Off-the-beaten-track tour specialist Byroads Travel has created a unique two-week long Mongolian Discoverer tour, with the colourful Naadam Festival among its many highlights.
The small group tour will take place from 4 – 17 July 2018 and be hosted by Byroads Travel’s founder and owner Steve Mortimer.
As one of the world’s most colourful traditional events, the three-day festival is considered to be so unique it is included on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
“The Naadam Festival officially celebrates the Mongolian revolution and independence, although is is said to pre-date the great warrior Genghis Khan,” Mr. Mortimer says.
“Each Naadam Festival starts with an opening ceremony—a swirl of horse riders, wrestlers, singers, musicians, monks and dancers, with the hallmark of the festival, the ‘three games of men’ being the sports of archery, horse racing and wrestling.”
Although Mongolia’s capital city Ulaanbaatar hosts the largest and most commercial Naadam Festival, one of the provincial events have been selected for the tour, offering a more local and authentic experience, experiencing the nomadic history, culture and traditional sporting events of the country.
Commencing in Ulaanbaatar, the 14-day Mongolian Discoverer tours explores several cultural centres as well as the remote wilderness, populated by traditional nomads who continue to roam the great steppe lands, grazing their animals and living in their felt gers, the traditional houses of the Mongolian people.
As one of Byroads Travel’s most adventurous tours, it traverses a large part of Mongolia, from Ulaanbaatar in the central south to the South Gobi Desert, and is designed to get travellers up close to the many historical monuments and natural wonders, whilst discovering the rich cultural identity and way of life of the country’s nomads.
