by Robin EwingNov 2, 2013 The South China Morning post published my short article on Mongolia with some photos in today’s Sunday magazine! Click here for the the link!
by Robin EwingSept. 10, 2013 Opel made it! Last week, she arrived at the Go Help office in Ulaanbaatar by tow truck. Munhuu, the mechanic who rescued her, says he’ll soon have her back in tip-top shape. I’m thankful she’s no longer stranded in the harsh lands of...
by Robin EwingThursday Aug 15, 2013 Mongolia is beautiful: broad, flat ranges of brushed green with pale flowers, white gers dotting the horizon, small horses with colorful bridles stamping past, blue lakes and glacier streams and mountains like crinkled tinfoil. Men...
by Robin EwingWednesday, Aug 14, 2013 A small, blond border guard in long braids and a camouflage uniform waves us out of Russia, and the tarmac immediately turns to dirt. A few miles later, we pull up to Mongolia, but the gate is locked. It is lunchtime. Russia...
by Robin EwingSaturday, Aug 10, 2013 From Almaty north to the Russian border is a 23-hour drive, if you include a 15-minute bread and cheese dinner under a gas station lamp, a chocolate stop and a one-hour nap in the front seat pulled over on the side of the road. It...
by Robin EwingAug 9, 2013 We limped up to Kazakhstan in a billow of black smoke. The compression on the newly repaired engine was gone (I’m guessing the stoney mechanics duct taped it all back together), cutting off power to the engine, but if we continuously...
by Robin EwingAug 9, 2013 And it’s fixed! A happy me with one of the mechanics. The specialist was called in, a few more new people showed up and all nine of them spent the day putting Opel back together. There were a few false starts but in the end they did it....
By Robin Ewing Aug 8, 2013 The car will be ready by 5pm, the head mechanic said yesterday. At 5pm, the engine parts were still scattered across the floor, dozens of bolts lined up on the windshield. Six men and a boy in green suede shoes with silver buckles lean into...
by Robin EwingAug. 3, 2013 At 1am, there was a knock on the van window. It had stormed up in the mountains where we had camped in northeast Kyrgyzstan and our makeshift tarp tore off, sending us into the vans for sleep. I was curled up in front, wrapped in blankets,...
by Robin EwingJuly 26, 2013 With a few hours to spare and a broken power-steering line, we made it to the Turkmenistan border. There, customs tore our car apart. A team of three, including a pretty pregnant women with excellent English she learned in a “special...
