Approaching the airport We got back to Ulaanbaatar on Sunday, August 7, on a gorgeous summer evening. The approach to Ulaanbaatar’s new Chinggis Khan International Airport (not to be confused with the old Chinggis Khan International Airport) is stunning on a clear day. The green grass stretches out to the horizon, and as you get … Continue reading Back home in Mongolia
Tag: travel
My neurodivergent travel patterns
Emerson's travels, 2008, 2009, 2010 I realized a long time ago that I don’t travel like a lot of people I know. When they list off their 14 European cities in 10 days itineraries, I have a panic attack. When they talk about how many sights they saw on a week-long trip to the US … Continue reading My neurodivergent travel patterns
Exotic Mongolia!
I was reading an article about the international press coverage of Mongolia, and how the country has been exoticized in the international news. People outside of Mongolia who know a little about it will know about Chinggis Khan (as Genghis Khan is known in his own language), horses, and maybe eagle hunters. The Mongolian metal … Continue reading Exotic Mongolia!
Foreign contaminants
To enter Mongolia during the late stage of the pandemic, I had to be vaccinated. And since Emerson could not yet be vaccinated, we would have to quarantine for a week in a hotel, and then Emerson would have to stay home for a week after that. We also needed negative PCR tests within 72 … Continue reading Foreign contaminants
Return to Asahikawa, part 1
View from the Art Hotel When I was 29, I went to Japan to teach English, as people do. I hadn’t really taught before, just informally tutored people who were trying to learn English, through a community program in Boston. But I got hired by an English language school called Nova, and they were sending … Continue reading Return to Asahikawa, part 1
An origin story
The only photo of the four of us (my brother had not yet arrived), Thanksgiving 2006 I realized the other day that traveling runs in my family. I took my first international trip before I was three years old, to visit family in Switzerland. But my mother, the reason for that trip, had also traveled … Continue reading An origin story
Some reflections on the fifth of July
Overlooking Asahikawa, Japan on July 4, 2019 Last night, as people in our neighborhood were setting off fireworks, our dogs stuck to me. They didn’t bark or whine, but they stayed close by me as I moved around the apartment getting ready for bed. They were underfoot as I brushed my teeth and tried to … Continue reading Some reflections on the fifth of July
It could have been worse: Our trip back to San Diego
Our luggage... Our trip back to San Diego was just about bad enough to turn me off air travel forever. In order to save a few hundred dollars, I had booked our flight with United Airlines and their partner Air China via Beijing (the best alternative, which would have taken us through Incheon, Korea, cost … Continue reading It could have been worse: Our trip back to San Diego
Kharkhorin: A visit to Mongolia’s former capital and its oldest monastery
Modern Karkhorin, with the Erdene Zuu monastery to the right I’m continuing from my last post about Elsen Tasarkhai and our ride on Bactrian camels. On Sunday, February 3, after lunch, we headed for Kharkhorin, for the next part of our trip around central Mongolia. On our way, we stopped off to clamber on some … Continue reading Kharkhorin: A visit to Mongolia’s former capital and its oldest monastery
A day with camels at Elsen Tasarkhai
As anticipated, not everything went according to plan on our trip around central Mongolia for Tsagaan Sar (lunar new year), but everything went very well, and we had a great time. The first change of plans happened the night before we left, when we found out that the horse racing we were planning to see … Continue reading A day with camels at Elsen Tasarkhai
Two Vegetarians in Mongolia 