On November 3rd, 2010 I left my job to begin embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. On November 3rd, 2011 a year has passed and I am now at 5360 meters, viewing the tallest mountains in the world. My journey has taken me halfway around the globe and I have experienced an incredible amount of life in the past year. However, my adventures would not be possible without the support of friends, family, and those that I meet and show me great love & compassion.

For those of you that have had a special impact upon my journey, I’d like to thank you personally. Below is a list of everyone who has been important to me & my journey over the past year. Aside from this public call out, you’ll be getting something from me in the future. Here is everyone, in chronological order. THANKS!

• Emily & Shadrack: For the garage space, I hope Chance hasn’t grown out of that FCB hat yet!
• Paul & Audria: For taking the rest of my stuff, enjoy my speaker system!
• CJ Favour: For your company, your furry company, and the great place to live.
• Glen Trickett: For hosting me in Van and the great ski days.
• Evan Kutter: For being my ski-bumming buddy.  I will never be able to eat couscous without thinking of you.
• Andrew & Alison: I love spending time with you guys in Utah.  POWDER!
• Mikey, Aili, Gen, Kelly, Amber & Cory : For the ice!  And for the surprise birthday cake, nobody has ever done that for me.
• Kristen: Your company in CO was great.  I’m still a dirtbag, so I’m sure more embarrassing Safeway moments are in our future.
• Jed: For the fun & beardy times in Aspen.
• Kelly & Aili: For the rad couch in Minturn.
• Jay Amin: For the basement bed in Denver, and an awesome dude to do some partying with.
• Matt & Rachel : For the great trip to RR and Utah.  And helping me keep my head on straight when my stuff was stolen.
• Robin & Chad : For the home, good friends, and great company in Montana!
• Cora & My Brother : For a beautiful wedding, and great family.
• Ben Brown : For the bed & buddy in Seattle.
• Greg & Tatiana : For giving a good home to a wonderful car.
• Erika: For the company and all your help.  It really meant a lot to me.
• Zack Jessel: For the whole roasted chicken, the french cheese, and the skiing of course.
• Dave Kesonie: Oh. Yeah.
• Tim & Kristy: For the big mountain.  I can still taste those brownies.
• Matt Livingstone: For the place to crash and good times in Cham.  Hope to climb again someday!
• Chris Joosse : For being my “ship it” guy.  There are more beanies in my backpocket for you!
• Jonathan Holgersson, Angel, & The climbing crew: Having friends like you guys in Granada was pretty amazing.
• Eva, Lidia, and Luckio : For being my family in Granada.  Particularly when I was so sick, not sure I would have survived without those cinnamon apples.
• Kristin : For the Fanta, and for your company for almost 2 months.  Hope to see you in Asia!
• Kosta : For the travel company & the BRRRRR! *Drinks Beer *
• Markus : For the climbing & beautiful views of Finland.
• Irina : For being the greatest couchsurfing hostess I’ve ever had! Amazing!
• Vera : You made Moscow amazing.  I’ll miss you.
• Julie & Sean : For the snowy, beautiful days in Mongolian saddles.
• Lorenzo : For the climbing.  We’ll have another reunion sometime and demolish beerpong players and routes again.
• Sabrina : For the goods from home!  I hope the Mongolian warrior has a good resting place.
• Rem & Johnson : For the trekking.  The dripping noses, the strange chinese goods, and the endless Dhal Bhat.
• My Mother : For handling all my mail, and not freaking out when I’m out of touch for over a month.

Sometimes you think you’ve seen it all.  It’s late at night and you’re drying your dishes by the river delta in Naiman Nuur when the one weak headlight of what loks like an old Dotson roars over a little hill and begins to ford the 60ft wide section of the river delta where you’re washing your dishes.  For those that have traveled a lot in Asia, you often say to yourself, “Only a crazy idiot would…” and then you see it.

The Waterfall of Naiman Nuur

I took it upon myself to make it to three fairly remote & difficult to get to destinations in central Mongolia all in Khangai Nuruu park area.  They’re much easier to get to if you have your own vehicle, but I thought I would use my thumb and ride horses where I needed to.  After a pretty comfy 6 hour bus ride to Karakorum, I got up the next morning and started walking/hitching my way to Bat Ozzii and the temple of Tuvkhun Khiid which is the legendary home of Zanzabar and built upon a remote mountain top.

Well, the road to Bat Ozzii from Karakorum is a serious offroad experience.  It’s half sunk into the river delta, though it’s not as bad as the section from Bat Ozzii to the waterfall, it’s about 70km of awfulness.  To the waterfall from there is another 30km and the road becomes more sunk into the delta, you’ll have to ford a lot of streams to get there, and it’s impossible to know which is the good way to go due to the multiple tracks some of which sink into the falling delta, and others which do go.  We arrived at the Waterfall around 3pm, and spent some time sightseeing the waterfall. Afterwards I walked about until I found a family with quite a few gers, and I managed in my broken Mongolian to tell them that I wanted to go to Naim Nuur the next day. They said it was 2 days and would be 10k a day! (Cheap, I would later find out that was 10k/horse and 5k/guide, my total for the trip was 50k).

