Experience the best of Murun

Mörön is the capital of Khövsgöl province in northern Mongolia, a market town on the Delgermörön River at about 1,300 metres, where the steppe meets the forested mountains of Siberia's edge. Its streets hold shops, a colourful market and a small museum, and nomadic families come to town from the surrounding plains to trade livestock and buy supplies.

The main reason to come is Lake Khövsgöl, a very deep, clear freshwater lake about a hundred kilometres north, ringed by larch forest and mountains, which holds most of Mongolia's fresh water. Reindeer herders of the Dukha people live in the taiga beyond it. On the steppe of the district, ancient deer stones, carved Bronze Age monuments, stand in the open grass.

Mongolian cooking is based on meat and milk, with buuz, steamed dumplings, khuushuur, fried meat pancakes, and salted milk tea, and the lake's rivers hold grayling and other cold-water fish. Summers are short and green, with the main season from June to August, while winters are deep and long and freeze the lake solid.