06 Feb. 2015 When traveling, it's always delicate to know whether to offer gifts to people you meet, especially when there are significant differences in living standards between visitor and visited. Giving gifts to locals can create expectations or even begging behaviors.

The Culture of Small Gifts

Gift-giving in Mongolia is part of everyday life. When visiting friends, or heading into the steppe knowing you'll be sleeping at a family's home, you always bring small gifts along. Mongols often give each other bottles of vodka... However, alcoholism is a public health problem in Mongolia, and it's better to avoid this type of gift. Since gift-giving is part of the country's culture, we believe it's not only harmless but actually beneficial for travelers to participate in this ritual. That said, it's important to do so in the same spirit as Mongols do, and to follow a few guidelines.

1. Gift-giving is part of a broader welcoming ritual. When you arrive at a family's home, you'll always be offered milk tea, followed by dairy products (butter cream, aruul) and alcohol (airag or vodka). The gift is presented at the end, when you're leaving your hosts, as an offering with both hands extended (the same way your hosts presented the milk tea to you). Sometimes I hear: "I brought toys for the children and would have liked to play with them." No problem. You can play with the games you brought, but they remain yours, and you leave them with the mother as you depart.
2. The gift remains symbolic. You're certainly not there to shower families with presents. That's not the goal. If you wish to make more substantial donations, Ulaanbaatar has many organizations that can manage your contributions better than individual families.
3. The gift is collective for a group. There's no need for each guest to give something. Generally, items are pooled together in a small plastic bag that you leave with the hostess as you go. Don't be surprised if your host doesn't look at the gift in front of you. There's a certain restraint about this, and your host will typically simply set the gift aside.
4. Never give gifts directly to children. Two simple reasons for this:

• Children are the most impressionable beings, and if every time they encounter a Westerner that person gives them something, it risks creating expectations and begging behaviors.
• The parent-child relationship is very strong in Mongolia, and children have enormous respect for their parents. You should avoid interfering in this relationship as much as possible. Leaving the gift with the mother, who will manage your present as she sees fit, is therefore the best approach.

Small Gifts That Always Please

This is a non-exhaustive list of useful things that generally bring joy. Nothing stops you from being original! Pens, small toys (avoid battery-operated ones), caps, t-shirts, candles, cigarettes, lighters, Swiss-style knives, Opinel knives, notebooks, sewing supplies, scissors, thread, sewing needles, batteries for radios, wind-up flashlights, sunglasses, baby moisturizing cream... In short, anything practical while avoiding sophisticated or battery-operated items. Sweets are also common (Mongols generally have excellent teeth due to their high consumption of mare's milk). Men smoke tobacco that they generally roll in newspaper. Very toxic as they inhale lead. Rolling paper is therefore highly appreciated. Mongol women are very stylish, even in the steppe, so why not creams, perfume, or makeup. A few games can help break the ice and bring great pleasure to children: frisbees, balloons, bubble tubes, puzzles, Uno, beach paddles, etc.

TourismTips and Tricks Charlène Nomadays An SEO writer from Nomadays' early days, Charlène became content manager and head of the communications team, accompanying the adventure from its beginnings with passion and loyalty. After living seven years in Asia – from China to Thailand, passing through Mongolia and South Korea – she has made travel a way of being in the world. A lover of words, nature, and human connection, she strives to convey in her writing a sensitive, engaged, and responsible vision of tourism. For her, each article is a bridge between curiosity, respect, and wonder.