Dude Looks Like a Lady

A trip through Southern Mongolia is heavy on the nature. We knew this going in, but weren't 100% prepped for the total lack of modernity out there. What was even more surprising to us both was that the inner dude in me seemed to have been waiting for this moment all his life.

For illustrative purposes, a bit of context. There was a lot of camping. In tents, in the middle of nothing. No people, no lights, just some barking dogs and herd animals wandering around our tents. One night there was a horse so close to the wall of our tent that I could feel his breath through the nylon. Running water and electricity were rare; mouse-sized bugs swarming around my book light were not. We had been told we would use “natural toilets” and assumed this would be a quaint sort of outhouse. What a natural toilet actually means is the outside. Like, anywhere except in the van or your tent.

I've always enjoyed the trappings of being a girl and have gravitated toward the estrogen-fueled things in life; handbags, mani/pedis, the occasional juice cleanse. My childhood nickname was “Lady Flash” because I would sincerely pose questions to my Mom like “how many bangles should I wear to T-ball practice?” Never, not once ever, was I described as a Tomboy. So, when I found myself refusing available showers, instructing others on how to use the wind in the natural toilet environment, gathering a following of maybe-wild dogs, and forcing a semi-broken Mongolian pony to gallop along the lake, I was, um, surprised?

Now that we're back in the city with a bed and private bath and flatware at every meal, I regret ever wishing to be back in civilization. Eggs just taste better when you eat them with your hands.