In June of 2016 we travelled to Mongolia - the land of Chinggis Khan. There were two legs to this trip. First, we traveled with Mongolia Quest to visit the historic capitol of the Mongolian Empire, Karakorum. There were dramatic landscapes, interesting sights, and it was a great introduction to the country.

After that, with hooked up with New Paths Expeditions for weeklong adventure that included nearing both the Russian (Lake Khövsgöl) and Chinese (Gobi Desert) borders. We were fortunate enough to see a local naadam, which is a competition based on the three 'manly sports' - that would be horseback riding, archery, and wrestling. As you can see, outside of wrestling, this is not the 'manliest' of events.

For anyone interested in visiting Mongolia, I would recommend both Mongolia Quest and New Paths Expeditions Both were excellent, and we learned a tremendous amount about a culture that is so foreign to ours.