Red Corner: Mongolicious

by Neil Woodburn on

Mongolia is a bizarre sort of place, in an amazingly wonderful sort of way. Journalist Jim Robbins discovered this for himself on a recent trip which he has thoughtfully written about in this month’s Condé Nast Traveler.

Mongolia, he tells us, is a combination of the American West and a Dr. Seuss book that is best discovered by 4-wheel drive jeep, steamboat, and on horseback. Crossing the remote country in such a manner reveals an amazing landscape of dust devils, yaks, yurts, nomadic tribes, national parks, Asian steppes, desert wasteland, soaring falcons, fermented mare’s milk, mystic lakes, and a big sky that puts Montana’s to shame.

Robbins traveled with Boojum Expeditions whose website provides even more inspiration to visit this remote country so desolate, yet so brimming with wonder and awe.

GADLING'S TAKE FIVE: Week of March 5

by Adrienne Wilson on

My goodness! The time has come once again to reflect and/or catch
up on some of Gadling’s finer moments this past week. Without further delay let’s jump right into things with this
week’s list:

5. Spring Break
Travel Safety:
The last thing on any Spring Breaker’s mind is the word safety, but I strongly encourage all
you in pursuit of booze, beach, babes and boys to check out this fine piece from Community Dispatch online. At the very
least you could even print the article and give it to your worrisome loved ones to show them you are thinking not only
about parties, but your well-being as well. They’ll love you for it.

4. Horseback Riding in Mongolia:
With
Neil covering the lesser exlpored parts of the globe in his daily Red Corner series once-upon-a-time remote areas have
come alive again. Earlier this week he pointed out the best way to see Mongolia which happens to be by horseback. You
see Mongolia and horseback riding are synonymous, it is the horse lover’s paradise and the only way to experience the
vast untouched land. If Mongolia is anywhere on your radar, go now, saddle up, giddy up, do whatever and check this one
out.

3. Eat More Goat:
Having gobbled
down on some good ole’ mouth-watering goat roti a number of times during my present travels I was real excited to
discover this piece on eating more of the animal here in America. Erik does an excellent job pointing us to this piece
from the LA Times which suggests adding more goat to your diet. Yummy!  While many American’s may have started
ordering goat on a regular basis there are several folks ever faithful to their chicken and beef missing out on all the
culinary splendors goat brings to the taste buds.

2. Traveling Book Clubs:
Bookworms have
often been regarded as hermits who only dream of seeing the world by way of the recycled paperback books they hide
behind with their coke-bottled glasses, but tis’ is far from true. In fact there are outfitters in the world that cater
to literature loving clients by sending them to locales where the book takes place. Ever dream of the Italy depicted in
the works of Hemingway, Henry James or Lord Byron? Then take a pause from your reading and step out onto the very
streets that caused such inspiration.

1. Urban Explorer at Explorer’s Club:
People often marvel at men who go great lengths to walk the Sahara or summit some outrageous and dangerous mountain
peak and while that makes pretty exciting dinner conversation, I can’t deny my admiration for the men and women who are
equally in tune with their own city’s secrets. Urban Explorers is what they go by and they have a club of their own. If
the concept of spending little cash and hitting the boulevards around your own town seems like a boring and less than
thrilling idea to you, perhaps it’s time you freshened your approach or try reading the fascinating links Erik provides
us with this week.

Red Corner: Horseback Riding in Mongolia

by Neil Woodburn on

I’ve never been one for horseback riding, but there are certain places in this world where there is no better form of transportation than a trusty stead.

I should have taken advantage of this on my one and only trip to Mongolia. I had a three-day stopover on the Tran Siberian in Ulaanbaatar but wasn’t able to leave the city because Russia had cut off the oil supply making motorized transportation scarce and terribly expensive.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that Mongolia is a horse lover’s paradise. During the days of Genghis Khan, Mongolians were the best horsemen in the world. Today, they hold their horsemanship in equally high regard. As the car is to Los Angeles and the gondola to Venice, the horse is to Mongolia.

I finally discovered what I had missed when I recently watched Long Way Round in which actor Ewan McGregor and a pal travel by motorbike across parts of Mongolia on their way to Russia. Man, is Mongolia ever horse country!

A recent article on CNN.com captures the essence of Mongolia on horseback as journalist Richard McGill Murphy joins a western operated tour across the beautiful steppes and mountains of this wild, untouched land. And boy does it make me unhappy that I wasted my time in Mongolia loitering about its terribly unattractive capital.

Red Corner: Mongolia to the Pacific Ocean by Canoe

by Neil Woodburn on

Chalk up another one for great canoe journeys.

With the opening up of Siberia and Central Asia, water hobbyists are discovering great swaths of waterways that few Westerners know anything about, much less considered navigating in canoes or kayaks.

British adventurer Paul Grogan, however, did his homework and plotted out a course along the Amur River (the world’s 6th longest) that started in Mongolia and then headed northeast, crossing into Siberia and straddling the border between Russia and China until eventually reaching the Pacific Ocean-a journey of over 1200 miles.

Like any good adventurer, Grogan chronicles this journey in his well-received book, Barbed Wire and Babushkas. An excerpt reprinted in The Sunday Times, paints a wonderful picture of what to expect from the rest of the book-gun-toting border guards, surly tanker drivers, $1 a night accommodations, friendly natives, and beautiful scenery. It is a great, alluring read that leaves me wanting more. I’m not sure about actually following in his canoe strokes, but I at least want to read about it.

Going Tribal

by Dave (Blogsmith Old) on

Going Tribal

is a series on Discovery that was originally produced by the BBC and aired in the UK as “Tribal”. Each episode follows former British Royal Marine Bruce Parry as he spends approximately one month becoming immersed in the culture, language and rituals of a native community. This Telegraph article gives a detailed account of what Parry experienced, as well as additional background about the intrepid expeditioner and what led him to this role as friend of the tribal families.

There were six episodes in the BBC series and if Discovery follows suit, then tomorrow night’s programs (10 pm EST) may be the last one, taking Parry to Venezuela, where he’ll train as a shaman with the Sanema tribe. Prior episodes have had Parry horseback with the Darhads in Mongolia, visit cannibals in West Paupa, practice donga with the Suri in Ethiopia, eat “rat cake” in the Himalayas and hunt in the rainforests of Gabon.

To those who might criticize Parry for even wanting to bother these remote tribes, he explained, “We tried to be very culturally sensitive with everyone. We thought about it all very carefully. My personal aim was to show each community as normal human societies with the same loves and hopes that we have.”