Nomad land blog

It feels like bombs are thrown at me. They explode here and there. I am losing here and gaining there. It is like a battle. Shall I try to do my utmost to receive the bombs without making them explode or leave all darts and possibilities so that they explode?

Or shall I work  creating an armored machine or a systemized structure that would sustain all these arrows? That armored machine is a team I am a part of. At least I intend it to be so.

A little gain is happening. A couple of part time staff worked beyond my expectation.  Who knows their inspiration and imagination can excel mine. It appears after catching up with me and once their learning curve is saturated, they are going to deliver surprises.

If our daily work goes well that’s good for us. It means a lot of ideas to execute, more activity, and more income. But I believe life is more than this. Lately for a non profit reason I have been developing  a forum.  Simply the fact that  all available forum software are made in English and other major languages hampers the use of these tools for Mongolian audience.

It’s been taking a lot of time to select a software and change files and buttons to Mongolian language.

Mongolia’s winter is usually harsh. This winter has been a mild winter by our standard. Here are some winter Ulaanbaatar pictures. I’ve prepared this post long ago but did not put on the web. Now that  the winter is gone, it was interesting to see these pictures: 

Apartment buildings outside my window.

One of Ulaanbaatar’s streets in residential area with apartment blocks:

 Here is one of the grocery stores in the same area:

This year the winter has been a blessing. Mild, bright, warm. Every year we had reports of animals and even people being dead because of extreme cold in this or that part of the country. There’s still snow but it is nicely warm.

But this month I lost my uncle who lived for a cause and left a big heritage. He did not leave a vault full of banknotes. But his life was full of purpose, giving and waking others who were falling. A powerful life that executed a daunting task. His mighty acts make us stand in his shadow.

The next mountain to climb for me is Mt Teamwork. After doing this and that it appears that the next thing to conquer and master is teamwork. I think it is not going to be an easy piece of cake. Perhaps I’ll go through misses and hits and may see the result after many months. So this journey is on now.

Being the CEO and the janitor and all in between for this company, I have crushing workload most of the time. The to do list is always long: preparing the itineraries, researching destinations, changing/upgrading the website, and sometimes not being able to do much at all.

Once a doctor made me fill a questionaire which asked how many hours I work a day. When I said I work harder than most full time employed people, she said that’s the same with her husband who left his job to start up a company.

Last 2 weeks went away extremely fast. I was not able to respond to some emails in time. It appears that the next mountain to climb is to build a stronger team. Much stronger team.

Tour season is short in Mongolia as the summer season is the best time to travel in Mongolia. Since the business goes on few months a year and the rest of the year stays dormant or slow, it is difficult for companies to keep quality staff all year around. Seems like all companies have core group of people and the rest are part time employees, specially guides and drivers.

When it is warm and tourists come, everybody -students, guides, jeep and car owners, small cafes, big restaurants, horse owning herders, hand craft makers, hotels, artists, performers- makes money. So everybody in Mongolian travel industry is trying to keep the tourism season longer.

Roads really seem to determine the level of development of the country. From Hovsgol we came to Arkhangai province to the south, then to Bayankhongor aimag again further to the south. The road between the latter 2 was only 200 km but took 8 hrs.

Simply the road filled with sharp rocks was too punishing to the car stabbing the tyres and the belly of the car. Unless you are not careful the sharp stones can puncture your fuel tank and leave you empty on a road where a next driver may be seen after a week.

Here I am not including any photo of aimag towns. I never minded to take pictures there but looking back I think these type of images could have helped those who don’t know Mongolia. Spending 2 nights in Bayankhongor, we started to Uvurkhangai. 

 

Road between Bayankhongor to Uvurkhangai

Going to Uvurkhangai means what we Mongolians call the sound of dogs is getting closer. That means we returning home soon, home in UB. In Uvurkhangai we were hosted by a lovely nomadic family.

 They took time to let us ride horses and their families prepared steamed dumpling, booz, and played fingers with us so that the loser drank a bowl of mare’s fermented milk.  

This shy little man eating his booz won several horseracing championships together with his brother, brought medals and gifts including some ivory carvings and a tv set to his parents. The medals decorated the ger wall behind his daddy. From this ger to UB,  400km on tarmac road took 6hrs.

By the evening we reached UB. UB was more developed than about 20 days ago when we departed from it. I am not joking. I was seeing along the road more hotels and shops that I never saw before.