Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Travel Journalist and Guide Breanna Wilson on Overlanding Mongolia

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Travel Journalist and Guide Breanna Wilson on Overlanding Mongolia · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Ashley Jordano, and today I'm joined by Brianna Wilson, a
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: travel writer and adventurer specializing in solo travel, overlanding, and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: all things Mongolia, where she also runs small group adventure
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: tours with her company Meanwhile in Mongolia. In this episode,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Brianna and I discuss what you need to know about
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: overlanding Mongolia, including the best season, vehicle import details, and
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: what to do outside of your vehicle. Brianna also shares
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: more about her journey from Georgia to Mongolian her Trustee
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: seventy eight series troopy, and reflects on some of her
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: favorite moments in Mongolia. Thanks for tuning in. I hope
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode on all Things Mongolia.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Experience a great Smoky Mountain jeep invasion with honkok dinaprotire
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: on Expeditiontortal dot Com, an impressive event with the tendees
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: from all over the country, and a parade of jeeps
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: that's wretched all the way through town.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Overland Journal Podcast. Today, my guest is
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Brianna Wilson, Meanwhile in Mongolia. Thank you so much, Brianna
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: for joining us today.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. Yay.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: So, Brianna, you spend a lot of time in Mongolia,
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  Speaker 1: your regular Forbes contributor and a guide and travel writer.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Is there anything you don't do?
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: It seems like I do it all these days. Yes, guiding, driving,
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: exploring Mongolia. Yeah, that's my time.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Great. So you spend most of your year in Mongolia,
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  Speaker 1: but you're currently in the US, so you come back
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: from time to time.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Yes, So I'm in Pittsburgh right now. This is where
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: I grew up. It's the holiday, so I usually come
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: back this time of year to spend time with family.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: But I will go back to Mongolia soon. And yeah,
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: I've spent about eleven ten months a year in Mongolia
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: these days, so it's almost time to go back.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Very nice. And you have your seventy eight series Troopy there,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: which is what you use to travel around and guide.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: I imagine, Yes, so Troopy is.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: My vehicle when I'm not on trips, and then it
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: also does come on some of our trips and it
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: acts as like our headquarters, so to say, where we
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: have the kitchen. Out of that, we have the fridge, freezer, water,
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: everything we need. So it doesn't come on every trip,
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: and it will start coming on less trips. But yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it does go out from time to time. And then
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: when it's not with me on tours and I'm not
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: on tours, I take it out and drive all around
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: the country. I try to see as much and as
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: you know, as many places that I haven't seen to
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: this point. I'm always trying to explore the new corners
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: and see different things. So yeah, I tried to take
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: it out as much as possible, usually when the weather
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: is agreeable, which is usually about April to October.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Nice. I'd love to get into because the Troopie is
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: not from Mongolia, It's actually from somewhere else, So I'd
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: like to get into that point in this episode, will
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: chat about how you got the troopy to Mongolia, But
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: first I'd like to know why Mongolia. So you said
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: you are from the US and spent I don't know
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: if you spent your childhood most most of your childhood there,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: but I guess bring us back to the beginning. How
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: do you guess how it all startart?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I went to Mongolia in twenty eighteen kind
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: of on a whim. I didn't really know anything about it.
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  Speaker 3: I had sort of just seen a picture on Instagram
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  Speaker 3: and said to myself, like, I want to do that.
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  Speaker 3: It just looks crazy and wild and so different from
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: anything I sort of did to that point. And so
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  Speaker 3: when I went for the first time, I went to
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  Speaker 3: go visit the reindeer tribe, which is in the really
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: far north of the country, and it took a flight
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: with two days of off roading and then two days
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  Speaker 3: of horseback just to reach the tribe. And I at
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: this point had never really camped. I had never spent
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: like time like this outdoors. So I was so out
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: of my depth, so uncomfortable. But because I sort of
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: did it, and I learned so many things along the way,
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  Speaker 3: I think I cried along the way. I was so
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  Speaker 3: out of my like depth because also everybody on the
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  Speaker 3: trip was you know, they raced horses, and then there
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: was me. I had not ridden a horse in fifteen years.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: I was wearing my chaps the wrong way, I had
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: a snowboarding helmet instead of an actual riding helmet, and
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: they were all looking at me like, who is this person?
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: Why is she here? And you know, I definitely was
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: so out of my comfort zone on that trip. But
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: that was that moment where it was kind of like,
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  Speaker 3: it's good for me to be out of my comfort
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  Speaker 3: zone in this sort of way that's so pure and
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: so connected to the earth and you know, so wild
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  Speaker 3: and free, and I just sort of couldn't get enough
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: of that feeling after I did it. So I ended
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: up going back in twenty nineteen, and I spent six
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: months in the country at that time. And when I
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: had gone back, the purpose of going back was to
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: try to develop motorcycle tours and those tours were with girls,
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: so the motorcycle with the sidecars. So when I went back,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: within the first month of going back, I did all
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: the planning and I was doing it with another friend,
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: my friend Derek, And so when we went back, we
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: did all the planning and mapping and routing, and the
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  Speaker 3: point was to go visit some of the herder families
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  Speaker 3: that he knew and that were, you know, in this
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: area called you know, Orhan Valley in central Mongolia. And
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: so we planned and bought the bikes and got everything
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: ready and then we took the gurl out and sort
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: of developed this route and this sort of journey that
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: we wanted to eventually take people on because yeah, I
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: also wanted other people to start to experience this feeling
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: that I sort of had. And so the point in
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: doing that trip was that we were going to develop
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  Speaker 3: it and launch it as a tour in twenty twenty
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: and start doing tours. But that sort of did it
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: work out for obvious reasons. But it led me to
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: sort of, you know, have that experience there in a
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: different way, you know, on a motorcycle instead of a horse,
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: and to see different parts of the country, and I
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: just started to fall in love with, yeah, the culture
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: and the people and just the ability to explore by
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: any means possible. Yeah, we were going to do the
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: tours in twenty twenty. Obviously that didn't work out. But
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: as soon as I could go back, and I think
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: it was about twenty twenty one, I went back just
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: by myself and you know, just spent time there actually
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: just living, you know, seeing what it was like to
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: be you know, a local Nulumbatar and exploring the city
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  Speaker 3: and making friends. And now it's home. I mean, now
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: I can't imagine not going there and spending really as
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: much as my time as possible there, even in the city.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's I have an apartment in the city center,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: and you know, friends and everything else. So it's home now.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: It's just it's my happy place.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: And that's not the only place that you've been outside
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: of the US that you've.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Lived in, no so during the pandemic. So when the
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: pandemic started, I was actually in Mongolia, and I was
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: February twenty twenty, and I had an assignment in Iran.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: So I was determined to go on that assignment because
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: I had gotten the visa as an American that was
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: like such a big deal. So I left Mongolia as
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: everything was closing down, thinking this cannot possibly last a
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: long time. I'll start flying there, I'll get to iranodo
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: all blow over whatever. And then I got to Turkey
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  Speaker 3: and everything was closing and I was realizing, like, oh crap,
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  Speaker 3: I need to go back to Mongolia. But as soon
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: as I had landed, they had closed the airport there
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  Speaker 3: because obviously being next to China, they were really worried
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: about their borders and you know the risk of everything
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: spreading within the country. So I couldn't go back to Mongolia.
