HANGOVER UNDER THE SUN OF THE GOBI

There are many ways to wake up in the Gobi. You can wake up to a camel making noises outside your tent. You can wake up because the wind has decided to throw half the desert into your sleeping bag. Or, if you had a particularly successful night around the campfire, you can wake up because your head feels like two horses are fighting inside it. That morning, it was the third one. I opened my eyes and immediately knew two things: the sun was already high, and yesterday’s “just one more” was a lie. The Gobi does not care about your hangover. The sun comes up anyway. Breakfast was waiting. Tea, bread, eggs, and the quiet judgment of my co-driver. I asked for water. He gave me tea. “Tea first,” he said. Mongolian medicine. We packed the campers and started moving. For the first hour, I said almost nothing. Even the sound of gravel under the tires felt too loud. Outside, the Gobi was doing what it does best — absolutely nothing, but somehow looking incredible while doing it. Golden hills rolled into endless plains. The road disappeared. Then appeared again. Sometimes there wasn't really a road at all. One of our guests asked, “Are we going the right way?” I said, “Of course.” He looked at the landscape. “Which way is right?” I pointed at the mountains. “Today? That way.” That's the thing about driving through the Gobi. Your map is useful. Your GPS is useful. But sometimes you also need to trust the guy who has been driving these tracks longer than your phone has been alive. By midday, the hangover had surrendered. We stopped on a ridge. No buildings. No traffic. No signal. Just wind, rock, sand, and a horizon that seemed to go forever. I made another cup of tea and looked back at the two campers sitting alone in the middle of the desert. Last night, we were celebrating around a fire. This morning, we were chasing the horizon. And somewhere between the headache and the first sip of tea, I remembered why I love guiding here. The Gobi doesn't give you an easy morning. It gives you a story instead.