I slipped and fell on adventure

The following day I was kindly collected by who will forever be known as “The Dumpling King”, the origins of said name to be revealed later. A delightful gentleman with an excellent command of English greetings and, happy sparkling eyes and a perfectly round head. When I booked this, I figured  it would enable to me to see as much of  Inner Mongolia within the allocated days of Golden Week. I was lead to believe that it’d be me (admittedly some of this may have been my imagination as opposed to any raw information provided) and a bus full of southern Chinese, non-English speaking tourists. DELIGHTFUL! For me, this would mean a peaceful trip without any unnecessary small talk… However The Dumpling King as driving the same mini van as the day before… I narrowed my eyes… could it be… did I score a trip by myself? Just me… and The Dumpling King? I eased back into the chair, donned my head phones and prepared for the long trip to the grass…. Urgh… We pulled over… O

Before Bucket Lists were a thing, Inner Mongolia was on mine. My grandfather always wanted to go to the land of Ghengis Khan, and when he passed away my sister and I promised we would one day get there, in his honour. Not that either of us really believed we’d ever get there. I mean… it’s Mongolia… And then I slipped, fell on adventure and Inner Mongolia became a possibility… soon to be an actuality. China has two long national holidays, Mid Autumn Festival falls in Golden week, this year, an eight day celebration of the season change, the full moon and the giving of Moon Cakes (which are the density of the moon… and after some investigation, most people don’t actually eat them…). It’s a time for people to go back to their home towns and spend time with family. ALTERNATIVELY, it’s a time to join the largest human migration with 720 million people travelling… 720! I booked a tour in the hopes of seeing as much of Mongolia within those 8 days, unfortunately you cant book