I met a couple of dutch ladies who rode from netherlands to china back in 97

they told me that there are loads of places to stay out there - small, very cheap guest houses line the roads everywhere, for truck drivers to stay in. in any small town they'll cook you food (they pretend not to want money, but you must play along with this and give it to them at the last minute)

I dont know if this wld be the same in the north but would guess you wont have any problem

one thing I heard abt mongolia from someone else was that they could not believe he didnt know how to ride a horse - they were falling over laughing about this