UNDER THE ETERNAL BLUE SKY

Mongolia. The name evokes images that are, in many ways, the opposite of the dense, crowded cities we’ve lived in. Genghis Khan and his army storming across the open steppe. Vast plains dotted every now and then with a single ger (traditional one-room circular homes made of a wood frame wrapped in felt) and a herd of livestock. An ancient nomadic culture that stretches back millennia. This was a destination on our travel bucket list, a place we wanted to explore before it made the New York Times’ “52 Places to Travel” list, but the prospect of planning a trip always seemed daunting given the distance and relative lack of information.

So, when a Mongolian friend from business school invited us to his wedding right around the traditional annual Naadam Festival in July, we immediately RSVP’d