Mongolia Trip: Yolyn Am

Day 2 - Tuesday 9th August 2016
I woke up naturally right before sunrise and managed to watch the sunrise. It wasn't a super special sunrise however it was very surreal to be in such an empty and quiet landscape, well except for the noises from the goats and the camels.

Breakfast consisted of stale / dry bread and spreads including super sweet jam and liverwurst. Sadly, this was the start of 11 days of breakfasts.

After breakfast, we headed towards our destination of the day which was Yolyn Am which is located within the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park. 

Mongolia Trip: Tsagaan Suvarga

I am back in Sydney and already halfway through my second day at work! I really did jump straight from my holiday back to work and it was a little difficult yesterday. As mentioned numerous times, I have just returned from my two week holiday in Mongolia! In Mongolia I went on a 12 day tour to the Gobi desert and to central Mongolia.

Day 1 - Monday 8th August 2016
The tour had a little bit of a late start. We were originally told we would be leaving at 8am however I tried to embrace it as I knew the concept of being on time in Mongolia was going to a rare occurence based on my previous research.

The vehicle we were allocated was the typical Soviet van / Russian van that are reknown in Mongolia. The Soviet Vans are frequently used on tours as it has been said they are reasonably cheap to purchase initally and the parts are easy to obtain. They are also notorious for breaking down easily so this is something to be mentally prepared for. That being said, the vehicle that I was on did not experience any major issues (one flat tyre, the window handle fell off and the spare tyre fell off).

Books for Mongolia

What does one do when spending 11 days on a tour in Mongolia, with no access to internet and in the middle of a country. Why stock up on books for my Kindle! One of my exes bought me a Kindle Paperwhite for my birthday. At the time, I was a little irritated (embarrassingly) as I was adamant that I didn't need one. But it has now changed my life and I am so glad that he made that purchase for me. He used to read my blog (not sure if he still does) so Hello! Thank you! :) 

I have tried to branch out from my usual novels (read: thrillers) and have a bunch of different novels. These include:

→ A Curious Beginning - Deanna Raybourn
→ My Grandmother Asked me to Tell you She's Sorry - Fredrik Backman
→ The Versions of Us - Laura Barnett
→ Instructions for a Heatwave - Maggie O'Farrell
→ Luck, Love & Lemon Pie - Amy Reichert
→ The One Plus One - Jojo Moyes
→ The Choices We Make - Karma Brown
→ First Comes Love - Emily Giffin
→ The Camel Club - David Baldacci (a "safe" novel)
→ Harry Potter & The Cursed Child

Have you read any novels lately that you would recommend? Add me on Goodreads to see what I am reading! 

Packing List for Mongolia

This weekend I will be flying to Mongolia via Hong Kong. I will be in Mongolia for two weeks and Hong Kong for 2.5 days in total. A question that I get asked every time I tell people that I am going to Mongolia is, "Why Mongolia?". A very valid question and one that I don't really have an answer to. Mongolia was almost a whim destination .

This is the first packing post that I have ever written in the 5 years I have had this blog. I will be in Mongolia for two weeks and on a tour in a Russian van for 11 days in total. We will be driving around to nomadic families and staying at gers. In short, I will have limited facilities (such as toilets and showers) so hopefully the clothing I have packed will be sufficient.

Luggage
I will be travelling with two bags. The one pictured is a 40L backpack that I purchased from Kathmandu. I actually dislike the colour pink but it is a bright colour which will mean a) it will be easy to spot at baggage collection b) I can easily keep track of it if I put it down anywhere. I also have a Country Road tote bag as my carry on. I wanted an extra bag for any purchases that I make in Mongolia or Hong Kong therefore on the flight there, that bag is almost empty.

This is the first time I have used packing cubes and they are amazing! In the past, I have used compression sacks which are great (!!) however I thought it was time to "upgrade" myself to a life where I didn't permanently have crumpled clothes. That being said, I do have the compression sack for my outerwear that I am bringing.

