It’s time to be perfectly honest with you, dear readership. Remember when we discussed our visa problems from UB? Well, we didn’t really solve them, we just postponed them until later. We were really in a bind, and none of our legal options really seemed appealing or even possible. We figured that my visa, with … More Mongolia: Border Shenanigans
If there’s one thing you can definitively say about Mongolia it’s that transport is difficult, expensive, and takes a long time. On a budget, solo, or in a group of two, this can become a real problem as the cost of getting to where you want to go is prohibitive. Rather than blowing a ton … More Mongolia: Altai Tavan Bogd
On some level we knew that the trip wouldn’t be straightforward, but we weren’t entirely prepared for what was in store for us either. Bata gave us reassuring words like “there’s no direct bus, but don’t worry, there’s another way, we can talk later.” If it wasn’t for our consistent nagging we’d probably still be … More Mongolia: Mörön to Ölgii
It was finally time to bid farewell to Ulaanbaatar for good. After having spent several weeks there we were thoroughly over it, even after discovering such gems of the very limited food scene as Rosewood and Millie’s. We packed up and headed to the Dragon Center on the west side of town to catch our … More Mongolia: Lake Khövsgöl
Day 1: Our trip began with our introduction to Bagii, the driver we had hired to take us around the Gobi desert for a week. He came by the guest house in the morning to pick us up and his few-toothed grin and enthusiastic hand-shaking suggested that we’d have a fine time with him, despite the … More Mongolia: Gobi Desert
We last posted while hanging around in the dusty border town of Erlian. We spent a relaxing day there with a plan to head across the border the following morning and eventually make it up to Ulaanbaatar (UB), the capital of Mongolia. We walked down to the main square at around mid day to find … More Mongolia: Ulaanbaatar and Terelj
Xi’an Our arrival to Xi’an could not have been much more poorly coordinated. We made it from the bus station to the neighborhood where we were staying easily enough, but getting properly checked into our hostel was a doozy. First, the company maintains two hostels with nearly identical names on the same street, so we … More China: Xi’an and Beijing
Chengdu Somehow our expectations for Chengdu ended up being quite high, despite having heard somewhat neutral or even negative things about it. The one thing Chengdu definitely has going for it, however, is the food. It’s the capital of the Sichuan province, so it’s perhaps the best place in the world to find Sichuan food. The … More China: Chengdu and Langzhong
After a fellow traveler came back empty-handed from the China visa office in Delhi, we were doubting whether we were going to make the cut. Our hearts were beating out of our chests as we stood at the desk of the visa officer, he was fiddling with some sort of paperwork. As he unwrapped our … More China: Kunming and Emeishan
Mumbai Mumbai is a huge city. One of the world’s largest by pretty much any measure. It’s also not very approachable, and requires a complete reworking of western sensibilities when it comes to navigating and getting around. Taxis are dirt cheap and the best way to get around the city, but you’ll also get taken … More India
Sometimes the wrong train will get you to the right place. 