The first lake of Naiman Nuur

The third day found me and my guide on a hot hot day riding for nearly 7 hours to reach the first of the 8 lakes. It’s a gorgeous and technical ride that goes through the flatlands, then up a muddy ridge, and then down a very rocky hillside, through a swamp, and finally to the first of the lakes. There we stayed with a family in a ger, pretty destroyed from our long day of riding in the hot sun. After being there for about an hour, my guide came in to borrow my switch blade knife… not sure why, I followed him and met the family to devour a whole lamb they’d just cooked up. A delicious, greasy, meaty experience. I love lamb hooves, meaty and tendony, yum.

Another sub-freezing night on the plains and we left the ger around 10am (Mongolians don’t get going very quickly) and we made the return trip in just about 5 hours. We cantered almost the entire distance on the flat of the delta (bounce bounce bounce). The family then offered me a ride with their friend to Bat Ozzii, during which he pretty much launched the truck full of wood, goat parts, and whatnot over every enormous bump in the river valley. Not surprisingly, he blew a tire. They offered me their house to stay in in Bat Ozzii, and I played a game of chess then armwrestled the dad of the family. Went to bed to get up at 6am to start the hike to Tuvkhun Khiid.

After hiking about 4 hours, I was picked up by a french couple with their hired vehicle who took me the rest of the distance to Tuvkhun Khiid. It’s an hour hike up a slightly inclined hill to get to the monastery itself. The monastery, in all honesty, was a bit disappointing. It’s a cool place, but I was expecting some monastery built on a cliff face. It’s built on top of a bunch of scrambly rocks, and the birthing chamber and the “steep precipice” you have to climb to get there was far smaller than I had imagined based upon the lonely planet description. Oh well.

I got a ride from some Mongolians part way, and then walked to the river via about 3 hours of hiking which was around when a major windstorm started rolling through the plain. I met a guy tending his sheep and he offered me into their house so I could wait out the windstorm to pitch my tent. The storm never let up and I slept in the ger with this couple and their infant baby while the windstorm turned into a snowstorm overnight.

I donned all my gear and left early in the morning and made my way along the riverside, I got a ride part way from an Austrian couple, and then some mongolians hauling wood and blasting lady gaga in their truck. Nobody else came along and I hiked 40km and setup camp. Next morning after 2 hours, I caught a ride with a dude on his motorbike and made my way to Karakorum just in time to catch the 10am bus to UB.

Ger time!

I’m 5’9″ and haven’t played basketball in maybe 5 years.  I feel like Shaq on this tiny dirt court with 3 tibetan families, with a hoop short enough I might have a chance of dunking on it.  It’s raining, steadily, and the basketball might as well be a greased pig at this point it’s so covered in mud.  I’m grabbing most of the rebounds, that is when mom isn’t elbowing me out of the key.  After the game I do my best to drink down aimag (mare’s milk) though it tastes rather like citrus flavored soy milk.  Every sip makes my left eye twitch; dad of the family fills me some more and says “good for stomach!”

That was more or less the highlights of my first night out on a 4 day horse trek of Gorkhi Terelj National Park near Ulaan Bataar.  UB Guesthouse connected me up with a family to get me a horse and guide, their 13 year old son, Ghaan.  I had a unique, uninformed, and always unusual experience.  About all I was told was to bring a sleeping bag, and at the last minute, water for 4 days.

The first day we drove to the park, and I was told to load my backpack with lunch & dinner, and leave it.  Then the father and man who was informing me of this, drove away.  I waited with some other tourists for about 2 hours when Ghaan (whom I had not met before) came and told me “horse ready.  Big horse!”.  So, I headed down to the stable where I see one bigger kazakh horse saddled up for me.  I walk around left of the horse to take the lead and untie when his rear-end comes swinging at me, ready to kick.  Shit!  Well, this isn’t the best way to start my day.  Ghaan has a pretty good command of the horses on his farm, and we get me in the saddle.  So begins my wonder of a day battling this horse to move, or for that matter to stop galloping!  I think I nearly tore the bit through his lip hauling on the reigns somewhere near the buddhist temple we stopped at later in the day.  After about 3 hourse of riding, a stop at a buddhist temple situated in an awesome rock ampitheatre, and a rock better known as “turtle rock” I’m dropped at 3:45 at a Ger and told food will arrive at 7pm.  Guess I’ve got time to kill, mongolians to meet, and later a basketball game.

Here’s a bit about your typical Ger.  It doesn’t have running water.  It probably has one lightbulb if you’re lucky, barely contains heat, likely lets all manner of bugs in, might drip when it’s raining, and probably has 6 somewhat uncomfortable, possibly short beds.  These families live pretty happily, with one car to 3 families, big drums of water, and endless containers of tea.  They live off of their horses and goats, and probably have one flatscreen TV (seemed like every mongol family has a TV & some movies).  They make a lot of milk tea, airmag (mare’s milk), and boiled mutton, noodles, and potatoes.  You’ll likely never be less for food, as if you just sit down in a mongolian home you’ll be fed.  Don’t forget to bring your hand sanitizer, toilet paper, and your own water.  Pretty much everything has at some point been exposed to yummy horse poop.  The dogs play in it, the kids kiss the puppies and well… you follow the rest.  Everything runs off of firewood and horses around here.