Clothes
1 x lightweight rain jacket
1 x lightweight long pants
1 x shorts
1 x swimmers
2 x summer dresses
4 x t shirts
2 x long sleeve shirts
1 x flannel
1 x leggings
1 x cotton long sleeve
1 x jumper
1 x set of PJS
2 x tanks with built in bra
10 x pairs of underwear

Shoes
1 x Roc Boots
1 x thongs / flip flops
5 x socks

Other 
1 x sleeping bag
1 x sarong
1 x towel
1 x packet of baby wipes
1 x kindle
2 x cameras (digital and film)
1 x laptop

Something I do when I travel is that half the clothes I tend to bring are ones that I will also get rid of throughout the course of my trip.

Apologies, the photos are out of focus. I purchased a new camera with manual lens and clearly need some practice still! Electronic viewfinder does make things a little harder for me.

July Update

Another month and another update! I won't bore you all with the standard sentence but please keep reading to see how I have been tracking.

Work
+ Work has still been slightly frustrating however I have entered holiday mode and nothing phases me too much anymore!

+ This month has been challenging on my interpersonal skills. I have presented to senior stakeholders and in a 20 person meeting full of important people, I provided some input without stuttering! It was fabulous.

+ When I get back from my holiday I will become a more active job-hunter.

Online Life
+ I have revamped the layout of my blog ever so slightly! I have now included a drop down navigation. Originally I had wanted a multi-level drop down for my travel rather than separating it into different continents but alas after 3 hours of tutorials I couldn't figure it out. I think it still works currently. My previous travels page was getting too long, too detailed and just very blah.

+ Learning CSS and HTML was quite weird; it was a definite throwback to 15 year old Natalie who used to code / modify her Livejournal layouts. There was a point in my life where I could code (a very basic) layout. In fact I made a website from scratch as my major project for Year 12 Software Design & Development.

+ As part of this clean out, I also reviewed my old content (I have been blogging here for 5 years now!) and it is quite amusing to see how I used to write. I believe that I write quite conversationally now, however it was much more casual back then! What is even more interesting is how my content has changed. My blog has inevitably shifted from a random collection of my thoughts to become more centred around travel (domestically and internationally). These update posts are essentially the only personal posts that I write these days.

+ I still need to tidy up my tags which is a little out of control. I remember back in the good ol' LJ days that this was a horrible task and alas, I don't think this current state of tag-affairs is any better. But it needs to be done as I haven't reviewed it ... ever.

+ I have been on-and-off with my blog again. This may not be apparent as I schedule the vast majority of my posts (including this post!), but in the past I used to write at least one post a week. These days I am lucky if this happens every three weeks.

+ In fact, for quite a few weeks I was "struggling" to keep up with my blogs that I read. Life has been a little busy (keep reading) and I haven't had the chance to keep in touch with everyone. My bloglovin feed is currently under control again; hopefully it stays like that.

Life
+ In the month of July, I went on this binge-dating phase. I am thinking about writing a separate post about this but in a nutshell, I went on an absurd number of dates in a reasonably short period of time.

+ Due to the above, I did not venture outside of Sydney. Not once which is unprecedented! I will still be able to meet the #take12trips challenge as I am ahead by one trip.

+ Song favourites: Trace Adkins "I Can't Outrun You"; Birdy "Wings; Darius Rucker "If I Told You"

Travel itchy feet rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Bouddi National Park & Wisemans Ferry

I had rented the car for the entire length of the long weekend and thus headed up north to the Central Coast for a day trip. Bouddi National Park had been on my radar for well over 7 months now however it required a car to get there and it wasn't a high priority for me. But alas I made the drive up since it was reasonably close!

Hill End

I mentioned that I had wanted to visit Hill End during my Easter road trip, however due to time constraints I didn't end up going. As I was roughly in the area, I decided to head there on my second and last day.

I woke up to the valley completely surrounded in fog and it was just breathtaking. Stupidly, I had forgotten to remove my camera battery from my camera and in the -4 degree temperatures overnight, it had drained completely. D'oh! I moved the battery to my pocket on my shirt to warm it up and eventually had the battery partly restored which is why I still have photos!

Glen Davis Shale Oil Works

The Glen Davis Shale Oil Works closed in 1952 and can now only be accessed via a tour that is run every Saturday at 2pm by a local. It is on private property hence the need for a tour and honestly, I really didn't mind paying the $15 as it does go back to the very small community.