Mongolia

I've never been somewhere with so few rules.  You can go anywhere and pitch a tent.  When there are ruins dating back to the 8th Century there is no guard, there is no fee.  You just park and walk up.

It is a strange and wonderful experience coming from the land of procedures and guidelines.  This place is truly untouched, but it will not remain so for much longer.  You can feel the pull towards a more contemporary life.  It's in the solar panels and satellite dishes connected to the gers (traditional nomadic dwellings).  It's in the brand name clothing on the young people, and the Ke$ha videos on MTV Asia playing in remote tourist camps.

The best of Mongolia is in it's landscape.  It is varied and open and has a complete lack of fences.  We climbed 500 meter sand dunes and saw impressive red rock cliffs that resembled a mini-Grand Canyon.  We sat on the shores of a lake that in United States most certainly would have been surrounded by beautiful private homes.  Here there were a few tourist camps and tent campers. We walked through a gorge that would have been as at home in Scotland as Mongolia.

The openness is hard to describe.  At first it felt isolating.  The level of disconnection really got to me the first couple of days, but once that passed I came to embrace how far we were from anything.  Mongolia has pockets of modernity, but they are hard won.  This does not seem like an easy place to live.

Not all is positive here, and not all parts of our last two weeks were perfect.  Our tour company left much to be desired, and at one point we found our van hopeless stuck in the mud in the middle of the desert.  Even with the problems, I am so glad we came here.  As we drove along yesterday past endless piles of gravel that will soon pave many of the roads, I was especially glad that we saw it this way.

Right now though, I'm glad to be back in Ulaanbaatar.  Really not a nice place, but a nice place to return to.  We are showered and we are tired.  More reports on Mongolia to come.