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  Speaker 3: So I made the really last minute decision to fly
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  Speaker 3: to Georgia and to just wait there for a little
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: bit because it would be easy for me to get
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: back to Mongolia from there. I'd just fly back to Istanball.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: It was only an hour half flight. So I went
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: to Georgia and I ended up having an apartment there
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: for three years that I would go back and forth
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: to Mongolia from there from Yeah, so that was another
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: interesting time. But I do miss Georgia a lot. I
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: haven't been back since I from there in April twenty
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: twenty three.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: My goodness. Did they have the one year visa for
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: tourists at that time in Georgia, so you could stay
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: for most of the year if you needed to.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So it was still that instance where I could
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: stay for three during sixty five days, and then because
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: of the pandemic, they actually extended it so that you
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: could stay longer, so I didn't have to do a
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: border run at one point, which was nice. But yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, Georgie is so easy to live in and
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: it was such a nice place to just sort of,
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: you know, be for that time period. That was such
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: a weird time in the world, but it was, you know,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: I was still able to go explore the country. I
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: bought a Nissanic Sterra and then I sold that, and
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: then at one point I had a Defender and I
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: bought a couple of motorcycles, and so I was finding
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: ways to keep busy during that time, which was fun.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Good. I'm glad to hear that. And you're writing, you're
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: your travel writer and journalists, so that's taken you to
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: all sorts of different places as well. How did that
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: come to be? Have you always been doing that or
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: is that sort of more recent dish.
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  Speaker 3: I've been writing for about twelve years now, and that
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: was sort of I sort of started when the blogging thing,
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: you know, started to become really popular, and when Instagram
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: and social media were starting to take off. I just
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: sort of got in it at the right time. I
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: my degree is in marketing, so I'm not really like
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: a train journalist. It's not the thing that I always
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: thought I would do with my life. It just so
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: happened that, you know, at that point in time, I
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: just realized I was pretty good at it. I understood,
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: you know, how to market myself and the places that
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: I was going to. So I sort of fell into that,
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: which really gave me these awesome opportunities to go to
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: these places and to go. I mean, I went to
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: Dekar with Canam, I've gone diving in Fiji with Jean
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: Michelle Custeau. I've had these awesome opportunities. I just went
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: to Sweden actually last month with Toula and I was
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: able to see their testing facility and get this super
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: behind the scene access that you know, normal people don't get.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: So I love the writing stuff for that sort of
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: opportunity that it gives me. And yeah, I don't do
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: it so much anymore because I'm super busy with the
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: tours and everything going on with Mongolia, but you know,
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: I still try to also write about Mongolia and talk
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: about that stuff as much as possible because I just
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: want to encourage people to travel and get there. And
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: you know, you don't even necessarily need to join my
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: tours or anything that I'm doing, but just to learn
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: about it and consider it and see what's you know,
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: happening there, because most people have no idea what Mongolia
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: is all about, and so any sort of information that
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: I can put out there and try to.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Do, yes, I love it. Let's dive into some information.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: That was the perfect segue. I loved it for those
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: that are interested in visiting Mongolia, which I am very interested.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: So I'll be listening attentively about. Maybe we can start
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: with geography and the layout of the country. What should
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: people expect in different regions in terms of maybe I
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: don't know, climate or landscape. I'm sure there are unique
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: differences in each section.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Yes, we have a little bit of everything. So we
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: have to go be desert. So that's in the south,
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: and that's going to be your whole sort of border
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: with China. In western Mongolia, which is near to Kazakhstan,
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: Kazakhstan and Mongolia don't actually touch. There's about a fifty
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: kilometer sort of we call it like the little fingers
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: that don't touch. But on that side of the country,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: it's more mountainous, so you have these big, you know,
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: mountain ranges that go through that area. So that is
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: a bit more higher in elevation, a bit more you know, rocky,
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: and that's more for the hiking and the more like
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: extreme side of things because the highest peaks are over there,
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: and that would be the more adventurous side of the country.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: In the north, you have Lake cub School, So Lake
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: hoff School is the second largest fresh water lake in
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: the world. After Lake by Call, and the lake is beautiful,
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: and then in the winter it completely freezes, and I
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: like to call it the highest Highway because basically in
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: the wintertime the locals just drive on it, so it's
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: like a shortcut to get to all these little like
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: areas on the lake. So that's in the north, and
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: then and the east it's a bit more flat, so
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: it's more sort of that step that I think most
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: people think of when they think of Mongolia and just
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: that wide open space. And then in the central part
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: it's very green and you have hills and waterfalls and rivers,
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: and the central part is actually my favorite because of
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: that reason. So the more green landscape, and it's so
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: nice to just look out and see the white we
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: call them gears but yurts in the distance, and to
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: see that white against that green with the super blue sky,
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: it just it doesn't get old.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Beautiful. I'm also wondering about accessibility, so borders obviously in
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: the west. On the west side, you were talking about
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: how Kazakh's done is right there, you know what I mean,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: But actually you can't go from one country to another,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: and the way that geography is means it's not super
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: easy to get there. But I guess my question is accessibility.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, obviously you could fly in, you can talk
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: about that, but if you're driving, where are you most
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: likely to enter the country.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so if you're driving, you're either going to come
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: in through China or through Russia. When I drove, I
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: made the decision to come through Russia. I exited the
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: easternmost part of Kazakhstan, went above the Russian Altai and
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: then into the westernmost part of Mongolia. So that was
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: the route that I took. But you can go through China.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: I mean, obviously it's a bit more difficult with permits
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: and having to have a guide with you the entire time,
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: and so I didn't want to do that, especially just
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: being me alone driving, so I took the northern Russian route.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: But yeah, either through Russia or through China or the
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: two options if you're doing a land border.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: And then what about in the for folks coming in
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: from the east side, So.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: If you're coming in from the east side, I would
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: recommend and well, if you're coming in through the east side,
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: you're typically going to come in through China. That's usually
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: where people are coming and so you're going to come
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: in through where the Gobi Desert is, so you'll come
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: up through the eastern part of the desert and up
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: that way, which is a pretty common route. A lot
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: of people come into the country that way. And that's
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: great because as soon as you enter Mongolia there, I mean,
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: you're down where all the really famous like landmarks are.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: It's a great route because you come in you see
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: all this like amazing these amazing landscapes, and you know,
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: the red cliffs and the you know, big singing sand
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: dunes and the white stupa and all this stuff. And
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: then you sort of come up to Ulumbatar, which is
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: not too far from there, and then you sort of
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: have that, you know, the capital, and then you can
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: go on from there. You can go north, you can
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: go again to central or you can keep going to
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: the west and then yeah, go on from there if
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: you'd like.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: And a temporary import permit for the vehicle and visas
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: what is required for visitors.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: So for visitors as soon as you come in you
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: should have obviously local car insurance visas right now are
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: actually I'm waiting to hear what's going to happen, because
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: there was this really big push to have a visa
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: free sort of twenty three, twenty four to twenty five,
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: So in twenty twenty six, I'm waiting to see if
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: they're still going to give a lot of these countries
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: this visa free access. Because there's this huge push to
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: bring in tourism to Mongolia that made it possible for
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: you know, Australians and a lot of other countries to
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: come in without the need for a visa, which if
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: you do need a visa, it's pretty easy to get
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: at this point. You just apply online, we have the
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: visas and it comes within a couple days, so that's
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: not really an issue at this point, but it does
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: cost you a little bit of money. So yeah, visas
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: are pretty easy at the moment because yeah, like I said,
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: there's a huge push to sort of attract tourists and
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: tourism to Mongolia. So now is the time to come,
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: you know, because they are doing this push and trying
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: to get the word out about how great it is.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: It's obviously going to start getting a little bit busier
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: and more people coming means you know, more some more
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: expensive and stuff like that. So now's the time to come.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: That's what I've been telling everybody agreed.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do you need a carne? Everybody always wants to
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: know do you need a carne? No, you do not
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: pricked a carne de passage for those who don't know
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: what that is, basically like a passport for your vehicle,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: which is required in some countries but not others. But
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: it sounds like the temporary import permit is probably the
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: go to coming into Mongolia.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: Yep, yep, it's pretty easy. It was super easy when
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: I did it, and yeah, I don't remember anything. I
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: think that was probably the easiest land border out of
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: all the ones that I crossed on that journey. So yes,
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: they made it super simple and they were super nice.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Love it great. And then I guess also seasonality, so
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: this is often an interesting question to ask about.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Like what's the best season?
