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Editorial Review :
Discover Mongolia
Cling to your camel as a Gobi sandstorm sweeps past
Learn the 'three manly sports' while visiting nomad families on a Ger-to-Ger adventure
Honor the sky gods with the famous vodka dip-and-flick ritual
Stretch out your vocal cords with a throat-singing lesson in Chandmani
In This Guide:
Our intrepid author conducted 180 days' research, covered 8259km and drank 135 cups of salty milk tea
New Outdoors chapter details activities from cycling the Chinggis Khaan trail to horse trekking in the steppes
Customer Review :
Love to Love it (Mongolia)
Barbeques, Mongolian,
Treasure seeking Nomads,
cornerstone of the steppe
blast furnace of wind land
policing the desert
horse faced and horse toed
the horse can resist no more
and tears down the valley to look at
itself in the reflection.
Ill be there next year. I promise.
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NEW 2009 BOOK REVIEW!
I believe I am the first visitor to take the new, 2009 book to Mongolia. I printed it out 1 week after it came out and jumped on a plane to Mongolia. It is the MUST HAVE book for cruising through the country. The UB portion is spot on, and the transportation section in the back is exceptionally accurate. However, if you compare the old version to this one, quite a few restaurants had reviews that were not revisited. While the restaurants haven't really changed, the reviews are stale. For the rest of the country, the authors have done an exceptional job of describing a vast open space. No one else I met in Mongolia had anything other than the LP. PS, I stayed at the Golden Gobi.
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Travelling to Mongolia
Mongolia (Country Guide)
Extremly efficient and quickly. Amazon in his best.
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Good for the Basics
I have lived in Mongolia since 2006 and have been traveling here since 2004. It's clear that some of the info is outdated. Places and prices of course change from year to year. But it's also clear the writer was given incorrect info at the time of writing. Always check info before traveling to Mongolia or places in Mongolia. The Chingiss Khan statue near Terelj park for example, is far from the 13th century camp and there is no accommodation for tourists. UB2 hotel in Terelj was remodeled in 2008 and has terrible service. Food is expensive and not tasty.
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NOT YET TRAVELLED there
I ordered this 2008 edition of Lonely Planet to get some info about Mongolia and there are not many guides for a solo traveller in this region.
It seems most people visit Mongolia in groups which can really be off turning for those who want to see the richness of the culture instead of a staged production.
I haven't decided whether this has become like the productions in Bhutan for only the wealthy tourists who travel in groups.
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Editorial Review :
As the traveler at a neighboring table struggles with the menu, you're glad you came equipped with your phrasebook. Not only did you order your meal with ease, you're also sure of what's coming. You smile as the waiter brings your dish and say en minii zakhialsan khool bish... Travel with confidence, using language as your guide.
Our phrasebooks give you a comprehensive mix of practical and social words and phrases in more than 120 languages. Chat with the locals and discover their culture - a guaranteed way to enrich your travel experience.
Customer Review :
Buy the older version / Lonley Planet Mongolia
I Just got this book and it is page for page exactly the same is the older version. I was expecting something new from this as it was pulbished in 2008 / same - save yourself a few bucks and get the older one. If your going to Mongolia a phrase book is a must have , I lived there 1 year with my wife and learned to speak mgl w/o a phrase book. There are no english to mgl phrase books in Ulaan Baatar , only cyrillic mgl to english . So if your going , I would reccomend buying either one .
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The Only Way to Communicate
This book is worth its weight and more in gold. I depended on this book so much during my 2 month trip to Mongolia, traveling the road less travelled. Don't go to Mongolia without this.
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Disappointing
In the past year I have spent 6 months in rural Mongolia. I had the Lonely Planet Guide to Mongolia and The Lonely Planet Mongolian Phrasebook. First off, the Guide to Mongolia is excellent, my copy is basically falling to pieces I used it so much.
I was less pleased with the Phrasebook. I have some concerns about the pronunciation guide as given by other reviewers. The use of the "schwa" in Mongolian could be better described. I found the section on restaurants very poor. In the area where I was menus were in Mongolian only and the phrasebook was useless trying to decipher the menu.The phrasebook would be enhanced if the vocabulary list included a Mongolian-English section. If you come across a Mongolian word that you want to understand the phrasebook is not much use.
In its favour, the book is cheap, portable and is written in an easy style.
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This little book SAVED MY LIFE!!
