Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
Day 80: Even though typhoon Nida kept us grounded in Hong Kong for a couple extra days, we are now ready and incredibly excited to be on our way to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. The extremely early but direct flight takes about 5 hours and touches down while it is still morning (and with the same timezone). The airport here is quite small and we are outside the airport building in no time. We jump on a crowded bus towards downtown. Guess all the passengers of our flight are on our bus as well… 45 minutes later we are dropped in the heart of Ulaanbaatar. From there it is a 10-minute walk to our hub hostel for our Mongolian adventure, Modern Mongol Hostel.
Upon check-in, we ask the lady at the front desk for some suggestions. She recommends joining one of the sightseeing tours with a local tour partner. The good news is, the tour to the Gobi Desert is leaving tomorrow and the lady had two other guests from France interested in the tour so we could split the travel costs for the driver guide, cook, transportation accommodation and three meals per day for about 60 USD per day (7 days). The bad news is; I was planning my visit to the Chinese embassy the next day because I still need to arrange my Chinese visa. I look at the clock and realise the embassy is still open for another hour today. I decide to go for it and jump in a taxi to the embassy which is a 10-minute drive away. My heart is racing as this embassy is my last hope to go on the Trans Siberian Express from Mongolia to China, one of my top picks for this trip. Continue reading The Sands of Time in Mongolia
The World on a Wim 