From Mongol Global to MG Tour Co and more!
Our story begins with a man whose life was all about creativity. He was a musician, a composer, a guitarist and a singer as well as a writer, director and actor in theatrical productions for his church and community. For many years he composed a good deal of music including an oratorio, a Christmas cantata, children’s musicals, multiple instrumental and choral works and hundreds of songs. He wrote plays, lyrics, children’s stories, poems and even jokes. JOKES. He loved jokes. He made up his own and memorized the best jokes that he had heard. He enjoyed imitating various accents and celebrity voices – both speaking and singing voices. You might say that he used creativity to serve God and humanity.
He not only enjoyed being creative but he appreciated all of the arts and marveled at great creativity. He loved going to popular and classical concerts, plays and enjoyed great performance groups from the Russian Ballet to Cirque D’Soliel. He loved it when creativity and excellence was on display. He loved going to museums and special exhibits, learning about history, culture and seeing the finest art offerings from around the world. He had not traveled much but he was fascinated by the many diverse cultures in the world and their creativity and creative solutions to the challenges of life.
Overall, he was a happy person and it was one of his goals and passions to make other people happy. He had a loving family and loved being with them. I suppose that the only thing missing in his life is that he was so busy that he did not have time to travel. However, the few times he did, he loved it. But at this point in his life, there was simply no time for travel.
ALL OF THAT WAS ABOUT TO CHANGE:
One day this Minister of Music received a letter inviting him to go to China for a very small amount of money on a FAM trip for choral directors, with a view to take his choral group to China for a choir tour in the future. This intrigued him and although his first thought was that he probably didn’t have time to do this, his choir was very excited about the idea, so he went on the FAM trip in May, 1996. He went only to Shanghai and Suzhou but was captivated by the trip. It was an amazing experience! SO they set up the choir tour for late December, 1996-early January, 1997 to Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai. His brother, who was a high official in the United Nations Development Projects (UNDP) was currently assigned to work in Mongolia helping them to develop their economy in a post-Communist society. His brother wrote him, “when you have finished your Choir tour, why don’t you come up and visit me in Mongolia?” Which is exactly what he did.
THE CHOIR CHINA TOUR: The choir tour went fantastically despite some obstacles which we will save for another story. Suffice it to say that this man was hooked on travel. When the choir tour ended, he flew to Mongolia in early January. Now Mongolia is just south of Siberia. So going to Mongolia in January brings to mind the Indiana Jones movie where fur wrapped people were coming in out of the cold and knocking down shots of vodka to keep from freezing to death. When the man arrived, he looked out of the window of the airplane seeing only varying degrees of white and snow flurries hitting the window. His first thought was, “what on earth am I doing here?” However, he soon met with his brother and was introduced into a new and magical world! This was a land of nomads living in gers (or Russian built apartments in UlaanBaatar), with an 80-foot tall statue of Buddha made out of bronze, silver, gold and precious stones. There were Tuvan Throat singers, contortionists, horse-headed fiddlers and traditional dancers. The many historic sites were fascinating to see and the Khan’s Summer Palace had many unique features like a ger covered totally in snow leopard pelts, an empresses dress covered in over 14,000 pearls set in Shuo patterns, Mongolian totem statues, etc. etc. Some of his brother’s government official friends took the two brothers on a winter road trip (bundle up!) to Karakhorum, the ancient capital of Chinggis (you say Genghis) Khan. The drive on the semi-paved, semi-dirt, semi-non-existent road was quite interesting. After various stops to get out and stretch (where he viewed the incredible expanse of the Steppe with mountain ranges in the distance) and a little target practice on some nearby rocks (anyone concerned about richochet?) they reached Karakhorum. It was so cold there that the man would inhale and his beard would be full of frost. He would wipe it away as he exhaled, then we would inhale again and repeat the process. After an unsuccessful wolf hunt, ice fishing and getting the various jeeps stuck in the snow drifts, pushing them out by hand and teaching the Mongols “high fives” when they were successful, they all returned to the capital city of UlaanBaatar.
Our newly traveling friend had many adventures and fell in love with these types of experiences. But when the Mongol leaders and businessmen heard that he had just brought 35 Americans to China they asked him, “can you bring Americans to Mongolia?” His brother informed him that if he wanted to start a tour business that the various Mongolian people would be delighted to help him get started. He thought about this and felt that as much as he loved what he was doing, he also loved travel so he decided to start a tour business. On the way back to the USA through China he checked with the Chinese company which provided his travel services and asked them if they would work with him as a tour operator and they happily responded that indeed they would. So, when he returned to the USA he started to set up his company.
MONGOL GLOBAL TOUR COMPANY WAS BORN: So after learning about what licenses were needed, setting up websites and bank accounts, etc. The Mongol Global Tour Company was born in April, 1997. Starting with tours to just Mongolia and China for the first few years the company started to expand like Chinggis Khan of old to cover much of the world, albeit in a kinder, gentler way – we just bring tourists who come, spend money, have some great experiences and then leave. Over the years we have added customized travel to most of Asia, Latin American, Australia/New Zealand, the Pacifica and Caribbean islands, the Mediterranean, Antartica, Western and Eastern Europe and Africa. At the time of the writing of this article approximately 70+ exciting destinations worldwide! And we are still expanding! Our staff, while still relatively small, has added key people with the same spirit and excitement about people and providing quality services. The first person to join his company was the man’s beloved daughter, who learned by watching and doing and quickly became an indispensable part of the company. Her best friend also joined the company and grew into a central part of what we are all about. One by one we have added people with the same spirit and commitment so that we can consistently provide you with quality trips to virtually anywhere in the world that you want to travel. We have added staff in various countries, setting up our own operations and in other countries we have found like-minded partners to help us maximize our clients’ experiences.
THE NATURE OF MGTC: The same spirit of love of people and great experiences that characterized our Minister of Music’s work can be seen in MGTC. We love people, culture history, music, theatre, Wonders of the World as well as off-beat and unique experiences. It is our goal to provide our guests and friends incredible world experiences and memories. Our Destination Specialists are not just sales people, they have traveled extensively and know the destinations which they are working with you on. The destinations that we do not know as well, we will typically add these to our travel schedule to fill the gap. We love filling tours with excitement, adventure, culture, humor, music and wonderful lifetime memories!
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?: There is still much to learn and we continue to travel and develop quality tours to new destinations as well as to enrich the destinations that we already know. We are committed to providing excellent customized travel and personal service at an excellent value.
MG TOUR COMPANY WAS CREATED BY AND FOR PEOPLE WHO WORK TO LIVE BUT LIVE TO TRAVEL
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