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Can be difficult depending on what you're looking for. But
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I want to hear from you because this value post
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: on social that your favorite month is your favorite season
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: is fall. But I've also seen you do quite a
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: bit of really different interesting things in the wintertime, so
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: I'm curious to know more.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: Yes, fall is absolutely one of my favorite times, I
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: will say, and I do have to admit I use
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: my heater a lot in fall, So if you're coming
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: in fall, you either have to break really warm stuff
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: or yeah, have a heater in your car that's ready
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: to go, because nights do get pretty cold. So even
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: in September, I had a shoot in September and I
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: was turning on my heater every night, and that was
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: like mid September. This year. September is great because you
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: have all of the leaves changing colors and you have
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: really nice temperatures in the day with the sun being out,
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: and then the nights do get cold, so you just
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: need to be a bit prepared for that. So yeah,
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: so fall is beautiful and then winter for anybody who
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: sort of wants to take on that challenge. I am
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: not there yet. I'm working up to it. I'm still
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: a little bit intimidated by it and by driving myself.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: But winter is absolutely stunning. You just have to be
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: aware of you know, there's not a lot of roads,
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: so if you're going off route, you know you're going
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: to be battling lots of thick snow, and you know
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: the potential to be stuck, which has happened on basically
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: every trip I've ever been on, and so you need
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: to sort of either have a winter follow cars with you.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: I definitely recommend that because, yeah, if you're traveling around
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: in the winter, it is absolutely stunning, but it is
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: it can be lethal, so you just got to be
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: a bit more prepared. But I definitely recommend it for
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: anybody who wants a real adventure. That's the one.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: What are the sort of temperature ranges in fall and winter?
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: So in fall and Celsius, you're probably looking at fifteen
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: down two one or two on average. I mean, Mongolian
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: weather is notoriously crazy, so you know, I can say
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: that now, but it'll be all over the place.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: There could be snow and frost. One night, it could
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: be super warm. Next day, there could be rain, there
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: could be snow, there could be anything. So you just
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: sort of have to be a bit prepared for everything.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Winter it can be anywhere from negative twenty five to
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: negative forty five depending on where you are. It is cold,
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: so you've got to be super prepared for that. So
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: I have seen people overlanding in winter, you know, they
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: have the right setup for it. I know some actually,
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: some Mongolian guys that do you know, take out their
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: troopies in the middle of winter, and you know, they
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: go dip in the river and then they jump into
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: their heated troopy and I'm like, okay, you guys are well,
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: but it obviously looks beautiful and it's such an adventure.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: But yeah, you have to be prepared because those temperatures
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: are no joke. So you gotta have the right equipment
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: and you know, be prepared for anything that could happen,
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: because when you are out in Mongolia, you are out
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: there so winter, you're not gonna find as many people
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: roaming around. At least in the summer and in the fall,
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: there's almost always a herder or a family or somebody around,
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: so if something goes wrong, you know someone's not too
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: far away. But in the winter, you know, most families
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: move into assume the small towns, and so there's not
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: going to be as many people around. So if you
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: get stuck or if something happens, you've got to be
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: able to get yourself out, otherwise it could be really dangerous.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Good to know in terms of fall and winter, what
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: are some things that are unique to those seasons If
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: you're wanting to exit your vehicle, I'm thinking cultural food,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: interacting with local people, it could be anything, favorite activities,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: I guess experiences.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: So in the fall, you have everybody preparing for winter,
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: so it's always interesting to see how the different families
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: prepare about either going to get hay or moving their
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: herds around to make sure that they're nice and fat
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: for the winter coming up. It's really when people are preparing.
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: They say that if you don't prepare properly in the
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: fall for winter, you know, if you don't prepare wealth,
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: then you're going to have a really hard winter. So
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: fall is a super important time for the nomadic communicate
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: community and for the nomads to sort of get everything
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: in order. So it's interesting to spend time with them
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: around then because they're always busy doing something, fixing fences,
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: going to the winter camp that they'll be moving to,
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: making sure everything's set up there because they are nomadic,
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: so they're moving two, three, four times a year, it
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: depends on the family, so that's an interesting time to
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: see that sort of you know, lifestyle in everything that
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: they're doing. And then winter is just this beautiful blanket
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: of white everywhere you look, and it's quiet and serene
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: and just clean and crisp, and obviously it has its challenges,
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: but just to see that. And then in winter there's
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: amazing festivals like the ten thousand Camel Festival. It just
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: went to a winter horse festival, and horses are like
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: the most respected animal in Mongolian culture, so to have
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: a whole festival around horses is like, I mean, there
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: were I don't know, maybe five hundred herders coming to
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: compete in these games to show off their skills as
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: a horseman, and that was such a cool experience. That's
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: something even I had never done until this year. But
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: we have festivals like that in the winter. So at
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: camel festival, a horse festival, there's the ice Festival, which
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: happens on Lake host School, so because the lake is frozen,
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: they actually do the festival on the lake, which is crazy.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: And there's a reindeer festival at the same time. And yeah,
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: winter is full of a lot of like things that
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: I don't think people realize are going on. So it's
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: definitely a cool time to come. Like I said, lots
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: of challenges, but lots of rewards, just like Mongolia always
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: does to here great stuff.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, an ice sculpture and reindeer festival
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: on a frozen lake sounds.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: I don't know anywhere else in the world. Yeah, I
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: don't know anywhere else in the world where that would
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: be the sentence that you could say about where you live. Yeah,
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: there's a nice festival. There's sculptures on this frozen like
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: and then all yeah, the reindeers come down and you
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: see a reindeer race. What where else does that happen?