Day 2.  I wake up and tour the local cool rock formation.  This area has some potential for cool rock climbing, but it will be hit or miss.  A lot of the rock is great granite, but lots of it is loose, extremely smooth granite conglomorate that feels like it won’t hold crap.  Some of the granite crystals I pulled on, though part of a large face, felt rather spongy, yuck.  After 2 hours of playing around, I have no idea when I’m going to be going for today’s horse ride.  I wait another 2 hours, and Ghaan arrives at 12:30 to find me playing with one of the family puppies.  He’s brought me a different horse, yippie!  I have to ride with the backpack and the remaining 5 liters of water for the next 3 days, d’oh.  That night I brought out the Putinka soft and drank russian and mongolian vodka with the grandpa of the next Ger I stayed in while we watched the news.  Mongolian vodka is a bit like soy milk, a bit like mare’s milk, and just a hint of alcohol.  Drink, gulp, shudder, repeat.

Have I mentioned that the Mongolian riding style is a bit “uncomfortable”?  If you get a mongolian saddle, which I had the pleasure of today, it’s a piece of shapely wood with two metal rises in the front and the rear.  If you get up to a canter, much less a gallop it’s best to stand and stay forward much less get an assload of the rear metal piece, or when stopping smash your balls against the front.  The horses are short, and so are the mongolians, and the style of riding is with bent knees.  I suppose this is comfortable if you’re asian, I found it gave me some solid knee pain in my right knee.  These horses are still fast & strong though.  Unlike western horses, they respond best to voice and a solid whip to the ass.  Knowing little mongolian commands, and no experience riding with a riding crop this was a bit challenging for me.  As a bonus, Mongolian horses are pretty stubborn beasts.

Day 3 is somewhat a bit more smooth.  I figure I’ll see Ghaan around noon, so I take 3 hours to scramble up 600m to the highest peak in the area.  Lots of steep dirt, trees, no trail, and up to the summit lead to some sweet views.  Ghaan and I gallop nonstop back to his home, my low back is hurting from the previous day, but I’m in somewhat better control of this horse, maybe?  I’m pretty saddle sore after that one, and I meet up with a couple of other travelers who are staying but one night in their family Ger.  We go out for another ride, and I switch horses with Ghaan twice until I can get a comfy saddle, it’s a short ride, but I feel like I’ve finally got the hang of these horses.  My balls hurt from smashing against the front of the saddle.

Day 4 I’m taken back to Ulaan Bataar in the morning and get back around noon.  A shower is definitely needed.  All in all this was a pretty cool experience.  It would have been nice to have been a bit better prepared.  So here’s what I say to you are the essentials of your trip, some of which I lacked:

• A small backpack for some water, food, and strapping your camera to yourself while you are riding.
• Water for all your days.  You’ll get as much tea as you want though, but cold water is naught. So you probably don’t need 5 liters of water
• A sleeping bag!  Nights are cold.
• A long sleeve shirt and an insulating jacket (depending on time of year, gloves in the fall or spring for sure)
• TP & hand sanitizer
• Some snickers bars when you’re tired of mongol food
• A book, you will have plenty of down time
• One change of clothes (at least)

:-)

“Life changing experiences.”  That is the best way I can describe my journey to you. They say you can never see the changes in yourself, you are only able to be yourself and let others see the difference in you.  When I can I gaze upon myself in the glass of the train what is reflected back is not the same face I remember from a year ago.  Perhaps it is my lack of a shower for the last 3 days and my longer, sun kissed, disheveled hair.  I think, however, that I am seeing what someone described well on my couchsurfer reference just a few days ago, “Bram is a very positive guy with sparkling blue eyes flamed with the joy of travelling.” I like this new face a great deal, it smiles a lot, even when it’s sweating, tired, and hauling my 20kg of backpack across town.

The people & the culture have taken precedence in my travels over the sights to see and things to do. I have thousands of amazing pictures, many burned far more beautifully and effectively into my brain than my camera can ever do justice.  I would trade them all for another lifetime to live with those people and drag my favorite moments on forever and keep laughing.  People and experiences are priceless, and I miss those of you that I’ve had the pleasure to spend time with on this journey.  I look forward to the day that I see you again and I can regail you with stories of the world.

Next I move into Asia!  When I celebrate the 1 year anniversary of having left my job I hope to be most remote in the mountains of Nepal still, or perhaps making my way through into India.  Meditating with monks?  Trekking across the Khumbu?  Dancing and singing in South East Asian Karaoke bars with strange people?  You bet!

I do tire of the road though.  By december I hope to settle somewhere for more than a month.  I have my sites set on Chiang Mai, probably my favorite city in Thailand.