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…
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…