@dpt Wow, great info thanks. Moving between different environments might be a good way to stay productive and counter brain fade too.

@dpt Thanks for the tips - I’ve only been on the road for a month and am heading to UB in the next week and was wondering how I was going to get on with internet access as I have a week’s worth of freelance work to knock out before I go bicycle touring.

When you recommend working from hotel lobbies, are you actually staying there at the time, or just ‘camping’ to get some quiet space for coding/writing and Skyping?

And do you find that you just can’t get enough quiet space in hostels?

Thanks,
Dan

I worked from Mongolia for 8 - 9 months. Two of those where in the summer of 2012, the rest Q2/Q3 2014.

Stuff in Mongolia is changing FAST. Faster than in other developing countries I’EV been to. In 2012 I usually went to hotel lobbies to do skypecalls, in 2014 it was possible from pretty much anywhere.

I can’t give you exact numbers as I’m not there right now, but usually the issue is not speed but reliability. The thing about UB is that the city is totally over capacity and utilities break down once or twice a week.

I’m not a big mobile internet user, but from what I know that stuff works pretty well in Mongolia. I’ve been pretty impressed with the phone service quality & availability in Mongolia. You even have network in some very remote places. If you got internet on your phone you could probably rely on it and it’d probably be at a decent price too.

Bonus tip: Mongolia has these international call cards that you can use to call abroad for ~2€/hour. That’s also a possible skype alternative for when the internet breaks down.

Now apart from the internet, there are a bunch of really nice cafés in Ulaanbaatar. Try Cermaics, Narya, Coffee Bean, Azumio, Buigus, Café 9, the lobby of the Blue Sky or Ramada Hotel, etc. (Café Amsterdam is not was it once was, full of tourists now and not workable anymore).

Apart from that, Mongolia is a really interesting place that’s definitely worth going. Give me a shout when you get there, I’ll be there again this summer.

And don’t worry about air pollution, that’s just a problem in winter.

@replay Try probike-mongolia.com these we’re the only ones I looked at as this was also an option for me but the distance was going to be crazy for the gobi.

@Mauro,

I spent a month in Mongolia as part of my RTW Train journey, working from UB was certainly possible although certainly not the most sexiest of places to be remote. The city itself is nice enough for a short stay but apart from a few coffee shops & restaurants it’s not exactly a great hive of digital nomads.

That said it is a great jump of for some of the most amazing journeys i’ve ever taken. But you’ll want to be prepared to down tools for at least a week to enjoy them to the fullest and take into account that there is barely any cell reception once you are really off the beaten path let alone consistant WiFi.

I travelled South to the Gobi on a 10 day road trip + 3 others with Congor tours It was very rough terrain for most of the journey and leaving my laptop and HHD’s in storage at UB was a good descision.

Out in the desert the local people I met were really humbleing and very kind. In UB the younger people we met we’re super friendly and want to help travelers. I met lots of others on the road but most were just passing through from the Trans-Mongolian Train route.

If you can I’d take the train to reach Mongoila, a truely amazing experience. If you take the Train east-west you can get a data sim which works pretty well for most of the Russian stage of the trip on the train. I worked for 10 days like this with no issues, just lower your expectations for speed!

Happy to help if you need more info.

Best of luck!

Glad to help. Will thank my friend for you.

I think I’m convinced, Mongolia is at the top of my list of the next places I’m going to:)

Only stayed a few days there in a hostel (Sunpath Mongolia - was okay), but that place had an absolutely usable connection, I even stayed in for a full day of work, and could also back up several GBs of photos from Siberia. Also WiFi was pretty abundant, lots of cafes/restaurants had it, so I didn’t even go for a sim card.

Oh wow, even in the valleys, that’s way more than I expected:).

Thanks for the Univision tip, going to ask my next AirBnB host for their provider before I book.

I haven’t personally, but I just asked a friend who lives there and he says “truthfully they are pretty good…3.5 (so they say) G all over the city and surrounding valleys…and the home wifi providers vary a bit but Univision seems to be the best. far and away”

Good luck!

I spent 6+ weeks there a couple of years ago. Outside of Ulaanbaatar, there really isn’t much for connectivity. In the capital, connectivity in guesthouses is fine, though slow. Expect outages. I didn’t stay in hotels and it looks like Airbnb has kicked off since then, so perhaps you can find something.

Sim data is available, coverage is not great outside of Ulaanbaatar and some provincial capitals, though that has bound to have been improved. Connectivity is slow, ok for simple email etc, but you’re not likely to be working with large files and tethering isn’t really realistic.

