Why I'm Glad I Went to Mongolia

For everyone nervously considering whether they should take the plunge on the Experiment's program, I would really recommend that you do. While I'm contributing to it, the pool of online information you'll find won't give you the full view of the trip that I remember searching for. It's a big step to commit to something like this, but know that everyone on the 2018 trip had to go through this process, and I don't think anyone regretted their choice to enroll.

Worries you may have (all that I can think of):

-Living conditions:
We had pretty nice accommodations. We were in the Park Hotel in UB for about a week total (this could change for all I know, but I expect what you would end up with would be similar). Rooms (of 2) had a small bathroom and shower. We could get hot water most of the time. The beds, at Park and all other locations, were fine and easy to fall asleep on after packed days. We also had showers in Sainshand (Gobi location).

-Bathrooms:
In UB, Sainshand, and a few other places, we had standard flushing toilets.
Much of the rest of the time, we had simple outhouses.
At our homestay, we had no formal bathroom buildings. The world was our toilet.
I, of course, can't speak for everyone on my trip, but I didn't have much trouble with any of this.

-Food:
Mongolian food is pretty good. It's pretty simple, usually meat and grain. We eat at some restaurants in UB. We took a bunch of meals in private dining halls when we were staying outside of a city. We usually got something like Lipton tea with almost every meal. Portion sizes are huge.

-Water:
Though the temperature obviously couldn't be controlled, we had good, storebought, or otherwise clean, water for almost all of the trip. The one exception was in the homestay when we would generally be drinking milk tea with our families. The water situation shouldn't be a much of a deterrent.

-Horses:
We had the opportunity to ride horses with the group and at our homestays. Technically no one had to ride, but no one in our group left without doing a fair amount of horse riding. The horses were generally pretty relaxed and first-time riders didn't have much trouble.

-Language:
I'd certainly recommend some language preparation, but don't be worried if you don't know much/anything before you come to the program. We were adequately prepared with simple, functional language. My small Mongolian-English dictionary was very useful for more complex communication.

Highlights:

-Homestay:
The real deal. Living and participating in an ancient way of life. This was the greatest degree of immersion that we experienced. My host family understood that I didn't really know what I was doing in their lifestyle, but worked to include me, giving me whatever simple tasks that I could understand. I had some contact from the group throughout, but that week was mostly a process of learning and growth in a totally new environment.

-The Group:
Sharing new and challenging experiences brought the group so close together. Even after just the plane ride and first day in the country, I could tell that we were developing connections. By our last days, we had bonded an amazing amount. No matter how different my fellow Experimenters seemed, I found that I could more or less relate to everyone. We could all find some sort of common ground. Over a month, a group of people I'd never met became trusted friends.

-Everything else:
Our travel took us from North to East to South and gave us many interesting opportunities on the way. Our itinerary brought us many new experiences.

I don't know what history you have with travel, but this trip was very special to me because it offered a completely new and unique experience. It truly is hard to put into words how important and life-changing this trip was, but I can't recommend it more.