{"id":58987,"date":"2023-02-02T10:26:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T23:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/?p=58987"},"modified":"2025-03-27T01:23:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T14:23:28","slug":"meet-the-team-behind-our-mongolia-naadam-festival-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/meet-the-team-behind-our-mongolia-naadam-festival-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the husband-and-wife team behind our Mongolia Naadam Festival adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many travellers consider Mongolia<\/a> a bucket list destination. For Intrepid leaders Bata Erdenekhuu and her husband Timur Yadamsuren, it\u2019s simply home.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a sight to behold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dead-silent stadium filled with thousands of spectators, seemingly holding their collective breaths, while only the sound of galloping hooves fills the air. A single horseman clad in full Genghis Khan-era warrior attire gallops at full speed across the race track carrying a large flag of Mongolia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so opens the centuries-old revered Naadam Festival<\/a>, which celebrates three historic sports \u2013 wrestling, archery, and horse racing \u2013 in the most immersive and spectacular way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don’t have many big celebrations here,\u201d shares Intrepid leader Bata Erdenekhu, who is Mongolian. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s the Lunar New Year in winter and Naadam during the summer. This is a celebration that brings joy and happiness to all Mongolians after a long harsh winter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been celebrating Naadam for over a thousand years,\u201d adds Timur Yadamsuren, her husband and fellow leader. \u201cAnd it’s during the peak time of the year in July when everything is green.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bata and Timur<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For nomads, this is a crucial time with lush grass and blooming flowers. Dairy products are plentiful as animals and their offspring have access to abundant food, grow stronger and fatten up. People begin to gain their physical strength back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am from a nomadic family, and during the summer, nomads have no fear of animals dying due to scarcity,\u201d Timur says. \u201cEverybody has survived the previous winter and spring. Everything is thriving. So it\u2019s time to meet, gather, celebrate and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a background in tourism spanning over 20 years, Timur was born to a Western Mongolian family of nomads who herd yaks and sheep. \u201cGrowing up in the mountains far away, I often felt lonely as a kid,\u201d shares Timur. \u201cI was very keen to learn about different people. I was good at geography and wanted to see the world.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This innate curiosity drove Timur to leave his technical career as a mining engineer and seek meaningful opportunities to interact with people outside of mines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Timur grew up around the Altai mountains, his wife Bata was raised in the bustling capital city of Ulaanbaatar. She studied Russian and English in high school, and would go on to major in English at university. \u201cOne summer, I went looking for a job as a waitress at a cafe. Timur was the manager there,\u201d Bata shares. \u201cHe told me I didn\u2019t need to be a waitress because my English was good enough to be a tour guide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within a year, they became a couple, and that was how the dynamic duo started their new guiding careers within tourism.

Since 2006, and now with five children of their own ranging in age from seventeen to two, the couple have been leading two-week trips \u2013 separately and sometimes, jointly \u2013 around their home for Intrepid Travel, including Mongolia\u2019s Naadam Festival<\/a> and Wild Mongolia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Mongolians, Naadam is a boisterous celebration of life displayed through three main events \u2013 archery, horse racing and wrestling. While women have started progressively participating as archers and jockeys, wrestling remains historically dedicated to men. \u201cWrestling was for training the soldiers and warriors,\u201d explains Timur. \u201cWomen are seen as the source of life. While warriors take lives, women make life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Various Naadam festivals are held across the country \u2013 at county, provincial, and national levels \u2013 and Intrepid travellers will experience smaller, more intimate venues as well as the main opening ceremony. Timur and Bata also take travellers to nearby training camps for the professional athletes and visit local families. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStaying with nomadic families can be a great shock even for experienced travellers,\u201d says Bata. \u201cEven though Mongolians are very welcoming, we also give people time to adjust emotionally and mentally to staying in our gers [round, traditional dwellings] and experience our rougher countryside.\u201d Beyond staying with locals and visiting camps, travellers can also try their hands at these sports themselves under the guidance of competing professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Bata and Timur, horse racing is their favourite sport. Travellers might be surprised to see that the competing jockeys actually range from six to eleven years in age. \u201cOn average, they tend to be between seven to eight years old,\u201d adds Bata. \u201cAnd it requires great technique. How to make your horse go slower, faster, change direction or tactic. So the child is really thinking hard like an adult, making concrete plans towards victory.\u201d

Beyond sharing their country, passing on the innate joy this celebration evokes feels particularly poignant for Bata. \u201cEveryone at the festival is really happy, cheerful and joyful. And tourists feel this same joy. They feel the festivity in the air, and I feel like that little Mongolian kid passing that joy into their hearts. It truly makes me happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timur points out that Mongolians essentially hibernate through eight frigid months of winter, so when travellers flock in over the summer, it feels like he\u2019s reconnected to the world again. He can proudly show off his culture and teach people his traditions from the inside out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many, Mongolia remains a trip of a lifetime and both Bata and Timur feel proud that their \u201csmall, remote, spacious\u201d country is a bucket list destination for travellers. \u201cTo think that we\u2019re part of these lifetime memories for people, and hearing that, makes you incredibly proud.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to explore all Mongolia has to offer? Check out our <\/em>Mongolia trips<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many travellers consider Mongolia a bucket list destination. For Intrepid leaders Bata Erdenekhuu and her husband Timur Yadamsuren, it\u2019s simply home. 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