Riding Shotgun With Genghis Khan
Mongolia’s Rugged Steppe
There’s really only one east-west road in Mongolia, the as-yet-unfinished Millennium Road, which will one day traverse the length of the 1,486-mile-long country. Now, though, it’s a mostly dirt road that peters out in an endless landscape of rolling green hills. To drive a section of it over a few days, you’ll have to rent a car and a driver, but this is easier than it sounds—just ask around one of the guest-houses in Ulaanbaatar. Once you leave the city, you’ll get a true sense of just how vast the steppe is, home to the world’s last truly nomadic culture, with clusters of yurts along the road and camel trains in the distance. Bring camping gear and vodka, the former for most nights and the latter for welcoming hosts. In return, you may get a chance to toss back a shot of airag, fermented mare’s milk. If the yurt is empty, the highest honor you can pay a local is to help yourself to boortsog, the fried bread they often leave out for hungry travelers. — Berne Broudy
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