Sarah in SC
Moderator Emeritus
As promised, a nowhere near brief synopsis of our trip to Mongolia. First, here’s a link I thought you might enjoy to the audio from my NPR interview with Liane Hanson of Weekend Edition Sunday:
An Adventure In Mongolia : NPR
See the Summer story "An adventure in Mongolia".
My boss says that I don’t sound that smart in person.
The trip was truly amazing and the time we spent there seemed much too short. Having the opportunity to travel by car from the Gobi desert up to Lake Huvsgol near the Siberian border was unforgettable. For reference, the country is approximately twice the size of Texas. Spending 15 days road-tripping through the most impossible of roads really gave us an unparalleled opportunity to really get to know Mongolia. All of that time together in a van, driving across the country, eating every meal together, living side-by-side in the ger camps made for some very fast bonding between us and our guide Nara and driver Baagii. Nara has been a guide for 4 summers (she is a professor of English and translation at the Humanities University in Ulaanbaatar) and Baagii has been a tour driver for nearly that long, but were strangers as well, before the trip.
One thing I want to point out to fellow travelers that was not apparent to me prior to this trip: the relationship you have with your guide is crucial to the success of your trip in this sort of setting. We met quite a few tourists whose trips were derailing because their guides were not good speakers or lacked some crucial knowledge or just weren’t friendly. I think we basically lucked out, but having a quality tour company helped. We’ve never done a trip like this where we had “keepers” (usually just arrive and stumble around with a Lonely Planet and a backpack), but that is really close to impossible in a country with no real roads, no public transport, and little in the way of tourist amenities.
Seeing the beautiful countryside up close like that and getting to visit nomadic families along the way was wonderful and my pictures pale in comparison to seeing it in person! I would highly recommended Mongolia for the adventurous traveler who wants to see a place (and people) that are just remarkable.
First up, here are some from the beginning and end of our trip in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, where 40% of Mongolia's 2.5 million people live (the country is the least densely populated country on Earth). There are many vestiges of the Communist regime that lasted 70 years, but the new buildings and lots of young people are evidence of the successes of democracy in the last 15 years. A hopeful and bustling city that is finally able to embrace the legacy of Chinngis Khan as well as offer some western-style amenities (like colder beer). The Gandan Monastery is also here, and a remarkable testament to the thousands of monks that died in the Soviet purges of the 1930s.
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An Adventure In Mongolia : NPR
See the Summer story "An adventure in Mongolia".
My boss says that I don’t sound that smart in person.
The trip was truly amazing and the time we spent there seemed much too short. Having the opportunity to travel by car from the Gobi desert up to Lake Huvsgol near the Siberian border was unforgettable. For reference, the country is approximately twice the size of Texas. Spending 15 days road-tripping through the most impossible of roads really gave us an unparalleled opportunity to really get to know Mongolia. All of that time together in a van, driving across the country, eating every meal together, living side-by-side in the ger camps made for some very fast bonding between us and our guide Nara and driver Baagii. Nara has been a guide for 4 summers (she is a professor of English and translation at the Humanities University in Ulaanbaatar) and Baagii has been a tour driver for nearly that long, but were strangers as well, before the trip.
One thing I want to point out to fellow travelers that was not apparent to me prior to this trip: the relationship you have with your guide is crucial to the success of your trip in this sort of setting. We met quite a few tourists whose trips were derailing because their guides were not good speakers or lacked some crucial knowledge or just weren’t friendly. I think we basically lucked out, but having a quality tour company helped. We’ve never done a trip like this where we had “keepers” (usually just arrive and stumble around with a Lonely Planet and a backpack), but that is really close to impossible in a country with no real roads, no public transport, and little in the way of tourist amenities.
Seeing the beautiful countryside up close like that and getting to visit nomadic families along the way was wonderful and my pictures pale in comparison to seeing it in person! I would highly recommended Mongolia for the adventurous traveler who wants to see a place (and people) that are just remarkable.
First up, here are some from the beginning and end of our trip in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, where 40% of Mongolia's 2.5 million people live (the country is the least densely populated country on Earth). There are many vestiges of the Communist regime that lasted 70 years, but the new buildings and lots of young people are evidence of the successes of democracy in the last 15 years. A hopeful and bustling city that is finally able to embrace the legacy of Chinngis Khan as well as offer some western-style amenities (like colder beer). The Gandan Monastery is also here, and a remarkable testament to the thousands of monks that died in the Soviet purges of the 1930s.
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