How Mongolia Changed My Life

Beautiful people, wide, empty landscapes, adorable horses, oh and yaks.

But above all, I was expecting to be challenged. Pretty much everyone I knew who had been to Mongolia had gone on a organized driving tour in a big furgon or jeep, most of them to the Gobi Desert or just crossed Mongolia on the Trans-Siberian railroad.

Shuffled from ger (yurt) to ger with ramshackle itineraries and tight schedules, those experiences didn’t seem genuine to me and completely turned me off.

I wanted to see the real Mongolia. I wanted to get dirty. I wanted to go to the places where no one spoke English and people yanked my blonde hair without my permission because it’s a rare sight to them.

Now yes you can argue that Mongolia is pretty out there in and of itself, but since the 90’s there’s been a well-trodden tourist trail around it. I don’t know about you but I don’t like tourist trails.

But if you’re keen to dig a little deeper without doing it completely on your own, Zavkhan can make that happen.

Even as I packed my bag for Mongolia, I realized this would be different. Between my sleeping bag and mat, several merino wool layers (10 day underwear – the best!) and the 14 batteries and extra portable chargers, I was ready to disconnect and go off the grid.

I took a blank notebook again. This past year I had gotten out of the habit of writing my travel experiences by hand, being too rushed and too busy to take the time to process everything.

This trip would be different.

While I always want to continue traveling and sharing my stories here on my blog, I felt like I was stuck in a rut with no time or energy to think or plan more than a few weeks in advance.

But I have big dreams, bigger than blogging and bigger than travel. Mildly unhappy with how things have been going, I was hoping to have the opportunity to seriously contemplate my future and how to make my goals happen.

Mongolia was going to be a test. An introduction. 3 weeks of horseback riding through the most remote and unexplored region, and oh, did I mention I am not a horseback rider and I am morbidly afraid of riding animals?

Nothing in life is easy, and the things you want the most are often the hardest to achieve.

Before meeting me, people often assume I am some crazy adventurous person, but I’m here to tell you, I am not.

I am an ordinary girl with no special skills or gifts. I am not fearless, in fact I get quite afraid of a lot of things, especially this past year (thought that’s a story for another day). I have doubts, I worry, and to be honest, I am pretty clumsy, not super fit or that organized. I also cry a lot, usually in really awkward situations.

The wheels and cogs in my mind have been turning and I have been thinking a lot about how I can continue to challenge myself on the road in 2015. I have several ideas in mind of places I want to explore and how I can explore them in a new way.

I can’t say anything yet because I don’t want to put my mother in an early grave, but let’s just say they are terrifyingly epic.

Wish me luck!

What’s a place you would love to go to be think is impossible? Have you ever felt like a journey changed your life?