mongolia

time is such a strange creature. the last two months, when i reflect on the events of each day, feel like an eternity; and yet, it's a surprise to realise that a quarter of my year off has elapsed already. there is still so much to do and see. thinking about the immediate future is both thrilling and overwhelming. so these days i try not to brood too much, which is rather easy actually, as so much shit is happening every day, even when we're stuck on the train or in a ger camp in the middle of nowhere.

four days in mongolia is barely enough to get an appreciation of this vast, mostly empty land of rolling grassy hills and jutting jagged rocks. we spent a little time in ulaan baator, the chaotic capital in which a third of the country's people reside. next to funky modern skyscrapers still under construction are dirt tracks lined by gers. a statue of lenin leaning forward, urging the people on towards revolution, overlooking trendy boutiques of burberry, gucci and kookai. it was yet another city of contradictions, like beijing on a smaller, more human, more immediate scale. but my favourite part of the mongolian experience was in the ger camp, 70 kilometres from ub, where we went on long hikes over the hills and rocks, tasted traditional mongolian cooking, rode the small mongolian horses, watched the sunrise over distant steppes. the fresh air, open sky and expansive panoramas stangely reminded me of the western districts of victoria, of home...