Bayanzag, Mongolia | 6 June, 2006 | $3.33 USD Still in the middle of nowhere. My van-mates played frisbee in the desert while I sat behind the ger watching the sun set and drawing in my journal. There was an amazing thunderstorm this night and my driver caught and tormented a poor baby hedgehog. This…
Hongoryn Els, Mongolia | 5 July, 2006 | $2.50 USD This group of gers was at the base of some sand dunes which we rode camels on. The camels don’t really go on the sand dunes which is a shame, because walking on the sand dunes is much harder than walking to the sand dunes.…
Dalanzadgad, Mongolia | 4 July 2006 | $3.33 USD Dalanzadgad?the big city in the Gobi! This is the only time during our 8-day trip that we were able to take a shower (at the public bath house for $0.67). The shower felt great but walking back to the house through the dusty streets left me…
Tsagaan Suvarg, Mongolia | 3 July 2006 | $3.33 USD Night two on my Gobi Desert trip was a stop with a family that felt like the middle of nowhere and going to the bathroom in the middle of the night was pretty scary if you didn’t keep your bearings and head back in the…
S?m Kh?kh Burd, Mongolia | 2 July 2006 | $5 USD This was our first stop on my second van trip around Mongolia with five strangers?this time through the Gobi Desert (skip ahead and read the entire trip report here if you like). After 9 hours driving from Ulaan Bataar we almost didn’t make it…
Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia | 1 July 2006 | $5 USD I made this hostel my home base in-between trips to the countryside. I had a number of different rooms, this being a typical dorm room you’ll see in Mongolia. The cost included a breakfast which was basically just tea and toast in the kitchen. If…
Ambarbayasgalant Khiid, Mongolia | 27 June 2006 | $3 USD This was the first town we’d seen in a while, the second monastery of the 10-day trip and it was a bit of a detour off of the paved road we’d been driving on. Because of its remote location nestled between hills it was one…
Hutag Ondor, Mongolia | 26 June 2006 | $2.50 USD This wasn’t really a town at all, just a handful of yurts in the countryside in-between Khovsgol Nuur and our next stop (the monastery at Ambarbayasgalant). We didn’t arrive until 5:30pm and while we got settled a herd of aggressive horses invaded. As someone who’s…
Khovsgol Nuur, Mongolia | 25 June 2006 | $8.33 USD When we originally booked the van to take us around Mongolia we were supposed to stay at a town on the Southern tip of the lake (Khovsgol Nuur). Once we got there we realized that the town was actually so far from the lake that…
Moron, Mongolia | 23 June 2006 | $3.33 USD Yet another ger on the 10-day road trip in Mongolia. Moron was an actual town with streets, public buildings and Soviet-inspired statues. We entertained ourselves with jokes about the town full of Morons but it was mostly just a pit stop in-between The White Lake and…
Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur, Mongolia | 22 June 2006 | $3.33 USD Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur, also known as “The White Lake,” is a beautiful lake surrounded by rolling green hills. I stayed in this ger for two nights with four other travelers who were sharing a van with me on a 10-day roadtrip around Mongolia, Northwest…
Tsetserleg, Mongolia | 20 June 2006 | $3.33 USD I stayed in this ger with four other travelers who were sharing a van with me on a 10-day roadtrip around Mongolia, Northwest of Ulaan Baatar. The white concrete building in the distance is the toilet and you can see the son standing on the fence…
Karakorum, Mongolia | 19 June 2006 | $3.33 USD I stayed in this ger with four other travelers who were sharing a van with me on a 10-day roadtrip around Mongolia, Northwest of Ulaan Baatar. Surprisingly, most gers had plastic “linoleum” laid out on the floor and a single lightbulb powered by a car battery…
Most people I talk to seem to be split down the middle about Twitter?some hate it, some love it and a few don’t understand what the point of it all is. In any case, I find its a really fun way to write a little without the pressure of a full blog update. I have…
There are a number of little projects that I’ve been planning for this site since I got back. One project that I had planned on starting last year but never got around to, was to publish the photos of hotels I stayed in. You guys know how methodical I can be about recording different parts…
Three months since the last update and I’ve just passed the three year anniversary of flying to Korea to start RTW trip #2. I have no excuse for the lack of updating, really as I’ve been spending my time on my recent move, fixing up my new place, getting caught up in TV shows and…
Sunday was my first South Side St. Patrick’s Day Parade and I took my camera along. You can see a selection of my photos here in the gallery (don’t miss all 3 pages of photos). The Sun Times is reporting attendance at 340,000, a good number of whom were drunk before noon and yelling obscenities…
Happy Casimir Pulaski Day! It has been a long, cold winter in Chicago. This is my first winter living in the city itself and it took me a few months to get used to the cold wind whipping through the streets when I walk to the grocery store. I haven’t done as much of the…
A few of the blogs in my RSS reader have had travel-themed posts lately. I’m not sure I would bring my iPhone with me on the road and I would never spring for a $99 cashmere travel pillow but both would have been nice after my 24 hour trip in the back of a cage…