The Aral Sea=Dakota Access Pipeline? Big Government vs Environment
What are the long term effects of big government decisions on the environment?
Category Post-Stay Perspectives
Inspiration
I started following Juvena (AKA The Wandering Wasp) about a year before I took the trip to Mongolia. Life is short and if I remember correctly, it was the death of a friend that helped inspire her to take her…
Debt, Poverty and Micro-finance
Predatory lending as explained in the 1970’s sitcom “Good Times”: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or [insert politically correct term of choice here]. I’m writing this in the days of the Christmas holiday when I and many around me are surrounded…
The Story of Paris, Sichang and “Gym Families”
This is a story of recent events combined with memories from a trip I took some 17 years ago. Last week my dear friend Paris Alexander, of Bay Area boxing fame, was involved in a bicycle accident in San Francisco,…
The Mongolian Deel
What’s the deal with the Mongolian deel? 😀 Joseph’s host on the left is wearing a traditional deel which might be described as a warm heavy duty overcoat. This particular type of deel would fit into the category of “work…
Mongolia- A funny memory
I’m looping back to Mongolia because I had a funny memory while I was binge watching ” Cobra Kai” the Karate Kid saga remake on youtube… This is my (very patient) host Jvvureg. In the picture he’s demonstrating how to…
Retracing the footsteps of Genghis Khan
Perhaps the title should have read “hoof prints” of Genghis Khan instead of “footsteps”. Anyway, this post is inspired by the Journey of Australian Tim Cope, who in 2006 made a SOLO journey lasting 2.5 years on horseback from Central…
Natural Light in the Mongolian Ger
Do you see that thing in the background under the horse’s legs (click on pic to enlarge)? Do you have any guess what it is? It looks like a wagon wheel, like in the old pioneer days of the USA,…
Happy New Year! A list of things I appreciate!
It’s New Year’s Day. It’s a time when people reflect on the year gone by and set goals for the upcoming year. I have never been one to make New Year’s resolutions- The idea of waiting for the end of…
Spirituality, Religion and Superstition in Mongolia
I would describe the Mongolian people that I met as quite spiritual, with a close connection to nature, animals and the land. In this way I believe they are similar to the Native American tribes of the USA. I started…
The Merit of Natural Ingredients- Mongolian Diet
I lost ~ 6 lbs (2.7 kg) in 2 weeks while in Mongolia. Much of this had to do with the physical activity (work) every day, but also because of the good diet. With the exception of store bought bread,…
Improvisation and re-purposing.
Just a short post. As I mentioned earlier, the nomads are quite resourceful. Here they’ve used what looks like an old truck tire as a feeding trough. Maybe it is not a truck tire because I can’t understand how they…
Plastics on the Mongolian steppe
“Every piece of plastic created is still on this planet in one form or another” When you think about it, that statement is rather profound. Before I left on my trip to Mongolia, I was very curious about what environmental…
First Words of Mongolian
Just a quick post/ video here. I hadn’t really properly prepared in terms of learning some of the language before I left. I doubt it would have helped much. I was able to get by using a phrasebook that I…
The “Central Asian” knot
I remember sometimes my hands would be numb from the cold in the morning- so numb that I had some difficulty tying the knot to tether the horses after tracking them down. Durukh showed me a “Mongolian” knot that he…
Seeing ourselves in animals
In the same way that humans may abandon, give up their children for adoption for otherwise just refuse to acknowledge them, so do these animals. We (humans) can see our own behavior in animals. Biology and psychology transcend the line…
“See you at the local watering hole”
“See you at the local watering hole” is an expression used in the USA to mean, “I’ll meet you at the nearby bar after work.” Where did the saying come from?
Goats play dead :-)
Just a short post and video about a small interesting thing I learned during my stay: It wasn’t until I returned to the USA that I learned certain types of goats (pygmy goats in this case) have a nervous reaction…
The Nomad Economy
I had often wondered about how the Nomads earn a living. My impression was that they just “lived off the land” meaning they get whatever they need to live/survive from their animals and land itself. “Barter” and purchase of goods…