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Great question?
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, awesome.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, tell me about spring and summer as well, so
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming they have their own yes, differences and highlights
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: And does it get muddy? Are the tracks difficult with
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: spring melt things like like that.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: Yes, Spring is super muddy. I mean summer and spring
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: are very muddy because of the rains and you know,
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: just the way everything is there. Spring you can definitely
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: expect a lot of mud. I like spring because of
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: all the baby animals. So this is when everybody's giving birth.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: There's little goats running around, there's you know, baby horses
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: being born. Everything's sort of happening at this time. So
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: it's always like cute to come up to a family
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: and to see the goats coming out of their gear
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: because the little baby goats were in there to stay
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: warm because it was maybe a bit cold that night,
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: and so that's always a nice like scene to come
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: up on. So spring is definitely good for that, and
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: it's you know, the wildflowers are starting to bloom, everything's
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: starting to get green. The temperatures are still you know,
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: all over the place. Fall one day, you can have
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: a warm day, the next day it could be snowing.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: So it's still a little bit all over the place,
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: but generally like enjoyable, easy to sort of manage. And
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: then once you move into summer, obviously that's when temperatures
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: are the best. So Mongolian summer is when everybody is
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: out an enjoying time in the countryside because the Mongolians
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: have been inside, you know, for the last six seven
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: months because it's been so cold, so everybody wants to
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: be outside. Everybody's sort of going out to the countryside
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: and camping. You'll see people in a prius pull up
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: to this river and set up a tent and have
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: a full barbecue right there out of their preus, and
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: you know you'll also be next to them, and you're
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: crazy four by four, Oh my gosh, that was a
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: crazy like terrain. And how do we even get here
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: and then the Prius next to you was like, oh yeah,
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: that was nothing Like now we're going over this mountain
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: and you're like, what how are they even doing that?
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: Like Mongolians and the way they can drive a Prius,
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: it is so impressive and it makes me question, like
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: how do they do it because this little tiny car
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: goes everywhere? But they Yeah, they're out all summer long,
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: and so anywhere that you go, you know there's gonna
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: be people also out, either hurting and taking care of
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: their animals or yeah, just enjoying time outside like you are,
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: which is super nice because yeah, even the city Mongolians
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: get out into the countryside and make the most of
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: that warm weather and the nice temperatures.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Excellent human nature, nice.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: Universal Thanks to Hank Cooke Dina pro Tire for supporting
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: this week's podcast. Head over to Expedition to learn more
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: about mudterrain tire design as we interview their tire experts
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: and take a close look at the Dina Pro MT
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: two as an example of the mudterrain tire category.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Good weather, we get outside, have a panic and joy.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: All of that so great And in terms of camping,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: is it pretty easy throughout the country just kind of
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: pull up wherever or ask for permission to camp somewhere.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: What's the sort of wild camp situation like there?
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so wild camping is allowed, so there's no shortage
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: of space in Mongolia. You know, anywhere that you find
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: a spot, you're welcome to it. I tend to always go,
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: you know, to a spot that no one has either
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: seen me getting to, or is a little bit off
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: the roads or you know, the routes that people are
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: going through. Just because Mungolians are curious. Someone will always
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: come up and be like, hey, what are you doing. No,
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: obviously they're speaking Mongolian and then you're probably not going
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: to speak Mongoli and so you're going to sort of
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: go through that. But that's part of it. And you know,
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: just share a little piece of whatever you're eating or
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: a Coca cola or something, and you know that's a
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: nice way to sort of break the ice with them.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: But yeah, wild camping, you can sort of camp anywhere.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: If you get lost, you can always pull up to
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: a family's gear and ask directions, or they can point
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: and you can point, and Google Translate gets you a
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: lot of ways. You know, a lot of gets you
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: pretty far these days. So you know, if you have
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: a map and if you have Google Translate, they can
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: point you in the right direction. They can sort of
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: give you some rough directions. And then most of the
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: time they'll invite you in for tea, and if it's
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: getting late, they'll even tell you you can sleep there.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, I've slept in my car, but at so
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: many families like houses will say just because yeah, they've
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: invited us in for tea, and then you know, the
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: sun starts to go down, and at that point you're like, well,
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: we might as well just stay here and then tomorrow
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: we can continue on. And so that's you know, a
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: possibility as well. But there's no shortage of places to
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: set up camp and to have your own space and
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: to just sort of enjoy the landscape a round, which yeah,
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: I anytime I can just park near a river and
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: spend the evening just sort of sitting out there, staring
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: at the sun going down and just enjoying the peace
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: and quiet of the area, watching the horses go through
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: the river, the animals come down to water. That's those
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: are the best days.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: So good are there things that you do if you're
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: camping by yourself just in terms of I guess, are
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: you concerned about safety or is it more like curiosity?
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Or do you really see anybody? I guess yeah, question
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: says it.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: I almost always, yeah, I almost always see somebody, no
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: matter how much I try to hide, either behind a
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: rock or down the river, you know, away from where
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: I saw the families. It's inevitable that some herd or
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: will be either moving as animals or riding through or something.
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: They almost always stop or at least slow down to
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: sort of look at you, just saying a quick seminole,
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: like a quick I Sometimes that gets the job done
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: and you don't need to engage anymore. But a lot
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: of times they do want to come talk to you,
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: which is fine. And sometimes it's a family in a
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: car and you know, little kids looking at you like
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: why are you a woman alone out here? And you
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: know the men are doing the same thing. Sometimes I
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: have hearders just alone on a horse, and you know,
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: I have had instances where, you know, maybe they got
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: a little too much into my personal space and I
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: just sort of, you know, said bye, or just quickly
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: got into the car and closed the car and that
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: was the end of it. And either pretended to move
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: or did actually move. That was sort of, you know,
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: the worst case scenario in those instances, but people will
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: come by no matter how sort of hard you try
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: or try to get out of the you know, line
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: of sight of things. But it's okay. They're mostly just
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: curious and like I said, just share something, just say hi,
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: and you know, just continue on with what you're doing.
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: And usually they just sort of are looking at you
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: the same way that we would look at them. What
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: are you doing here? What is this yeah stuff? And
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: what is all this cool stuff? And I know they
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: want to ask sometimes, you know they do, and I'm
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: hearing them say it in Mongolian, and you know, I
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: explain it as much as possible. But yeah, they're as
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: curious about what you're doing and what you have. It's
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: what you are as you would be to them in
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: that same scenario. So absolutely, yeah, So just sort of
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: engaging as much as you feel comfortable with. But yeah,
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: if you don't feel comfortable or just get into the car,
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: close it up or just say bye, and then they
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: usually just move on. They have stuff to do too.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah. I was thinking about even when we're back
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: in Canada, like we are Now if we see a
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: big rig with the European plates come through, we're like.
