After dinner, we came back to the hotel and instead of going to the bar, I got the wine out and sat on a bench next to the hotel. After Facetiming both the daughters, I settled down to feel the light breeze and watch the people going by. Sharmila got busy ordering food from Amazon and getting it delivered to Nikita (apparently, she has run thru her stock of snacks for three weeks within half that time !!)
Day 1 of journey to nowhere in particular
Stopped at a random rest stop up in the mountains. I think we were near Waynesville in North Carolina. Brought out the snacks and drinks and enjoyed all the vehicles – especially all those motorcycles – zooming by on the highway. It was a steep slope and with the trucks engine braking downhill and the motorcycles screaming uphill, it was anything but quiet.
Natasha is in New York and Nikita is in Duke. Not knowing what else to do, Sharmila and I decided to hit the road. We have no particular destination. We will take it easy on the road, enjoy the small things and experience those things we miss when we are in a hurry to go somewhere.
We will stay in the Midwest and East Coast zone, visit a couple of friends as we meander around and then eventually find our way to Nikita in Duke ten days later and get her back home.
Signing off on our crazy and yet immensely satisfying Mongolian tour with a shout out for Roger…
Thank you Roger for giving me the courage to stay crazy.
The strength to set uncommon goals.
And the partnership as we achieve those goals.
This picture for ever will enshrine in my mind that craziness, uncommon goals and the partnership …
And thank you Sharmila and Shauna for tolerating all that craziness…
And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we bow out of our Mongolian chapter.
We had all the normal goals that you would set for yourself if you were to go to Mongolia – you know the gers, the nomads, the camels, the sand dunes and all that. We did all that and more.
We had another goal for ourselves. Not something you would normally think of. But then again, we are talking about Roger and myself. If it is not quirky, it is not us.
We had a goal of buying a fountain pen from Mongolia!! Both Roger and I write with fountain pens and share a common love for collecting fountain pens.
Calligraphy was originally invented in China and the Mongols had their own variation in their scripts (I am talking about 2000 years back). In fact, we got all our family members’ names written in the old Mongol style in wall hangings that we are bringing back home.
While in USA, after a lot of research, we had found out one shop that claimed to carry fountain pens in Ulanbaatar. You can guess the rest…
We are proud owners of two identical fountain pens from Mongolia!!
Disclaimer: While the pens were bought from Mongolia to add to our libraries, they are not actually made in Mongolia. Nobody makes fountain pens in Mongolia. These are of Turkish origin. So, our bragging rights is “we got them from Mongolia” 🙂
One of the rules Roger had laid down when I was looking for tickets to Mongolia was that for all the down to earth living we were going to have in Mongolia, we have to travel business class to and from there.
This is also Roger’s first international trip in business class. It is fair to say he is suitably impressed. Some of his observations enroute are hilarious..
Sitting next to me on our flight from Istanbul and Bishkek, he looked up to me in between chomping down his smoked salmon and red wine and gave his verdict:
“I think Business Class means never having to worry about starving”!!
Touché!
