Meet our Zumbee … Zumbee is a dedicated and long-term member of our EL family – one of our team of female Mongolian trip assistants. Zumbee is from a herding family in Dungobi Aimag in Mongolia’s Middle Gobi although she is currently based in Ulaanbaatar (UB – Mongolia’s capital city) where she moved to start university. Zumbee came to us…
Toilets. Always high on the list of travel stories and experiences – especially the ones involving a dropped passport out of the back pocket into a long-drop pit toilet (I sense a nodding of heads). In health and safety terms, long-drop toilets should have a risk assessment heading all of their own. What if there are no toilets? Just hundreds…
The coronavirus is a crisis for many industries including the travel and tourism industry. The tourism industry has always been resilient – recovering from the Eyjafjallajökull ash cloud, the Boxing Day tsunami and multiple terror attacks – but the coronavirus and its impact on travel and tourism is something bigger, something more wide-sweeping and something unknown. Prior to the pandemic,…
This Friday is Black Friday – synonymous with consumerism and excess but there is an alternative option – to help make a statement against what Black Friday has come to represent. Personally, I’ll be sticking my finger up at the event and here are a few ideas on how to mark the day by doing something different using my beloved Mongolia…
As a company, we call ourselves ‘manaikhan’ which translates from Mongolian loosely into ‘ours’ or ‘our people.’ Essentially, we’re a family – with all the same stresses, strains and disagreements that all families experience. But, then, also, the support, the unity and the strength that a family can bring as well. For those that know Mongolia, you’ll know that it…
Let’s talk about rubbish. As in discarded rubbish – especially discarded rubbish left in our areas of nature. Specifically wet wipes, hygiene products and sanitary items. This is specifically about Mongolia but also applies to wilderness areas in other countries. We have just completed our annual two-day rubbish clean-up of a national park here in Mongolia. And yes, there were…
I recently received negative feedback about certain members of my beloved team. But I didn’t pass the buck. Instead, I apologised and said that I take full responsibility for the mistakes made by my team members. When EL was first created, it was just Turuu and I as driver and guide. It was easier then as it meant we could…
Any ideas? Any ideas what the image represents? This is how our group spent a day recently in Ulaanbaatar – the capital city of Mongolia – at a felting project run by the Buddhist NGO Asral. The group learnt how to clean the wool, process the wool, colour the wool & then how to create by hand these intricate felt…
I am guilty of writing emails like a woman. Yes, I am a woman but it seems I am unconsciously using certain speech habits to soften my email communication. It was my Mum who pointed this out to me – looking over my shoulder one day as I was writing an email and reading the words ‘Hello! Apologies for the interruption…
I recently read a BBC Capital article on why ‘microbreaks’ when working can have a powerful effect on your body and your mind – basically tiny breaks that help to ease your body and reboot your brain. What was interesting is that I read this article during such a break when I spent a few minutes just searching the internet…
Anyone that runs their own small business will agree – there is never (in reality) a moments rest. That’s why I swim – as a way of giving myself a challenge outside of running Eternal Landscapes Mongolia as a business. And I’ve come to believe that winter swimming is good for running a business. I have always swum – I love the…
“Here’s to strong women: may we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.” Mary Portas I recently went to a talk by Mary Portas where she discussed her new manifesto and book – Work Like A Woman. People seem to have a similar relationship to Mary Portas as they do with marmite. They either love her or…
When you think of Mongolia you might not automatically think of swimming in Mongolia. It’s the second largest landlocked country in the world for a start, more than 30% of its landmass is covered by the Gobi Desert – the world’s 5th largest desert and the number of swimming pools outside of the capital city of Ulaanbaatar can be counted…
One of my favourite quotes about Mongolia is by the author Steven J Bodio in his book Eagle Dreams. In just a few words he sums up how I feel about Mongolia … ‘Each time I return I see constant changes alongside the things that never change. I love its paradoxes. Its space and hospitality, its freedom and ancient customs.…
Girl Power – a phrase from the 1990s and early 2000s and, as I’m always slightly off-trend, one I continue to use. I use it in relation to my trip assistants – all of whom are Mongolian women. Do I provide opportunities to Mongolian women to tick boxes the equal opportunities box? No. It goes deeper than that. I am…
As part of my business philosophy, I always try to meet with our guests when I am in Mongolia. True, I often look quite mad – arriving on foot or by mountain bike (when it hasn’t been stolen). Slightly red faced as I’m usually late. I guess I don’t come across as a boss or business owner so there’s often…
I work in tourism and it shocks me the power that negative TripAdvisor reviews wield over bookings – how scared companies seem to be of negative reviews and of making a mistake. Yet, I have always believed that without mistakes we cannot learn. We are human and it is human nature to make mistakes. Without mistakes we cannot learn, strengthen…
Let’s start this post with an experience I recently had. I am from the rural county of Devon in the UK – based in a small town on the on the edge of Dartmoor National Park. I return there when I’m not in Mongolia. The small town was hosting its annual local Food and Music Festival. It’s a celebration of…
Menstruation. True, not something you automatically consider when you think of Mongolia. And you may wonder where this blog post is going. MMiEEP (Managing Menstruation in Extreme Environments Project) is a long-term UK based research project created by the Women’s Adventure Expo, ooking to identify and explore issues around menstruation in extreme or challenging environments. The project looks to produce…