Absolutely loved it. When I went on a tour to the Gobi, we stayed overnight in a ger - this book helped me make friends with the local families. They really seemed to love my attempts to speak to them; it made the experience really special. And when I was trying to get to museums or across town or something, it saved my life with the taxis. Highly recommended!
PS Not to mention, this is the only phrasebook I've found for the Mongolian language.
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not so great, useful however
I agree with the previous reviewers: the phonetic pronounciations given in the book are quite rough. However, as I had no idea of Mongolian language, showing the written cyrillic text was helpful and a basis for learning from natives during my trip.
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Editorial Review :
A wonderfully accessible memoir of an inaccessible country: Outer Mongolia.
Customer Review :
A Flatly Written Book about an Interesting Experience
The author spent a year in a fascinating place and narrates her personal experience. However, she doesn't add much insight beyond what she experiences. She doesn't try to provide much historical perspective or link her experiences to anything broader. A pleasant read, but somewhat empty at the same time. I've read it twice. Once before I came to Mongolia and then again after living her for a year when I was visiting the area that she writes about. Definitely worth reading since its about a unique area and an interesting experience, but the book falls far short of its potential.
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Knowledgeble
Knowledgeable writer who shares her experiences in Western Mongolia. I enjoyed her story and learned about Mongolian life..
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Fascinating
I loved this book. I am traveling to Mongolia next year, and so am interested in reading as much as I can about the country and its people. The author truly brings us into life there, and through her experiences and friendships is able to help us understand not only what life is like in this harsh country, but to understand the people, as well. I appreciated the fact that she was totally honest in describing her feelings and what she went through for the year in Tsengel.
Since the last review here is three years ago, I hope that more people are able to read this book. It really brings a remote country closer to home.
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Travel literature at its best
This is travel literature at its best. Through the author's experience and writing, you get to truly experience what it would be like to live in a small community at the edge of Mongolia through more than an entire year. The author is able to mix the story of Mongolia and her people with her own story--her history, the boredom and loneliness of such a venture at its worst, and the sheer exhiliration of it at its best. A great read.
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Outstanding
My husband is a Mongolian-American and I was so amazed to find how the customs have carried over to the community here. Great book. Well written.
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Editorial Review :
In praise of books by the author: "Bodio writes like Pavarotti sings. He is a master." --Tony Hillerman (for Querencia)
"Stephen Bodio has written an unpretentious yet thrilling book about falconry, one of man's oldest and most mysterious alliances in the natural world; and he takes us afield under the wild skies of birds of prey." --Thomas McGuane (for A Rage for Falcons)
"Fascinating, funny, sad, beautiful . . . Aloft is full of wonderful images and energy." --Annie Proulx
When Stephen Bodio was a young boy in the early 50's he saw an image in National Geographic which became forever etched in his mind: it was a photograph of a Kazakh nomad, dressed in a long coat and wearing a fur hat, holding a huge tame eagle on his fist. And a life-long fascination with Central Asia was born.
Mongolia, a vast country located between Siberia and China and little known to outsiders, was long under Soviet domination and inaccessible to westerners. When it became independent in 1990 Bodio began planning a pilgrimage to see if the eagle hunters of "The Picture" had survived. A life-long falconer himself, he longed to visit the birth place of falconry and observe the traditions that had survived intact through the ages. His fantasy was realized when he traveled independently twice to the westernmost region of Mongolia and spent months with the people and birds of his dreams. The ancient rituals of hunting with eagles are fascinating and the remarkable relationship these nomadic people have with their birds of prey is thrilling. With vivid prose and humor, Bodio gives life to his dreams and the people, landscapes, and animals of Mongolia that have become part of his soul.
Customer Review :
Falconry with eagles
A friend recently gave me this book, knowing I had taken a trip to the westernmost reaches of Mongolia in winter to be with the Kazakhs who, almost alone in the world, have a tradition of using golden eagles in falconry. Ah, what memories the book summoned. Of sure footed Mongolian horses that ascended through skree I was not sure I could have reached on foot to stand sentinel on mountain peaks, to descents so steep that I folded back on horse hindquarters to keep balance, to the woman in camp milking a two humped camel so we might have it for morning tea, to a landscape both beautiful and harsh. Go if you can! But if not, at least journey there vicariously through this fine book.