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, yeah, who are you?
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: What is this? Tell me everything right?
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, it's the same, it's the same thing. Yeah,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: pretty fun. I wanted to ask you too about being
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: a good guest, Like from a Mongolian perspective, if you're
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: invited in for tea or you were saying sharing food
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: or coca cola, but if you get an invite to
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: what is what are best practices?
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so in Mungoling culture it's rude to turn down
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: an invitation. So if they invite you inside and you
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: have the time to do it, go inside, have tea
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: with them, sit down. I mean you know you'll be
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: looking at each other and you're not gonna speak the
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: same language, but that's part of that experience. Also, So
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: as soon as you walk into a gear, you go
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: to the left because you're a guest, and there's either
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: little stools that you would sit at or a little table,
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: or you just sit right on the bed and they're
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: going to hand you a really hot bowl of milk tea.
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: I mean it's going to be the hottest thing you've
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: ever felt it'll feel like lava. You're gonna grab it
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: with either two hands or one hand, and yeah, you
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: sip on it as it cools down and as you
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: can be careful like I said, it's like lava, and yeah,
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: you just sort of finish your tea. And sometimes they'll
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: offer you food. You can say no if you don't
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: feel like eating, or if you would like to try
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: whatever they're offering, try it, go for it. Those are
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: the biggest things. I mean, there's so many little details
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: and so much tradition that really goes along with that.
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: But as long as you sort of accept things with
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: one hand, like your right hand only, or two hands,
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: and just you know, you wear your shoes inside, you
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: don't need to take off your shoes. Yeah, which most
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: gears are so clean and pristine that you are so shocked,
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: like how is this possible? Like I look at my
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: car and there's dust everywhere, there's dirt everywhere, it's filthy.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: And then I go into a gear and it is
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, you can eat food off the floor, it's
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: so clean. And I'm just like looking at them, going
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: how do you do this? Because I cannot keep my
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: car clean for the life of me, and I just
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: vacuumed it like a day ago. So it's like you
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: just start to notice little things like that and then yeah,
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: I mean, whenever you feel comfortable accepting, accept and try
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: and who knows what they'll offer you. Maybe some organs,
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: maybe some air rag, maybe some vodka. I tend to
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: be a bit careful when it comes to the vodka
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: and that sort of stuff. But that's just me, a
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: woman usually traveling alone or you know, with a small group,
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: and so we just keep an eye on that. But
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: you know, we tend to just accept everything. And then
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: you know, you can graciously say, okay, I gotta go,
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: can you point me in this direction? They're happy to
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: do that, and then you just move on and enjoy
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: the experience for what it was. Do you bring gifts usually?
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: Is that as a I usually have like candy bars
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: and some candies in my car, and then if I
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: see kids, I give them candies, or if like I
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: would get invited in like that, I would give them
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: mom like a box of chocolates, or if I had
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: like I don't do it so much anymore because it
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: just got too expensive, but little knives like I would
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: give them to the guys. But then I started going
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: through all of my knives and now I've no knives left,
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: so I stopped doing that one. But just little stuff
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: like that, and then, like I said, like Coca cola,
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: and the kids love stuff like that too, because you know,
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: and if I have it, I just give it away
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: because why not. I mean, that's they've invited me in
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: and they've given me everything that they had, so doesn't
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: kill me to do the same in return, and to
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: share that with them. It's always a nice little moment.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: And their faces are always like yeah, thanks, okay, yes,
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: and the kids get so excited and they're smiling and
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: laughing and running away and eat like hoarding it to themselves.
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: Look I got oh my gosh. So it's always cubanly great.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: That's great.
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: Thank you for the insight.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always because if you're coming through and you're
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: not flying it, you're usually sort of adjusting to each
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: country's different ways of doing things. So yeah, everything's different.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: So that's great. Let's talk about food a little bit.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: I want to hear about Mongolian food and cuisine and
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: your favorites or where to go, what to eat? Tell me.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So the three main staple dishes will be boots,
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: which is like a dumpling, and then hosher, which is
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: like a fried and panada. And then my favorite dish
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: is called suvn and that is like a fried noodle
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: and dried meat dish. And that's my favorite as the
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: one I always request when I go to a family's house.
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: But those are the three things that you'll usually find,
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: you know, when you're with a nomadic family, that they
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: want to serve you, and those are the common things
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: that you would find at like a Mongolian restaurant in
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: the city. Obviously there's a lot more to that, you know,
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: soups and rice dishes and stuff like that, but those
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: are like the three sort of staples that I would
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: say most people are familiar with. When you're in ub
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: you can easily find, you know, little street stalls where
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: you can get hoscher. Hosher is super popular in the summer,
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: especially around then autumn time because the hosher is normally
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: like a half moon shape. But in summer during autumn,
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: which not autum, is our big we call it the
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: Festival of Three Manly Sports, and that's when wrestling, archery,
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: and horse racing competitions happens. So during that festival, the
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: hosher becomes a circle, and so it becomes this like
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: flat pancake, and those are actually my favorite because the
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: ratio of like meat to bread. That's like you're always
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: judging everybody's hosher by that. You're lifting it and you're
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: seeing if you can see through the dough and like
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: how much meat is in there? Did they use like
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: fresh spring onion and stuff like that. So if you're
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: coming in July, look for the round flat hosher. That's
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: the one thing that you have to try.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: What kind of meat is usually in all of those things.
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: It will almost always be luton. So Homboians don't slaughter
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: young animals, so it's usually the older sheep that they
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: would serve.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: You noted and beverages. You mentioned molten hot lava tea, Yes,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: any other favorites.
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: So souit to tay, So that's like the salty milk tea.
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: Every family, everybody that's all at Mungolians drink. You will
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: really not see them drink any water. It's usually only
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: suit today that they drink. And so that will be
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: every time you walk into a gear, you'll get offered
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: that that's the first thing. That's the first greeting. So
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: anytime you walk into a geary offered a white food,
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: so that would be the suit to tay. And then
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: they'll offer you dried curds as soon as you come
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: in as well. And you know these will be kurds
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: that they made, you know, recently or a long time ago,
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: but they've had them because they'll eat them throughout the year.
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: Drink wise, you will also find air rag in the summer.
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: So arag is the fermented mare's milk, So that is
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: also around the autumn time in July, So July and
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: August would be when they would make air eg and
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: arag is the milk that they take from the mares
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: and then they churn it basically a thousand times a
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: day for weeks on end, and they do it in
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: this big leather sort of pouch that sits inside their gear,
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: and yeah, weeks later they serve it. It's like a fermented beverage.
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: And that's kind of like the countryside equivalent of beer.
