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WHY MONGOLIA? |
When people found out that we were going to Mongolia, the most common question was "Why?" Even at the getting-to-know-you breakfast with the National Geographic group, the opening question from Ider, our local guide, was "Why did you come on this trip?" Our answer is twofold. First, Chuck and I love wild open spaces and new cultures, and Mongolia certainly has those. Second, in my family, Mongolia has always represented the end of the earth--as in, "Where are you going with all that luggage--Outer Mongolia?" So when we saw the Nat Geo trip it seemed a natural for us. And we did it with less than 44 lbs of luggage (duffel and carry-on combined) each.
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So where is Mongolia?It is sandwiched in between China and Russia. It is what we used to call Outer Mongolia; Inner Mongolia is part of China. Until 1990 Mongolia was a Soviet satellite. After a peaceful revolution that broke them away from the USSR, the economic situation in Mongolia was very difficult due to the loss of Soviet aid. According to Jonathan Addleton, the American Ambassador to Mongolia, with whom we had breakfast, challenges currently facing Mongolia include (a) building government institutions that avoid the corruption that plagues Russia and (b) finding ways to handle the country's mineral wealth, which is just beginning to be exploited, in ways that benefit the average citizen and protect the environment. |
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| Our first view of Mongolia from the plane from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar. We spent over an hour flying over the Gobi Desert and then began to see the steppes that form the northern part of Mongolia.
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| Our Mongolian guide, Ider.
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Ider's assistant, Balor, who was trying to improve her English and loved to ask us questions about the US.
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| Since this was a National Geographic tour, we were also accompanied by a Nat Geo representative, Jeremy Schmidt, who spends time every year in Mongolia. | ||
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