Staying with the Reindeer Herders
Zaya our host that we were staying with!
I had first read about the Reindeer Herders in northern Mongolia in a Nat Geo article a few years ago. Once I had accumulated enough leave (just one-week to be exact), I began researching how to stay with the Herders and found a possible contact. After a couple of back and forth Whatsapp’s with a Herder, I booked my flight to Ulanbataar and was told to meet at the bus station at 9am the next day after my flight.
I stood at the bus station, when my friend travelling with me asked “are you sure that the person you spoke to is legit?”…”no”. But someone showed up and ushered us to his car. With no English spoken on his side and my Mongolian non-existent, I just had to go with it and trust the process.
The first day we drove for 8 hours, the second another 8 and the third 6, all of which were done with no communication between us but luckily I had been advised that the journey was 3 days. On the third day we reached our destination. Well closer to our destination.
The horses waiting were a strong enough indicator that we were to switch over to the horseback part of the journey. Despite being the first week of Autumn, it was already freezing so we put on one of their winter coats they brought and started horse riding through the forest. Obviously there was no sort of intro if you had never ridden a horse, like my friend, another part of just having to go with it.
It had been around four hours of horse riding until there was a gap in the trees and there was the Reindeer Herding village. It honestly looked like a real life Disney film, I will never forget that first moment. That’s where we met Zaya, the person I had been speaking to via Whatsapp.
Collecting water from the stream was one of my daily tasks.
Zaya speaks fluent English and has married a Reindeer Herder, raising two beautiful children. Her life has drastically changed from when she first met her husband when she was volunteering as a vet helping the reindeer.
The next few days were spent learning their way of life and essentially just hanging out. I rode the reindeer and hung out with the kids as well as complete my daily tasks. One of my tasks was milking the reindeers daily, something I was not very good at. We collected drinking water from the nearby stream in buckets in the morning and in the afternoon I had to move the reindeers from one field to another, easier said than done. I was told the one rule was to not let the reindeer go, so what happened next is obvious, the reindeer bolted and there was me running through the village chasing after them whilst the herders found the whole thing hysterical. Turns out I wasn’t very good at that task also.
On one of the mornings we gave everyone the gifts we had brought, which ranged from colouring books and toys for the kids and batteries, head torches and some medical equipment for the adults. Zaya had helped advise us on what they needed at the time and given we had travelled from the capital, they really appreciate people bringing some essentials with them.
Each night we would light the fire in our tipi and then the struggle would start with trying to keep it maintained throughout the night. Without the fire burning, I would get so cold even in my negative degree sleeping bag. I would “shower” each night before getting into my sleeping bag, and given there’s no running water, the shower was just wet wipes I had brought.
On our last morning we had jam on toast and got saddled up for our journey back to the car. The journey back was long but we stopped at one place on the way that had showers, which was a welcome treat.
For those wishing to stay with the Reindeer Herders, it’s best to contact Zaya via Whatsapp on +976 9977 0480. By organising everything via Zaya, it ensures that the money goes directly to the Herders as well as locals along the route.
