It is perhaps no surprise that someone has asked for it to rain vodka atop the Mountain of Wishes – the real shock is that they get it. I’m standing next to a stupa, under a clear blue sky, looking across the seemingly endless Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia when droplets start landing on my head. For a second, it really does seem like a Buddhist miracle, then I notice a man on the other side of the stupa, muttering prayers and spraying a holy statue with cheap grog as a sort of offering. Nearby flags are fluttered to tatters by a relentless steppe wind. Just away from the peak, three men throw coins and more vodka into the void, screaming some kind of blessing as they do so. Women are not allowed to ascend to the sacred summit, barring them from this strange boys’ club. Even deities can be misogynists, I suppose, but several of the women in my small Intrepid Travel group are glad to have avoided the extra climb and the curious behaviour at the zenith.…