A rambling and largely impressionistic account of my recent three-week long trip to Mongolia.
I really did not
know what we were in for when I signed up for a three-week long trip to
Mongolia this August – I knew nothing about the place so whatever we do will be
new and special, I told myself. For some reason I had always wanted to travel
to Mongolia, sandwiched as it is between two big countries, Russia and China, and still
holding out and trying to chart its independent path at least after the fall of
communism in the last decade of the 20
th century. Mongolia was also
the home of the legendary chieftain Chengis Khan who had conquered such large
swaths of land in Central Asia and Europe in the 13
th century, just
on the strength of his not so large but fiercely brave army of armed horsemen.
What else did I know about Mongolia – yes, that the erstwhile capital was a
wonderful city of Karakorum which was totally lost but the present capital had
a most unlikely name starting with u -- Ulaan Bataar and that there were
ferocious wild horses there. That was it.
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