Mongolia Photo Workshop

ARRIVAL & DEPARTURE

Please provide me with your arrival and departure details, including your flight number, date, and time in the following format:

Arrival in UBN: UA7, 6/1, 8:55PM
Departure from UBN: UA6, 6/13, 9:55AM

I recommend staying at the Khubilai Hotel in Ulaanbaatar if you arrive earlier (not included in the fee). This hotel will be our base for Day 1 (3 June 2026). The hotel is situated outside the city center to avoid heavy traffic. You can easily access the city center by taxi for sightseeing. If you choose to stay at a different hotel upon your early arrival, please make your own arrangements for transportation to the Khubilai Hotel on Day 1 (3 June 2026).

You can leave any time in the Day 11 (13 June 2026), we will arrange transportation for you to the airport.

For those who continue the Pallas’s Cat’s tour, please remember to book your room in Khubilai Hotel on 13 June 2026 night (not included in the fee), the tour will start on 14 June. In the last day (20 June 2026), you can leave anytime, we will arrange transportation for you to the airport.

EARLY ARRIVAL

If you decide to arrive early either to explore Ulaanbaatar or to recover from jet lag, I will send you a city tour map. Ulaanbaatar offers plenty of tourist attractions, museums, shopping areas and excellent restaurants to explore. If you plan to arrive a few days ahead of the workshop I recommend staying closer to the downtown area such as Ulaanbaatar Hotel, Blue Sky Hotel, Shangri La Hotel or nearby. This will allow you to walk to most attractions and avoid the city’s heavy traffic. On Day 1 of the workshop, you can take a taxi and meet us at the Khubilai Hotel.

If you need a guide or car service, for example, if you want to see Przewalski’s horses in Hustai National Park, let me know and I can arrange it.

FOODS

Mongolian cuisine primarily features meats such as mutton, sheep, and beef, often served with vegetables, noodles, and rice. Please note that food options may be limited in rural areas.

If you have any special dietary requirements or food allergies, kindly inform me before the trip.

We will supply mineral water, coffee, and tea throughout the journey.

In Ulaanbaatar and larger towns, you’ll find a wider variety of food choices.

The meals throughout the trip are included in the fee.

Credit cards (visa, master, NO American Express) are widely accepted across the country.

ACCOMODATIONS

We will be accommodated in Ger camps and hotels, depending on the locations we visit. Due to the long drives to certain destinations, returning to town and staying in hotels may not be practical.

The Ger camps in the Gobi Desert are tourist hotels, offering nice and clean accommodations with comfortable beds. They feature public toilets and bathrooms, all of which are well-maintained. The toilets are of the sit-down variety, not squat toilets, and are kept very clean.

In Western Mongolia during our visit to Kazakh eagle hunters, we will be staying in our own private Ger camps (constructed in 2025). Each Ger camp will be furnished with a private toilet tent containing sit-down toilets located outside next to your camp.

Most Ger camps have limited electricity supply, typically available during specific hours. You’ll have ample time to charge your camera batteries and phones. For camps without electricity, we’ll provide a power station.

We recommend bringing a small power bank to charge your cellphone. Personally, I use this portable battery pack (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P87JTVT/), which features an AC outlet for laptops and two USB outputs. It’s both powerful (providing up to 6 charges for iPhones and 2 charges for laptops) and portable. Additionally, its 88.8Wh capacity falls below the TSA and most airlines’ limits, allowing you to carry it in your carry-on bag.

CLOTHING

Temperature of Mongolia in May:

• Ulaanbaatar: 73°F / 47°F (23°C / 8°C)
• Gobi: 80°F / 56°F (27°C / 13°C)
• Olgii: 73° F / 50°F (23°C / 10°C)

The temperature fluctuates significantly between day and night, with daytime temperatures often being comfortable and evenings/nights feeling chilly and windy. The region experiences minimal rainfall and dry conditions.

Warm clothing, including jackets and windbreakers, is essential, particularly for sunrise and sunset outings.

Bring your own towels and slippers for use in the Ger camps.

Optional: Goggles (to be used in windy day in sand dunes: https://www.amazon.com/Honmein-Chemistry-Woodworking-Construction-Industrial/dp/B0CGX9MFWZ/

Optional: Gaiter mask: (to be used in windy day in sand dunes:  https://www.amazon.com/Protection-Clothing-Sunscreen-Breathable-Bandana/dp/B08599Q5TS/ 

For Pallas’s cat tour only: I suggest bringing a mosquito net bed canopy, there will be some bugs at night in east steppe: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093CGRWNL?th=1

PHOTOGRAPHY GEAR

• Camera and lenses. We recommend bringing a wide-angle zoom lens like the Canon 12-24 or 16-35mm, Nikon 14-24mm or Sony 12-24mm; standard zoom like 24-70mm or 24-105mm; and telephoto zoom lens like 100-400mm. Most of my images in the sand dunes were photographed with 24-105mm and 100-400mm lens, while most of my images of the eagle hunters were photographed with 24-105mm lens. If you want to carry less, just bring a 24-105mm/24-70mm and a 100-400mm and skip the wide-angle lens.
• Lens protector or UV filter. To protect your lens from being scratched especially in the windy day in the sand dunes.
• Sturdy tripod can be very useful while photographing with telephoto lens in the sand dunes. We may be doing night photography.
• A camera remote (IR/wireless or wired) can be handy for landscape and night photography.
• Flashlight or LED lights. There’s plenty of opportunities for indoor and outdoor portraits, if you want to use the external lights, please bring it.
• Filters can be useful for landscape photography, although we have little opportunities to use them. A polarizer, ND (6 and 10-stops) and GND (3-stops soft) filters are useful. If you want to carry less, skip them.
• Microfiber cloth, blower and lens brush. They are very handy after photographing in the sand dunes.
• High-speed memory-cards (useful for continuous shooting of the action of eagle hunters) and extra camera batteries. Make sure to bring chargers.
• The power plugs and sockets in Mongolia are of type C and E (we use types A and B in US). The standard voltage is 220 V (US: 120 V) and the standard frequency is 50 Hz (US: 60 Hz). Bring power plug adapter and voltage converter. This is what I am using: voltage converter (https://www.amazon.com/BESTEK-Universal-100-220V-Converter-Worldwide/dp/B07R2JMHQR/?th=1) and travel adapter (https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Worldwide-Universal-Adaptor-Charging/dp/B01DJ140LQ/)
• Headlight or lamp.
• (Optional) laptop and external hard drive for backups.
• (Optional) Drone can be very interesting to photograph the sand dunes in Gobi Desert.

INTERNET ACCESS AND CONNEVTIVITY

We highly recommend obtaining comprehensive trip cancellation insurance, as well as accident, medical, equipment and baggage insurance. Before departing, please verify that your policy accurately reflects your travel dates, providing coverage from the day you depart until your return. Additionally, consider updating your travel insurance to include coverage for additional hotel nights, non-refundable flights, etc., as necessary. Ensure that your policy includes provisions for medical evacuation from Mongolia.

CONTACT/WHATSAPP

Please add my phone number to your contact list: +16092168607. Afterward, kindly send me a message in the WhatsApp with your name and the date of your workshop. I will then add you to the WhatsApp group chat where all the communications will be shared during the workshop. Rest assured, my cellphone will always be switched on during my stay in Mongolia, and this is the same number through which you can reach me.