David Lee Kirkland
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not for vegetarians or the squeamish
Steve Bodio's lifelong dream was to visit Western Mongolia where the tradition of hunting with eagles is still practiced as part of the nomadic culture. As someone who has flown falcons most of his life, he writes about his love for these birds of prey and his almost obsessive quest to get to Mongolia. By dint of perseverance and smiling fortune, he travels there twice to witness the hunts and the ancient rituals as lived by the Kazakh people.
He lays down the stories in a fluid and wonderful prose style, which reminds me of both Eric Hansen and Bruce Chatwin's engaging styles (please see my reviews of these authors). Bodio writes of the similarities between the people and their architecture in both Western Mongolia and New Mexico, where he makes his home. His keen and self-deprecating sense of humor make this a lively read. There are humorous episodes at the local bazaar, where they sell copies of Lenin's writings for use as toilet paper; his having to order breakfast at the local hotel in Ulaan Bataar and not having a clue as to what will arrive on the plate; and having to have horsemeat steaks wrapped around his upper body when he develops pneumonia symptoms. Well, you get the idea ... this in not a travelogue for wimps!
On Bodio's second trip, two years past the first, he finally witnesses an eagle taking down a fox; this is the dream part of the title. He concludes the tale in a satisfying way, feeling more at home in the vast spaces of Mongolia than he does in his home state of New Mexico. The only hiccup that I wondered about were a few non-sequiturs, like him musing about how Mongolia has been overgrazed for a thousand years, but somehow all the sheep are fat. Just more spice to the narrative I guess.
Parataxis
The Cloud Reckoner
Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts
Rating :
Dreams Are Infectious
I have proof positive that NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC warps young minds, causing kids to grow up to be explorers, adventurers, world travelers, and writers. When Stephen Bodio was a kid back in the fifties he opened a magazine and saw a photograph of a Kazakh nomad and his hunting eagle. It haunted and inspired him for decades until he finally got a chance to go to Mongolia and find those nomads. His adventure is recorded in his book, Eagle Dreams. On the cover is yet another photo of a Kazakh nomad and his hunting eagle, and that photo haunted me until I could track down this book.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a hunting enthusiast. I've got nothing against people who hunt for food, it's just that I don't know a lot about the subject. I've got lots of other time-consuming hobbies, like rockhounding, hiking, and recipe-mangling, and there's only so much time in a given day. Also, I am way too sentimental about animals, and if I had to actually kill the cows I so love to eat, I'd be relying on fish, eggs, and cheese to get my protein fix. It's my love of birds that drew me to this book, from the tiny hummingbirds with the big attitude to the semi-fabled Harpy eagles of Africa. Couple that with a picture of a nomad descended from Chingiz (Genghis) Khan with a gigantic Golden Eagle perched on his arm, and you've got my attention.
Bodio's account of his journey is not a long one, though it took him decades to realize his dream. Like many adventurers, his path is oblique, almost accidental, and he ends up in Mongolia mostly because he maintained contacts with editors who could eventually send him there. It's a story of persistence and resourcefulness - and courage as well, not because the nomads were a danger to him, but because he encounters unknown cultures, labyrinthine bureaucracies, and harsh living conditions. Once he manages to make the trip, he employs natural diplomacy, patience, and intelligence to win the trust of the nomads. He never brags about any of this; Bodio tells his story with self-deprecating humor. Neither does he bog the story down with too much terminology, it's easy for non-birders (not to mention non-world travelers) to follow.
Bodio's story packs a lot of good information into 216 pages, but more than anything else, the story inspired me. I'm not as resourceful as Stephen Bodio and probably not as brave, and I doubt I could win the respect and trust of Kazakh nomads who hunt with young eagles - though I might be able to amuse their wives by mangling a recipe or two. But I am a fellow traveler, and his account makes me want to venture out more, even if it's just into the American Wilderness.
Take a good, hard look at the cover of this book. But be warned, it has unexpected side effects. May cause dreams.
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Magdalena to Mongolia Steve writes and shoots well
I first met Steve when he came to give a wonderful presentation on Mongolia to our Navajo schoolchildren in Pinon,AZ. Pinon is in the middle of nowhere, no hotel, no place to eat, but I really wanted him to talk with our kids...he came trekking out with his falcon, wonderful dogs and his ever loving, patient, sweet wife! he was a hit! We distributed this great book to our community and they all came out - he signed books, ate and drank with us - it was wonderful! I got to hear many of these stories in detail - if you are a teacher - have him come to your class - well worth the time! Great read - even better in person - and can shoot a shotgun almost as well as ?
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