ULANBATAAR, Mongolia - Holidays can sneak up on you.
Planning this trip, I knew that I wanted to avoid China for Chinese New Year, when one billion people see how much they can overwhelm the country's barely adequate transportation system.
So I made plans to come to Mongolia, safe from New Year's Madness.
But I arrived today in Ulanbataar to find the holidays have followed me. Tomorrow Mongolian New Year starts, and that means stores and attractions will be closed for three days.
In response, I've decided to head to the mountains, spending the next five days in the countryside at a place called "White Lake."
That means no posts for five days, and a diet of mutton, mutton and more mutton.
Happy New Year's.
