Backing Mongolia can be a trip of a lifetime. You’ll see things you might have never seen before. Make sure you pack the right gears and clothing for Mongolia though. If you plan on traveling all over Mongolia, then pack for all occasions: spring, summer, autumn and winter. The weather in Ulaanbaatar, the capital, can be sunny and hot, but as you drive out to the steppe, it becomes windy and cold.
I was in Mongolia from mid-August to mid-September; the sun was less harsh. Some part of the Gobi desert was cold and windy while in another; you can walk in short and a t-shirt. In Yolyn Am, your feet can be stuck ankle-deep in the snow. Most of the time I wore many layers and peeled off one by one depend on the weather condition.
Finally, it happened to me. I lost my ATM Visa card on the very first day of my trip to Caucasus (Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia). This is the kind of region where CASH is the primary currency of business transactions. Credit cards were not accepted in many venues, including the less popular American Express, the only card I had left.
What could I do except dialing the people whom I knew and kindly asking them to ‘show me the money.’ Thanks to all the friends, I learned about all different means to send and receive money abroad.
I got really nervous just by the thoughts of handling all these administrative stuff just so that I would be able to drink vodka every day and maybe shake hand with Mister DO-IT-ALL Putin.
My super-easy, spontaneous traveling days in non-restricting Europe is over. I can’t leave on a last-minute impulse, showing up at the bus station to get on the next available bus ride to wherever I want. I can’t take advantage of promotions and book flights leaving a few weeks later. I have to plan a lot, and this distressed me.
Recently I had a chat with my 22-year-old cousin about traveling and exploring the world. My cousin is of the same age as I was when I started developing this urge to see the world far beyond my front door. We are both immigrants from a developing country, and America was supposed to be that world. But after a while, even America gets a bit small. Like many 20-something Americans who followed the rite of passage from the New World to the Old World by taking a gap year backpacking around Europe or living in Europe for a year, I, too, wanted the same opportunities to explore Europe.
It is true that airlines are introducing all kinds of new fees and increasing fees on their existing services resulting in a ridiculously high final ticket prices. It’s true that they impose many restrictions on passenger while secretly hope that you don’t want to abide by these rules and will fork out more money to have more comfort and freedom. However, if you plan a trip to Europe and/or plan to stay for a while, it’s better you know now that you have landed into a a cheap-flight haven. With a little extra planning and use the tips I provide, you will soon find your footprints all over Europe.
Before I go on, let me ask you a question first. Do you prefer that the world caters to your every need and expectation and are willing to pay extra, not a little bit extra but a lot extra, for it? If yes, this article is not for you.
After months debating whether I should add another tech gadget to my increasing collection of stuff, I succumbed to the temptation and purchased the Amazon Kindle 3. (Talk about maintaining a life of simplicity.)
It took a while to get used to reading on an electronic device especially if you like the feel of holding a physical book and flipping worn-out pages. At first, my head got a bit dizzy from reading small texts in .pdf format. My fingers ached from holding the device. I left the Kindle on the shelves for three weeks thinking I had made another unwise purchase. Things changed when I bought my first Kindle book Marco Polo Didn’t Go There by Rolf Potts and started reading it on my bed the same night.
This tip was submitted by BELEN, a foreign student studying in Sarajevo.
The best way to get to Sarajevo is by plane. There are daily flights from a few European airports for example Franz Josef Strauss Airport in Munich or Vienna International Airport in Austria. If you are departing from another European city, you will have to book a flight which stops at one of these cities. It’s also possible via Budapest, in Hungary.
The first meal I had in the city was the chicken sandwich or sandwich “sa piletinom” at Piceriza Pomodorino on Branilaca Sarajeva Street, behind the main street walk. The sandwich is pita pocket bread stuffed with chicken and some white cream I had trouble distinguished. I came from an extensive sauce-flavored dish culture, thus if being asked, I can pick out one or two sauces.
My name is Cindy, also rhymes with travel junkie. A friend said I was probably a gipsy in my previous life. One of my many secret missions in life is to convert you to run off every once in awhile.
