Chinggis Khaan Hotel Ulan Bator

... the Mongolian countryside for our night in a family Ger!!

WOW - John rode a Mongolian horse across the plains for 2 hours, along with 6 others in the group - the rest of us spent 2 hours on an ox cart. The scenery was quite amazing - open plains - across rivers - very bumpy ride for us in the cart, but John looked just superb on his mount - very relaxed. The reached the ger and met the family and were given milk tea ...

... are in desperate need of repair, with holes appearing every few meters.

The city does however have a very good feel to it. We visited the Intellectual Museum, which is full of wooden puzzles and chess sets a local Mongolian has created and carved (Tim - you would have loved it!) The afternoon was spent shopping and stocking up with some supplies for for the last leg of our train journey...

... the police station, where a sergeant on duty phoned a lady, who spoke some English, and Jon, taking no guff, spelled out what we needed. Amazingly, she seemed to understand, Jon confirmed, and soon, a young hotshot policeman with a lolly in his mouth appeared, joked with the sergeant for ten minutes, then motioned us through an unmarked door at the side of the building into a crime recording room full of people filling out reports, and dodgy looking characters ...

... This is a classic, third world poverty trap and to cap it, the Russian Authorities presented Mongolia with a bill for industrial development when she became independent in 1990 which technically makes Mongolia bankrupt. Mongolians however reserve their deeper enmity for the Chinese and the Manchu Emperors who repressed the people and their culture rigourously over the centuries. In a parallel piece of vandalism, the Russians destroyed almost all the ...

... i had beef, horse & mutton) veg & sauce (i had sweet chill and teriyaki) and then take it to the chef who puts it on a big circle hot plate and throws it around mixing it up and then serves it on a plate. You can also grab side orders of soup, salads and even side order meals which is all included. Needless to say I was very full but the food was unbelievable and if anybody knows to a mongolian bbq restaurant where they live go and have one and see ...

... prepared the best dance and had the best makeup. We decided we were going to be zombies, so during the day we made up a short dance routine to some creepy music and had them all practice being zombies. Then after dinner, we painted all their faces with blood and blacks scars and what not, even blacked out their eyes, then we went up the hill to the school to the gym to perform. I took some pictures of the kids and the leaders and I will post when I ...

... at the sand dunnes known locally as the mini gobi, where we were taken out horse riding by a nomad who resembled John Wayne. He spoke virtually no english but communicated with us using hand gestures and by drawing pictures in the sand. We rode out to one of the large sand dunnes, and on the way back we had to help our guide herd his cattle back to the ger, excellent. I don’t really need to mention what we had for dinner, yeah you ...

... we continue on our way. We soon drive off the road and hit the countryside, which is basically what we drive on for the rest of the time we are out of the city. Bumping and jolting along, we reach the ancient capital of Harhorin roughly 7 hours later and settle into our ger. After eating, I join another group there (they were more interesting than the couple I was with) and we end up parading through the house of the ger owner and playing with ...

... down was pretty dam easy and convinced the rest of the group to follow. I went ahead and jumped down the sand rocky slopes till I hit the glacier again... I decided to walk on up the canyon to meet Pete and Heikke who had gone a different way.. As it turned out a near fatal way. I heard shouting and ran around the corner to see Heikki in the distance... When I reached him I could see straight away he had somehow tumbled from the vertical cliffs above. Apart from the obvious cuts to his ...