Mellow Mongolia

For those with more than a few days, the tour operators can organize weeks of trekking. Our guide, Chaagii, told of taking a group of Westerners on a 10-day camping trip, when they stayed with herders, ate with them and learned about their lives. One night, they even set their own Mongolian tent - called a ger - which is made of layers of wool felt on wooden poles. An iron stove in the center sends smoke through a pipe leading out the top.

But we were on the company clock, and the park offered everything we wanted and more.

Terelj - also known as Gorkhi-Terelj for the surrounding Gorkhi mountains - is said to be home to more than 250 species of birds, as well as rare brown bears. It's a bit touristy in parts, but also convenient.

There are horse and camel rentals, plus countless hiking trails and a Buddhist monastery high in the hills. Monks fleeing communist purges in the 1930s hid in the caves that cut into the blue-gray mountains.

Nomads are free to roam the park's vast hills, and they are justly known for their generosity. Visitors - no matter how foreign - are welcomed with bowls of tea and yogurt as well as homemade cookies served with a delicious heavy cream that is boiled and left to sit until it turns as thick as butter.

Their schedule revolves around their livestock - yaks, horses, sheep, goats - and as we sat with one family waiting for their yaks to come home and be milked, time slowed to a crawl. The sky turned from blue to gray, the wind picked up a bracing chill, all thoughts of modem troubles and looming deadlines were an ocean away.

I can't wait to go back.

If you go:

WHEN TO GO: Mongolian winters are bitterly cold, with nighttime temperatures often as low as minus 18. June through September, daytime temperatures in the high 60s to low 70s.

GETTING THERE: The Mongolian airline MIAT flies to Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Moscow and Berlin. Ulan Bator also is served by Air China, Russia's Aeroflot and Korean Airlines.

COSTS: For a 1 1/2-day trip to Terelj National Park from Ulan Bator, we paid $194 for two people including transportation, accommodation, and three large meals. Roundtrip airfare to Ulan Bator from Beijing was $385.

MONEY: Bring cash. The ATMs in Mongolia aren't connected to international networks like Cirrus, though apparently some take credit cards. The currency is the tugrik, which is freely convertible.

TOUR GUIDE: We used SSS Travel, http://www.ssstravel.mn/ or (011) (976-11) 328-410.

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