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: You'll see it in a big Coca Cola bottle on
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: the side of the road being sold. And so if
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: your adventurous is not enough to try it, I definitely
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: recommend it, but drink because it's full of a lot
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: of good gut bacteria that may be too good for
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: your gut, but it's that's a good way to do it. Yeah,
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: take it easy, Yeah, enjoy your own pace, but just
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: be cautious. Yes, here's caution.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Nice. I imagine in Ulaanbatar there's quite a food scene
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: and has sort of more international flavors. I imagine just
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: being a big city.
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the city. I mean in the city, you
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: can get Italian food, Mexican food, Green food's great, and
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: you be Japanese food, Chinese food. I mean, you can
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: get really everything. There's not going to be a million options,
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: but we have a couple of everything. So it's easy
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: to find, you know, places to take a break from
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: mungol in cuisine a little bit. But if you really
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: want to eat mungo in cuisine, there's a lot of
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: you know, local restaurants that are either like the typical
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: like hole in the wall mum then pop sort of
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: style place that you would expect, or you can go
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: to Asiana, which is a bit more elevated sort of
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: Mongolia and you know Asian fusion sort of stuff. So
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: you can you know, choose your culinary adventure when you're
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: in the city. I tend to eat it. I don't know,
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: More like I tend to eat at home a lot,
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: just because I'm picky about what I'm eating and I'm
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: constantly on the road. So to be home and to
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: actually cook the meal is like sort of nice in
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: my opinion. But yeah, if you wanted to eat out
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: in the city, like LaRosa is a really big, like
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: tapist place where people come and you know, there's a
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: pool table in a nice bar, and there's a couple
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: of places like that around town. And you know, we
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: also have a couple we have two nice jazz clubs
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: now and there's plenty to do and see, you know,
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: places to eat and stuff to do. So yeah, you
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: can always choose your adventure there.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Great. I know you have quite a few tips endless
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: tips on meanwhile, mongolia dot com on the website right,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: lots of guys for all sorts of different things from
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Ulumbatar to out there, and lots of different tips for specifics.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: But in terms of cooking, like if an overline travelers
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: coming through, one of my favorite things to do is
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: to go to the supermarket or the open air markets.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: And I wonder if you have any tips in terms
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: of which ones to go to and any insight into
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: like specific ingredients that are really fun to try or
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: buy in the supermarket or at the markets.
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so if you're in Ulmmitar, so definitely do your
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: shopping while you're into Lumbitar because that will be where
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: you can get the most variety of things. If you
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: want more specific stuff, you would go to Good Price.
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: That would be the more like gourmet. You know, where
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: you could maybe find gluten free options of things and
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: you know that sort of stuff. So Good Price would
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: be that sort of place to shop. Supermarket is honestly
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: where I get everything. It's a typical supermarket that has
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: you know, a Z on the shelves. The fun things
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: to buy a mongolia are tatterg so the yogurt, so
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: anything dairy is so good a mongolia. So I buy
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: a lot of yogurt and milk, and you know local
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: sort of curds and cheeses and stuff. Beware of the
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: camel milk. Only by that again if you would like
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: some digestive help. So certain milks are used for certain things.
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: Inside the supermarkets, you can find like jerkys, like locally
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: made jerkis. If there's this red bag I think it's
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: called it looks and it's like a jerky that's locally
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: made that I always take bags of that with me
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: on the trip because it's obviously so easy just to
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: eat it as a snack. When you're driving. Meats, you'll
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: find any meat possible that you would like. Usually, like
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: I said, the Mongolians tend to eat a lot of mutton.
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: But when you're in the city, you can find good beef.
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: And there's a place called beebe Butcher, and that's also
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: where I buy a lot of like pre made, like
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: sausages and steaks that are already seasoned and you know,
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: vacuum packed so that I could throw them in my
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: fridge and then just take them with me and when
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: I'm ready, you know, caught up in that bag and
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: cook that. So Baby Butcher is a place that I
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: usually stopped before I head out of the city and
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: load up the cooler the fridge, because yeah, they have
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: the best sort of variety of stuff. But yeah, you
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: can find everything. And Emart is a great place to
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: get everything, including if you needed a different I don't
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: know if your tent was even I don't know, maybe
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: you don't need a tent, but if you wanted some
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: sort of camping equipment, like a new chair or something.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: Outside of Emart in the summer, there's usually little stalls
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: with like camping equipment, you know, all the Stanley thermoses
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: and new stoves and everything that you know, the locals
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: are buying from there. So if you needed to restock
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: on something you know specific, like, that's a good place
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: to find that stuff as well. You know, you can
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: find everything in the city great, and.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Then I imagine as you head of way it gets
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: a little harder to find some of those specific items,
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: but I imagine the small ish communities might have some basics.
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so each town will have a little shop and
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: a little sort of store. The variety will be a
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: lot less, obviously, but you can get by. Yeah. I
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: tend to again load up on meat, especially before I
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: leave the city, because once you sort of get out there,
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: it's not that it's you know, bad, but your selection
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: is a lot less. And you know, sometimes I end
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: up just buying stuff directly from a herder because that
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: would be the only place where you can find fresh
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: meat like that. But yeah, the little stores will have
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: snacks and chips and stuff, but anything super specific like
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: gluten free, Like I'm antioned er if you needed something
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: like dairy or vegan or something, I would always buy
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: that in a city beforehand.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: Definitely great. Let's talk about some of your favorite experiences
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: or memories in Mongolia.
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: Oh, my favorite experiences and memories. This has nothing to
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: do with driving. But last June we set off on
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: a six day horse riding expedition to this place called
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: the Blue Lake. And it's really deep in this province
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: that I do spend time a lot of time in
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: either on my tours or just by myself driving through.
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: And I took one of my friends and we had
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: another client, her name was Michelle, and it was me
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: and two other guides plus three horse guides, so we
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: were maybe just make eight people and we were on
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: obviously eight horses, and then we had three pack horses
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: and we rode for six days to this really remote
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: alpine lake and went swimming in the lake and it
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: was it's a very sacred lake because it's so hard
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: to reach. And before you get to the lake, there's
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: an oa, which is a structure that it comes in
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: different forms, but this one was made of timber sort
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: of stacked like a teepee, and then there were sacred
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: sashes all around it and there were offerings inside of
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: milk and grain and stuff. So we did our little
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: warship ceremony at the o Wah, did our three circles
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: around it and gave it a milk offering and stuff,
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: and then went to the lake. And that was just
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: a super special sort of experience because it was something
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: that I really wanted to do and I never, you know,
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: have the time to sort of explore some of this
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: stuff the way I like to, because you know, I
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: have tours and I don't always have enough time, and
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: you know, there's always something to be done or something
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: to be seen. So to actually take the time to
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: go do this journey that also meant a lot to
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: the horseherder that we were with. It was one of
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: the lakes that he makes like a yearly pilgrimage to,
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: so he took us, He led us on this journey,
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: and along the way we stayed with the families that
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: he knew, and you know, every day it was sort
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: of a different scenery and different stuff going on. We
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: had a couple exciting moments, but overall it was really
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: like beautiful and just sort of amazing journey to really
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: like also get my horse riding skills sort of you know,
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: up to speed and to be able to spend some
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: stays on a horse. It's not as easy as it sounds,
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: and I ride for like regularly, so that was a
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: sort of challenge to myself and so that was definitely
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: one of my favorite parts of last year was doing
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: that sort.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: Of trick sounds all time.
