[orbital-decay]

I've traveled across Mongolia on a motorcycle many years ago, and one thing I never expected is how absolutely everyone living in a permanent house also has a yurt in their backyard, regardless of how good the house is. This made no sense to me as an outsider (like, do you really need a second house?) so I asked a local about this, and was given a funny look. Yurts are just hardwired into the culture, it's a status symbol, it's where you invite a guest, it's what you use when living outside, it so many things at once.

[helpfulclippy]

One of my best Airbnb experiences was staying in a yurt in the backyard of a Mongolian woman…in Wisconsin. It was great. They also had a huge fire pit with tons of chairs around it, and I could tell they loved having tons of people over and just hanging out.

[sfn42]

So it's basically Mongolia's answer to the Finnish sauna

[datameta]

Only insofar as both building types are recognized externally as inextricably linked to the culture, right? Sauna is deeply rooted in Finnish culture but not quite to the level or multipurpose use of ger.

[tough]

sounds like the concept of a pool/guest house to me