Final thoughts

Overall the trip to Mongolia was definitely a life changing experience and really opened my eyes to the countries where having luxuries is a rarity.

In Perth it is easy to get clean, fresh water straight from your tap but to see how the locals collect the water with a big jerry can and a scoop it is very different. At every location along the trek we had to collect water like this and then purify it before drinking it. Even hot water is a luxury that most villagers don’t have, they bath in the cold streams.
Little things like this we don’t think about in our everyday life,  we are very lucky to live in such a great country.

Waking up in the early morning at Beijing and taking a deep breath outside, you immediately choke as the air is so polluted and smoggy. The massive factories without many regulations to protect the environment, the enormous amount of people and cars all contribute greatly to the pollution. We take clean air for granted but these people have to live with it every day. 

I had a great time learning about how the community functions in Terelj when we stayed to help out at the local school. The principal was so nice and all the kids were very eager to learn English from us. Most of them even knew how to construct sentences before we taught them. The locals in the community would come down to weld some of the playground together or complete small jobs like that to improve the school with us. I could tell that education was valued by not just the community but by the kids as well. Before we left the village once we did our project the principal was in tears because she was so happy with the work we had done to improve the school. 

Mongolia has amazing steppes and mountain ranges which can be seen wherever you go. It is especially beautiful in the mornings and evenings when the sun rises or sets along the mountain ranges. It really makes you appreciate nature and it is also very relaxing. The amount of flora and fauna that we saw along our trek was massive. We saw everything from giant eagles swooping tiny birds to giant mosquito bugs and we even got a surprise from what we thought to be a regular bush but turned out to be a stinging nettle bush (making everyone run really fast!). There were fields with literally thousands of different types of flora that changed the colour of the field completely. When experiencing all of these on top of a horse it makes for a once in a life time experience. Mother Nature is truly spectacular in an environment like this.

During the entirety of our trip we were able to see some of the true culture and traditions of Mongolia. We saw the statue of Chinngis Kahn, some of the dancing, music and singing, the nomadic lifestyle and much more. I learnt that the Mongolian tradition is a very strong part of Mongolia. The people are very connected with their culture and even when they were being purged by the Russians they still managed to hold onto all their core values.

It was amazing to see some of what they do on a day to day basis and how different it is compared to what we do here. It was great how willing Mongolians were to share their traditions with us. When we were at the nomadic home stay, we saw the little kids getting up at 4am in the morning to complete chores such as herding the cattle. Everyone has a role in the family. In Australia we have it much easier, everything is available from the local shopping centre but in this environment they have to source all their everyday products themselves.

The world challenge side enabled me to learn a large amount of skills to do with logistics and management.
Allowing us to switch through roles such as catering, accommodation, transport and leading. All these roles develop skills needed throughout life and travelling as well. I learnt how to research effectively, organise budget money, communication (in person and also over the phone when booking places) and how to manage a group by delegating specific tasks.

During our expedition, we got to know each other’s personalities as we were together constantly. I think this really strengthened our group. We spent a month together in a different country while visiting remote communities, working hard and sharing a once in a life time experience together. This brought our team closer and made us bond. 

I really enjoyed my time on the expedition and learnt a lot about nature, traditions and everyday life of Mongolia.
It opened my eyes up to a new spin on reality and gave me skills that I will use forever in the future.

Gary who was our expedition leader from World Challenge made the experience in Mongolia very enjoyable and safe. I am so lucky and grateful to have been able to be a part of this expedition and experience it.

Above all, I feel so fortunate to be able to make a difference.

Over the next few days, I will be adding photos and videos to my blog.