The Vastness of Mongolia and a Relaxed State of Mind

Our tour of the Mongolian countryside was arranged by a charming woman named Urnaa. She lives in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, with her husband and daughter. She grew up nomadically, went to school, and got a job in the city. Later, in order to spend more time with her daughter, she transitioned to running a guest house and arranging tours. Part of what makes her tours so special–and the reason that we chose her in the first place–is because she sends people to visit her immediate family in the middle of nowhere. Which brings us to me relaxing in the shade…

I was relaxing in the shade of a ger (yurt) alternately staring off into the vastness of Mongolia and trying to figure out what entertainment my phone offers without signal when a man I had meant only an hour before pulled up on his motorcycle smoking a slim brown clove cigarette. I said hello and he smiled–he doesn’t speak a word of English. He motioned for me to get on the motorcycle; I smiled, shrugged, and complied.

It takes a certain amount of trust, abandon, and/or relaxed state of mind to get on the back of a motorcycle with a man you don’t know. But Mongolia and Urnaa’s family–I’m pretty sure this is her older brother–engender all of these things.

We traveled first up a hill, down a hill, and up a hill, and down a hill over terrifying rocky, gravely, sandy mess. I gained some comfort knowing that he has ridden these hills a thousand times and knows every contour of them. He probably created the trail.

Once we reached the flat land we found a herd of sheep and goats–hundreds and hundreds–and herd them with the motorcycle. Kind of like a horse but a motorcycle. Reminds me of a song, something about riding a steel horse…

Anyway, and now we’re here. That same sense of trust, abandon, and/or a relaxed state of mind that got me to this place has me zigzagging across the Gobi Desert dictating a blog post into my phone as the sun sets over the backs of these furry creatures.

And I can’t think of any place I would rather be.