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I wish I had more time to do stuff
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: like that, but maybe in the future hopefully.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: Mmmm hmm, awesome. Great, let's talk about we're going back
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: in time again bringing the troopy to Mongolia from Georgia.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: So that was quite a big trip and I think
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: you said, like your first big sort of overland drive.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: It's quite far. So anyways, it was really fun because
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: there's a collective article that I collaborated with a bunch
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: of travelers, as you know, because you were one of them,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: and I guess fall issue of Overland Journal. So it
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: was very honored to be able to reading that article. Yes,
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: go really know, but you kind of talked about this
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: journey in that article. And give some great tips for
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: planning trips because you have so much experience planning your
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: own personal trips and also leading other people on trips
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: and just constructing sort of itineraries and hot tips for Mongoalia.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: But yeah, this is a fascinating area of the world
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: to travel through. Storytelling moment. Tell me about that experience
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: driving from Georgia the country through Russia to Mongolia.
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I just went all in. That was my first
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: really big sort of overlanding thing, and that was really
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: the first time I'd ever done border crossings and my
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: first big journey in that car. So it was a
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: very you know, profound journey for me in a lot
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: of ways. My original route had me going up into
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: Russia from Georgia through like where Dajistan and Chechnya are
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: basically and going up in between that corridor. But because
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: of the war, I had to hold off on that
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: journey for a little bit, and then I decided, you know,
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: when the time was right, that I'm not going to
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: go that route, basically going north and out of Georgia
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: that way, but instead going sort of east and into Azerbaijan,
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: which presented its own issues because the border to Azerbaijan
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: was not open. I still don't even think it's open.
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: So I had to ship. See, I had to ship.
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: I had to ship my car to Azerbaijan, which really
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: it should have been like an eight hour drive, which
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: was the most frustrating part. So I shipped my car
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: to Baku. I had to wait for it to get
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: imported there, and then Yeah, got on the ferry, went
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: across the Caspian Sea, and then Yeah, drove basically the
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: length of Kazakhstan as far as I could, because I
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: wanted to spend as little time in Russia as possible,
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: because my car had Georgian plates on it, and at
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: that time there were all of the import restrictions and
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: Russia was having, you know, all of these sort of
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: issues with getting into the country, so any car that
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: came in with a different plate was being sort of
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: looked at very closely. So I wanted to sort of
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: avoid that as much as possible. So I drove basically
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: as far east in Kazakhstan as I could, and then
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: entered Russia there and then up and over the outside
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: mountains and then down into Mongolia. I think it was
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: I think it took me two days in Russia. I
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: tried to do it as quickly as possible because there
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: were cops everywhere on that route, and I was just
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: trying to not you know, get any attention put on
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: me because the week or two prior to me leaving,
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: there was a couple who had left to Bleasy and
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: driven north through the route that I was originally thinking.
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: And when they were in Russia, they got pulled over
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: and the wife was arrested and put in jail, and
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: the gentlemen had to basically drive the car back into Georgia,
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: and it was like a whole mess. So then I
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: got a little bit sort of freaked out. Okay, if
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: it's just me and I go missing, like no one's
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: gonna know know where I am. So yeah, so I figured, okay,
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: let me avoid that route, let me go you know,
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: this other way, and just trying to get through as
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: quickly as possible. And I had a beautiful campsite in
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: Russia one night. It was on this big canyon and
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: you know, there was nobody around, and it was just
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: very I mean I was up in the Altai mountains,
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: so snow and you know, just quiet and crisp, clean air,
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: and it was stunning. I wish I would have maybe
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: spent more time exploring it, but I was a bit
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: freaked out and it was my first big journey, you know.
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: But I do have a three year visa and it
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: expires April twenty twenty six, so I have toyed with
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: the idea of going back, but we'll see. It's running
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: out of time if I make that decision.
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, hankok Dina pro Tire welcome to you to visit
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: Expeditionportal dot com and enjoy a series of adventures from
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: the Jeep Beach Event in Florida, the Broncos Stampede and
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: Jeep Invasion in Tennessee, and the Off Road Expo in California.
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: Thanks Han Cook.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: That's something that I learned. I feel like I learned
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: it from you. Actually, I was reading either we spoke
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: about it or I read an article that you had written,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: and I was surprised to see that Americans get a
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: three year multi entry visa. Yeah.
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: I was actually shocked. I got it because I mean
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: it was when the war with Ukraine had sort of
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: started and was still going and at it sort of peak.
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: And I applied for the visa into Bliss, which I
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: think was the right move, because yeah, it was granted,
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: and I got this three year visa and I didn't
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: even really expect a three year visa. It was just
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: sort of like just applying and whatever they gave me.
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: And I even posted about it the other week on
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: some like Facebook group of someone asking, like, O if
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: I wanted to enter RUSSI elect. I said, wow, I
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: got this, you know, three year multiple entry visa, and
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: the person wrote back and said, that's not possible. It
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: doesn't exist. And I was like, well, I have it,
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: and I'm looking at it right now, so it clearly does, yes,
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: But I mean I didn't even really know that it
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: existed either, and I got it, and I don't know
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: how because everybody at that same point I was getting denied.
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: So why mine was granted, I have no idea, but
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: I will forever be grateful because yeah, it allowed me
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: to get my car from Georgia to Mongolia and have that.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: Journey and the border crossings were a little challenging.
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean traveling alone as a female. They and
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: like I said, my plates were Georgian, the car passport
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: was Georgian. Like the car Yeah, like title was Georgian.
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: And then I'm obviously American. I'm by myself, and you know,
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: they're looking at this car, going this is your car
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: and I'm like yeah, and you're going to Mongolia and
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: I'm like yeah. You know a lot of things in
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: their mind were like what, like this doesn't make sense?
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: And yeah. When I entered Russia, the agent, I mean,
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: I went into this back room and I was pulled aside,
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: and it was this whole thing. But he took my
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: phone and started going through my Instagram. At one point
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: he hit these weird numbers that brought this screen up
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: on my phone that I had never seen and what
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: I basically think they put tracking on my phone and
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: I don't know. He wrote down all of the answers
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: to every question then he asked me. The guy when
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: I was going in was fairly friendly. He was a photographer,
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: so he was saying like, oh, there's these nice spots
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: I see that you take these pretty photos and stuff,
• 53:22
  Speaker 3: and I had deleted everything saying I was a journalist
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: and you know articles on there at all, nothing like that.
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: You know, he was friendly enough, but what was intimidating
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: to be interviewed for an hour and a half with
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: him but for sure, and then when I left the agent.
