Archery festival

For many, the very mention of Mongolia stirs up visions of the wild and the untamed - Genghis Khan and his soldiers on horseback, camels wandering the Gobi Desert, and wild horses galloping free against a dramatic landscape.

Up till a few years ago, visiting the place remained a dream for most, as just getting to the country was a daunting task.

But Mongolia, which has only 2.6 million people living within its 1,566,000-square-mile area - making it one of the least populated countries on the planet - has been opening its doors in recent years.

While there are still no direct flights there except from Seoul, Beijing, Osaka, Berlin and Moscow, the country is working with tour operators to increase inbound travel.

The call of the wild is strong in Mongolia. Most people go there not to shop or eat, but to experience the traditional nomadic lifestyle, say travel agents here.

"International food is more easily available in Ulaanbaatar now, as more Korean and Japanese, as well as Western, restaurants have opened there," said a Singapore-based travel agent.

"We take our groups to the leather and cashmere factories in the capital for some shopping, and then it's out to the countryside like the sand dunes of Bayangobi and the ancient capital of Karakorum, which was built by Genghis Khan in the 13th century."

The highlight of the tour is usually a stay in a ger camp (traditional circular Mongolian nomad tents made of wood and white felt), where you get to rough it out in the countryside and get a taste of local food and horseback riding.

Vegetarians and vegans may struggle with the local diet, as it consists mainly of meat like beef and mutton.

Mongolia is celebrating its 800th anniversary this year, with a series of activities that began in January and go on till December.

So far, there have been indoor game festivals, ice festivals, music and cultural events, exhibitions, handicraft fairs and even a rock opera on Genghis Khan.

Up to December, there will be horse fairs, art and photography exhibitions, as well as a Cavalry Ride featuring soldiers re-enacting the power of Genghis Khan's awesome army.

Ulaanbaatar, the country's capital, has a city centre small enough to be covered on foot.

There is just one shopping street here. There is nothing much to buy other than cashmere and leather goods, but international cuisine and five-star hotels are easily available.

A number of tourist attractions are also here. Among them are the Ganden Monastery, which has several temples adorned with gold and jewels within its grounds; the Natural History Museum, which houses dinosaur eggs and reconstructed dinosaur skeletons discovered in the Gobi Desert; and the Winter Palace of Bogd Khaan, in which the last religious King of Mongolia lived.

It takes 10 hours to get to the Gobi Desert, by jeep, from Ulaanbaatar. One interesting sight is the Flaming Red Cliff, where dinosaur fossils - broken eggshells and previously unknown species - were found in 1922. Some bones are still embedded there.