So I’ll be doing the Genghis Khan thing next month…

Yes, that’s John Wayne as Genghis Khan. It’s from a (terrible) Howard Hughes-produced biopic made in 1956 called, “The Conquerer.” You can watch it on Google Video here.

But Mr. Wayne’s method acting is not why I made this post. I wanted to share the fact that I finally made my plans for summer vacation!

It’s official: I’m going to Mongolia next month (for 10 days). After long debate on my travel plans, I opted for going to Mongolia for a myriad of reasons, but I’ll give you the main two.

One: I’ve never been there. Two: summer is really the only time I can make it out there. I wanted to go to Japan, but after some review, I realized that it’s still logistically feasible for me to go to Japan in the fall, winter or spring. I can’t say the same for cold, wide-open expanse of the north.

I’ll be flying into Ulanbaatar, the capital, on August 12, and it will be around 80 degrees. Nice and cool compared to the heat of  Thailand and The Philippines, where a lot of my friends are going for their break (and coincidentally, where I visited last year.)

I don’t have any major plans as of yet once I get there, but a friend I met in Hong Kong last year told me to just up at the guesthouses and poke around to find travel buddies for things out on the steppe (or accommodation at ger camps).

I am very excited to travel to (another) country and get into some wide-open spaces. After spending time in a very compact and dense country like Korea and briefly visiting the very large, overpopulated cities of Shanghai and Beijing, I’m ready for a change of pace.

This quote by Khan at his death perfectly sums up my reasons to travel there tool:

…[M]y life was too short to achieve the conquest of the world. That task is left for you.”
—Genghis Khan, to his sons at the end of his life.