view of owning so much stuff I don’t even use…. More importantly, I find out that happiness is the greatest paradox of nature. It can grow in any soil and live under any conditions.  Nothing can stop you from happiness and a life that thrives, not even poverty and loosing your parents at a young age. It is not what is given but what you make of life that really counts. Poverty struck many places in our planet, it’s not until you experience it you can fully grasped how fortunate you are. Find a place that you can contribute and give. Remember the magic always lies outside of your comfort zone. 

When in doubt, just give. 

FAQ

1. Are Mongolian Yurts Warm?

Mongolian yurts, called gers, are traditional dwellings made with a wooden lattice frame and covered in felt made from sheep wool. The felt acts as insulation, keeping it warm in winter and cool in summer. Also, the yurt door tend to face the south to avoid the northern wind. Nonetheless, winter is extremely harsh in Mongolia that can dropped to below -20 degrees celsius. Even on summer nights, the weather could go down below 10 degrees celsius. Thick blankets and sleeping bags are necessary for sleeping at night to keep yourself warm. Mongolians also burn coals to keep themselves warm in the Winter inside their Gers.

2. Do Outer Mongolians Ride Horses to School?

NO. Mongolians go to school by bus or cars in the city. In the country side outside of Ulaanbataar, horses riding are common, more of leisure or aid animal farming than transportation.