Attila Hotel Ulan Bator

I was both excited and pensive about getting on the train as although it was undoubtedly going to be an adventure, 6 days with nothing to do is a long time! Thankfully the trip flew by and the whole experience was well worth doing. <br><br>Our first class cabins were spacious and comfortable and frankly better than I thought they would be. The shower room was terrible but at least there was running water and a sink so washing was possible ...

... 1 afternoon 10 years ago, has not tried cooking since.<br><br><br><br>TICKET FIASCO ON MONGOLIA BEIJING TRAIN<br> <br>It just when you think that everythings prepared that something really screws up. <br><br>My train to Beijing was due to leave at 8am. I'd paid all my hostel bills the night before, arranged a 7am taxi to the station, got some food for the train. I even found a local at the station to translate the announcements so I ...

... Ger to Ger, as they explained about Nomadic customs and foods, with a quiet &#8220;'Scuse me...&#8221;. The orientation session was interesting, they told us about Gers, told us what Nomads ate and their customs, and what we should andd shouldn't do with their horses and dogs. We would find out the truth of it anyway in a day, so it wasn't so important, but they also gave us a handbook with phrases and words in Mongolian, which might come in useful later. <br>So here ...

... passaient cette porte. Pourtant on avait fait un gros effort vestimentaire : Nico en short et pull à capuche, moi en pantalon et chaussures de rando, tous les deux avec la barbe de 3 semaines. La grande classe. Comme ils ont vu qu'on n'était pas des rigolos ils ont viré trois gars d'une table assez grande pour 8 rien que pour nous. Et quand 2 gars sont venus s'asseoir à côté de nous, le videur est venu les chasser et ça a failli finir en bagarre. On est resté le temps ...

... the traffic and ......<br><br>as they don't usually stop .....<br><br>trust the drivers to go round you, which they do...<br><br>VERY NEATLY.... <br><br>I have no wish to examine the Mongolian roadkill statistics if they exist but I don't think they kill that many: it would be very messy and the police would have to measure - take statements and so on - and they don't actually want to kill you, so all in all, you're pretty safe actually...(?)<br><br ...

... ger camp&#8230;hike to monastery&#8230;horseback riding&#8230;buuz making&#8230;getting sick&#8230;day at hotel&#8230;train to China&#8230;great wall&#8230;toboggan&#8230;forbidden city&#8230;final dinner at the lakes&#8230;people dancing&#8230;endless kites&#8230;Starbucks&#8230;drinks&#823 0;farewells&#8230;<br><br>Thank you all for a marvelous trip!

... there was one 18 year-old who currently lives in Singapore but lived in both Denver, Colorado and Oahu, Hawaii for a very long time. Others in his group also were currently living in other countries but all were still Mongolian, including him.<br><br>Things went very differently this session than all the other have. Not so much in what we did, but in the order we did them. On the second day we traditionally have a teachers concert, in which I ...

... were different people, with different families and now we were one family with the same memories. They all began crying and it only let up for about 30 min all the way until they went to sleep. <br> The next day we loaded them on the buses and brought them back into UB to their parents and we got the new group. The new group is slightly older, but better at English than the previous two. There are some students who are from Mongolia and live here ...

... is a sumo champion, and the family lives with their adults daughters, one of whom is also an animal doctor (all present). Shortly, our driver, grinning, pokes his head into the ger and says, "Ok, go!" It seems that he managed to find a group of people in two Land Rovers who are going where we are, and they'll take us. Later, when talking to our driver, I find out they introduced themselves as policeman (presumably off-duty). I whip my pants back on ...

... rain seeming our constant companions! A day that I will always remember - not totally fondly - was our ride around the Moscow ring road. At the time I likened it to one of Dante's deeper levels of hell - stuck on the Moscow ring road for all eternity. Massively congested traffic, stop-starting for hours, on a BMW that is just a bit to tall for me to touch the floor easily, uncertain of the route and therefore which ...