GO WITH THE FLOW

Half a month in Mongolia living with nomadic families and exploring the country's storied beauty taught senior advertising strategist Uli Chan the beauty of impermanence.

- Lin Yanqin

The first thing that struck me upon arriving in Mongolia was how much time I suddenly had on my hands.

There were the long periods spent in our van, getting from one place to the next. The hours without mobile reception. The restless feeling of not having a packed schedule.

My friends and I had come to Mongolia in anticipation of a 15-day adventure exploring its volcanoes and vast steppes, and learning about its rich and storied nomadic culture. However, what we didn’t anticipate was having to unlearn our very Singaporean attitude of wanting to “optimise” our holiday by sightseeing as much as possible.

By the end of the trip, we had fully unwound ourselves from this mindset, and learnt to relish the moments in between.

“We will get there when we get there,” was what Nara, our guide for the trip, often said to us, and this was not only an apt attitude for our trip, but perhaps also a fitting motto for life.

AN UNDERRATED DESTINATION

Flanked by China and Russia, Mongolia is a landlocked country, with mountains to the north and west, and the Gobi Desert in the south.

Despite its long history as a power player on the Silk Road, a once-vital trade route that opened Asia to the West, Mongolia felt to me like a destination of mystery, one that was seldom featured in pop culture and rarely mentioned on social media.

My friends and I, being at the crossroads of our careers, were feeling the call of adventure. The five of us wanted to go somewhere different from the cities we had previously travelled to as a group.