Have you ever invited yourself to someone’s party? What if that someone is a whole family you met only yesterday? What if the party is a 12-day trek in the Gobi Desert? I know all you Burning Man attendees are saying, “Of course, my rainbow faux fur boots and I would easily take that leap…
Author: Five Backpacks Family
Not all who wander are lost — we are living nomadically, exploring, and wandering to learn about the world, its people, and ourselves.
Chris and Holly Santillo are not your regular authors.
They are the epitome of the Latin phrase “Mens sana in corpore sano,” which means “A healthy mind in a healthy body.”
Having strong backgrounds in Martial Arts with Chris being the founder and Head Instructor at Potomac Kempo in Alexandria, Virginia, and Holly being a Senior Instructor, they have managed to develop the principles of Martial Arts into a cohesive parenting methodology.
They believe that children (and parents) with broader horizons and an open mind can sow the seeds for future generations of confident, strong, and resilient adults.
Now, you can find them gliding through the Siberian steppes on the Trans-Siberian Railway, visiting the buzzing markets of Samarkand on the Silk Road, or wondering at the vastness of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. They have decided to live a nomadic life and explore the world with their three boys in order to bring back memories, ideas, experiences, and a fresh view on life.
Join their epic journey at www.FiveBackpacks.family, visit www.ResilienceParenting.info for more information on their book, and www.PotomacKempo.com to learn about their Martial Arts teachings.
Prose and Khans – Impressions of Mongolia
Mongolia in the World Mongolia is sandwiched between the behemoth countries of China and Russia, with a population less than one percent of either neighbor. To the northwest and the southwest, the borders are relatively logical, divided along a combination of mountains and deserts. To the east, the borders are wherever the latest treaty set…
A Mongolia-to-China Border Crossing Exam
A little bit raw. That’s how I feel early in the morning after sleeping on the top bunk of a railway car. After two weeks living a simple life in the Mongolian wilderness, using pit toilets sleeping on wooden platforms and cooking over manure-fed ovens, our expectations for Mongolian train accommodations were not high. Surprise!…
Mongolia for the Senses
I didn’t feel like I could write before today. I think my state of being was too far removed from this sensation of fingers on computer keys. Incompatible. In the desert, my senses have been stretched, whipped, rubbed raw, boiled, dissolved. Now, after my first shower in a week, after my first encounter with the…
A Round Peg in a Square Hole – Living in Gers in Mongolia
During our first week in Mongolia, we stayed in seven or eight different gers—learning not to call them yurts; that is the Russian word for the same thing. Holly was both excited and anxious for the experience, a bit scarred from visiting traditional homes in the Ecuadorian rain forest twenty years before. Would the families…