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: When I was leaving was a lot tougher, but he
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: already knew the answers to all of the questions that
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: the first guy had asked me, and he was asking
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: me again. So I was like, oh, crap, okay, I
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: have to make sure I answer everything exactly the same way.
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: Not that like I was lying, but I you know,
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: you just get nervous in those situations. And then he
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: would probe me a little bit more on certain things,
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: and I was like, what do you want, man, what
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: are you getting at? And then finally like you can go.
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: And then you followed me down when I was leaving,
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: and he was like looking at the car, and then
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: at some point he kind of gave me like this
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: like nod of approval. All right, cool car, and I'm like, okay, bye,
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: Oh my god, get me out of here.
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Yeah, that would be I would be
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: nervous too, for sure. And it's interesting how different stories
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: from different travelers over the last few years. Because my
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: husband and I did. We went the way that you
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: didn't go from Georgia into Kazakhstan and it was fine,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: but we had Canadian plates which could be interpreted as
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: bad Organd I don't really know. Yeah, it's hard to say.
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: And I wasn't on my own and I didn't have
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: a Georgian car, and you know, there's you're not really sure,
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: You're just not sure.
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because people were at that time buying cars in
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: Georgia and then driving them into Russia and then reselling
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: them for a lot of money. So then the cops
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: along that route sort of caught onto that, and so
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: they would pull over those cars coming in and ask
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: for a bride because they knew that person was about
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: to sell this car for something like crazy extravagant amount.
• 55:13
  Speaker 3: And I was like, what if they decide they want
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: my car? Right, what am I going to do about it?
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: If they say I was like, I don't know if
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: I want to do that. So it all turned out okay.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: But yeah, for sure, Yeah, yeah, it's always.
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: I like, I like, oh, give un clinched my butt cheeks.
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: I like, I think I stayed in the hotel for
• 55:36
  Speaker 3: two nights just sleeping. I'm safe. I made it.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's a long it's a long drive too,
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: and you were just straight shot, right, So yeah, it's
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: tiring driving all day. Great. Well that's great. Now you're
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: you made it, you're your vehicles in Mongolia. Now it's Mongolian.
• 55:57
  Speaker 3: So yeah, she's Mongolian. Now she got imported, she's never leaven.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: Great. Well, before we wrap up, I wanted to ask you.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: You posted I don't know if this is on your
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: website or Instagram or what, but it was a very
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: comprehensive list of Mongolian books that you would join, and
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: I wanted to know what your favorite one is.
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: Yes. I actually just finished The Green Eyed Lama, which
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: is super interesting on the perspective of the Soviet times
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: of Mongolia and the purges that they did with the
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: lamas and the monks and the creatives at that time.
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: So that's if you're interested in history, that's a really
• 56:39
  Speaker 3: insightful sort of look at that. What other books do
• 56:41
  Speaker 3: I like about Mongolia. It's called Hearing Birds Fly is
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: the name of it, and it's about a woman who
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: is sort of like me. I felt like I sort
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: of resonated with her writing a lot because she had
• 56:54
  Speaker 3: moved to Mongolia and was living in this really remote
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: village and just about her everyday life life there. That
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: was very interesting because for me I was like connecting
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: so many dots to the way that she was living
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: and the things that she was experiencing. So that's a
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: really good insight into that sort of daily life of
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: a nomadic or you know, local family and what they
• 57:15
  Speaker 3: experience and using an outhouse and how you get water
• 57:19
  Speaker 3: and just this stuff that you don't sort of think about.
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: So that's also one of my favorite books. But yeah,
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: that list, there's a lot of books in there I
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: still need to read, and I'm adding to it every
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: time a new one gets recommended. So yeah, there's a
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: lot of good books on that list, so I recommend
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: all of them.
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: Great stuff. Yeah, I was immediately like adding them all
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: to my good Reads list, just so excited. I love
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: resources like that, So yeah, thank you. But what's happening
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: for you next year in twenty twenty.
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: Six, Well, I am returning to Mongolia probably in February,
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: and before that, my partner actually lives in Ghana and
• 57:59
  Speaker 3: he is also building out a lan Cruise.
• 58:01
  Speaker 4: Or seventy eight troupe and we were talking about driving
• 58:04
  Speaker 4: I know, and we are talking about driving it from
• 58:07
  Speaker 4: across from Ghana where he's based, to Nigeria because he
• 58:11
  Speaker 4: has some work in Nigeria that is taking him there,
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: and so we're talking about doing that driving route, which
• 58:17
  Speaker 4: I think you probably know a lot about.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: That right now, tiny bit.
• 58:23
  Speaker 3: Yes, So we're starting to think about that. It depends
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: on if his invite for this project comes through, and
• 58:29
  Speaker 3: if that does, then we're going to start planning that
• 58:31
  Speaker 3: and try to make that happen. But yeah, that's the
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: next that's the immediate adventure, and then returning to Mongolia
• 58:39
  Speaker 3: and then tours Zoom and I'll be in Mongolia most
• 58:43
  Speaker 3: of the year again, and as soon as it warms
• 58:45
  Speaker 3: up a little bit, I'll take the troopy out, probably
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: starting in April and just start driving. And I want
• 58:51
  Speaker 3: to start too. I was actually thinking about, you know,
• 58:54
  Speaker 3: which routes I wanted to start taking this year and
• 58:57
  Speaker 3: the places that I wanted to explore maybe, and I
• 58:59
  Speaker 3: was also thinking about posting more of that and then
• 59:01
  Speaker 3: if someone wanted to join me or if someone was
• 59:04
  Speaker 3: going to be there. So I think I might try
• 59:07
  Speaker 3: to do that a bit more this year, make it
• 59:09
  Speaker 3: more sort of accessible to join me on those sort
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: of journeys. If you follow me on Instagram, I'll post that.
• 59:14
  Speaker 3: But yeah, that's sort of what I'm thinking about.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: Great stuff. That's awesome. Thank you so much, Brianna. When
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: or where can we find you online?
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so my website is meanwhile in Mongolia dot com
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: and then the instagram for that is meanwhile in Mongolia,
• 59:33
  Speaker 3: and then my personal instagram is Brianna J. Wilson.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: Fantastic, So we'll find all your tour information on Meanwhile
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: in Mongolia. There are tons of really helpful tips and
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: best of and just a ton of stuff on there.
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: And yeah, great beautiful imagery from Mongolia on Instagram. And
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: I love following along with your adventures and tours and
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: all sorts of things. So thank you so much for
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: what you do, and thank you also for joining me
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: on the Overland Journal podcast. I've been looking forward to
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: this episode for quite sometime. It's been really fun chatting
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: it has.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 3: It's been so nice, so I hope to see you
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: and everybody else Mongolia deal.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: Yes, awesome, Thank you, Rihanna, Thank you so much, and
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: thank you also to the Overland Journal podcast listeners for
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: tuning into today's episode. We will catch you next time.