Was it worth it? Absolutely! It was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I would definitely recommend it. I learned so much about the culture and norms in different places, which is a completely invaluable lesson in empathy and understanding. I saw places that weren’t just major cities, walked through the countryside, and I think that’s also a really important part of this trip. When traveling, it’s so easy to just go to the main cities and never explore an entire country. It’s so rare to get the chance to see this much of a single country. Why travel alone? It’s partially an exercise in exploring my personal endurance, and learning…
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Final Day in Mongolia
Breakfast and walk Unable to sleep, yet again, I awoke around 5 a.m. I showered and readied myself for the day. Today is again the coldest day so far this trip, at -26C, so I finally break out the snow pants that I’ve been itching to wear. They don’t fit well: they’re made of a waterproof outer layer that doesn’t stretch at all, squishes my trunk flat…now I don’t know what I’m going to do with all that junk. And they make crinkly noises when I walk, but they are made for this exact purpose. I went downstairs for breakfast and I’m not sure there are any other guests in…
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A Day in Mongolia
An Early Start The fire in the wood stove goes out overnight, so they come to your room at 6 a.m. and light a new fire so that when you wake up, it’s warm enough to get dressed. There was a large stack of firewood in the room, so I made sure to add a few extra before bed, and then slept so well. It’s so quiet here. The animal print blankets they left me with were awesome, very warm. So I had no problem staying warm. I woke up at 5, with my nose quite chilly. There were still plenty of embers in the fireplace, so I tossed in…
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Arriving at the Ger Camp
Getting there I had lunch, same pelmeni soup as breakfast, with my train buddies before packing my bags to disembark in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. My driver arrived at the train station and off we went to the Ger/Yurt camp in the mountains outside of town. Along the way he told me many things about the history and culture of Mongolia, and particularly Ulan Bator. We drove about an hour and a half through rush hour traffic, stopping to get gas and then taking a fun side trip to a grocery store. We walked around looking at all the cool things, most of which are imported from Russia. We walked through…
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Train Musings
Reflections on Beijing When I was planning this trip, Beijing was actually the place I was least interested in. Not that I specifically didn’t like it, it just hadn’t cracked my top 10 list of cities I would want to travel to. But Beijing was the starting point for this tour if I wanted to go through Mongolia, which also wasn’t ever on my top 10 list, but seemed more interesting and exotic because who has ever been to Mongolia? So I was really surprised at how much I liked Beijing. I really loved the city. It’s huge, unfathomably huge and populous. And yet things run pretty smoothly, at least…
