This year, my summer trip was to Mongolia! It was an amazing adventure filled with  such beauty. Pictures and descriptions below:

For 10 days we lived without modern conveniences like toilet bowls, sinks, and taps. Every day we fetched fresh water from the rivers and streams to brush our teeth, wash our face, and wipe our bodies (no shower throughout!). We pitched tents and stayed in gers at the most beautiful spots. We also “fertilized” many of these beautiful spots with our pee and poo. Heehee.

For 10 days, I lived without digital technology. I did not touch my phone as there was no internet available. This exile from technology was thoroughly enjoyable. For 10 days I didn’t know what was going on in the rest of the world; I was uncontactable. It gave me time to think and have some peace and quiet. It compelled my friends and I to talk to one another and have philosophical conversations about life.

We were made to tear our eyes away from our digital screens to appreciate the white puffs of cotton candy hanging low against the robin egg blue sky, listen to the gurgling rivers and streams, and revel in the sight of yaks, horses, sheep and goats grazing. I saw the most star-filled sky and was in awe at the number of diamonds twinkling against the black canvas of the night.

Our guide cooked simple food for us using camping gear. The Mongolian countryside is like a motion picture of hills and steppes rolling on and on. So vast, so sparse, yet so enchanting in its emptiness. But suddenly a small group of men on horseback, clad in their brightly coloured traditional robes known as the deel, would streak across the grassland with immense grace, looking almost like centaurs as man and horse blend into one in gallop.

The nomads of Mongolia live off the land, are self-sustaining and are pretty much cut off from the rest of the world. They have kept to a way of life as their ancestors did from centuries back and it was that simplicity that struck me.

Mongolia is not for everybody if you do it the camping way, going sometimes on foot and on horseback. It’s the only way to see the best the country has to offer though. To us city folk, standards of hygiene out there are questionable. But if you are prepared to rough it out, the rewards are immense for the experience you will get. That said, I was glad to see a toilet bowl, sink and tap, have a proper bathroom to shower in and bed to sleep on when we got back to Ulan Baatar at the end of the trip! Still a city gal at heart. :p