As far as I know, Uber is not in Ulaanbaatar, but as markmoran said, taxis are cheap…if somewhat difficult to find.

I was there for a few days last year. It’s a beautiful country, but not super friendly for the digital nomad. It reminds me of China about 10 years ago. I’d be surprised if there was Uber there, but Taxi’s are pretty plentiful and cheap in Ulaan Batar. If you’re going outside the capital then I would rent a motorcycle or car to get around. Enjoy the food!

@dpt Wow, great info thanks. Moving between different environments might be a good way to stay productive and counter brain fade too.

@dpt Thanks for the tips - I’ve only been on the road for a month and am heading to UB in the next week and was wondering how I was going to get on with internet access as I have a week’s worth of freelance work to knock out before I go bicycle touring.

When you recommend working from hotel lobbies, are you actually staying there at the time, or just ‘camping’ to get some quiet space for coding/writing and Skyping?

And do you find that you just can’t get enough quiet space in hostels?

Thanks,
Dan

I worked from Mongolia for 8 - 9 months. Two of those where in the summer of 2012, the rest Q2/Q3 2014.

Stuff in Mongolia is changing FAST. Faster than in other developing countries I’EV been to. In 2012 I usually went to hotel lobbies to do skypecalls, in 2014 it was possible from pretty much anywhere.

I can’t give you exact numbers as I’m not there right now, but usually the issue is not speed but reliability. The thing about UB is that the city is totally over capacity and utilities break down once or twice a week.

I’m not a big mobile internet user, but from what I know that stuff works pretty well in Mongolia. I’ve been pretty impressed with the phone service quality & availability in Mongolia. You even have network in some very remote places. If you got internet on your phone you could probably rely on it and it’d probably be at a decent price too.

Bonus tip: Mongolia has these international call cards that you can use to call abroad for ~2€/hour. That’s also a possible skype alternative for when the internet breaks down.

Now apart from the internet, there are a bunch of really nice cafés in Ulaanbaatar. Try Cermaics, Narya, Coffee Bean, Azumio, Buigus, Café 9, the lobby of the Blue Sky or Ramada Hotel, etc. (Café Amsterdam is not was it once was, full of tourists now and not workable anymore).

Apart from that, Mongolia is a really interesting place that’s definitely worth going. Give me a shout when you get there, I’ll be there again this summer.

And don’t worry about air pollution, that’s just a problem in winter.

@replay Try probike-mongolia.com these we’re the only ones I looked at as this was also an option for me but the distance was going to be crazy for the gobi.

@Mauro,

I spent a month in Mongolia as part of my RTW Train journey, working from UB was certainly possible although certainly not the most sexiest of places to be remote. The city itself is nice enough for a short stay but apart from a few coffee shops & restaurants it’s not exactly a great hive of digital nomads.

That said it is a great jump of for some of the most amazing journeys i’ve ever taken. But you’ll want to be prepared to down tools for at least a week to enjoy them to the fullest and take into account that there is barely any cell reception once you are really off the beaten path let alone consistant WiFi.

I travelled South to the Gobi on a 10 day road trip + 3 others with Congor tours It was very rough terrain for most of the journey and leaving my laptop and HHD’s in storage at UB was a good descision.

Out in the desert the local people I met were really humbleing and very kind. In UB the younger people we met we’re super friendly and want to help travelers. I met lots of others on the road but most were just passing through from the Trans-Mongolian Train route.

If you can I’d take the train to reach Mongoila, a truely amazing experience. If you take the Train east-west you can get a data sim which works pretty well for most of the Russian stage of the trip on the train. I worked for 10 days like this with no issues, just lower your expectations for speed!

Happy to help if you need more info.

Best of luck!

Glad to help. Will thank my friend for you.

I think I’m convinced, Mongolia is at the top of my list of the next places I’m going to:)

Only stayed a few days there in a hostel (Sunpath Mongolia - was okay), but that place had an absolutely usable connection, I even stayed in for a full day of work, and could also back up several GBs of photos from Siberia. Also WiFi was pretty abundant, lots of cafes/restaurants had it, so I didn’t even go for a sim card.

Oh wow, even in the valleys, that’s way more than I expected:).

Thanks for the Univision tip, going to ask my next AirBnB host for their provider before I book.

I haven’t personally, but I just asked a friend who lives there and he says “truthfully they are pretty good…3.5 (so they say) G all over the city and surrounding valleys…and the home wifi providers vary a bit but Univision seems to be the best. far and away”

Good luck!