Ten years on, the guides still run the company. The Land Cruiser is still in the fleet. The conviction that built Rara Avis hasn't changed.
In 2016, three guides who had grown up in Ulaanbaatar, founder Tuvshin Erdenebaatar among them, sat down in a kitchen and wrote a list. It was not a business plan. It was a list of everything they did not want to see happen to their country's tourism industry.
No foreign operator selling a fantasy Mongolia to people who would never meet a Mongolian. No franchise standards imported from hotels 6,000 kilometres away. No handshake subcontracts that passed every real guest interaction to someone who was not held accountable.
They put a Land Cruiser against the list and started Rara Avis. Ten years later, that list is still pinned to a wall in our Ulaanbaatar office.
Three guides, one Land Cruiser, a list on a wall. First season, 22 guests, eight tours.
Orkhon Ger Camp opens. First Rara Avis owned lodging. The question of consistency gets answered by owning the pillow.
First 40 trees planted at Big Sky Lodge. Billion Trees becomes permanent. Impact stops being PR.
Steppe Reset opens applications. Four properties operational. Ranger team expands to 18. What we do is what we are.
Every guest who arrives becomes part of the next chapter of the story we are writing.