Hotel Mongolia Ulan Bator

... do no end of damage to your stomach - yuk!! We slept in two gers - 14 in ours - very cosy - again we had the only double bed - a fraction larger than a single and lying on a board. John did not sleep - I think I crushed him to the wall!!

30th Sept - up early - NO facilities - just a small hole dug in the woods and nowhere to wash - then back to the carts and horses for the 2 hour return journey - John had a different ...

... spent touring around with the two Swedish guys I had met on the train. We walked around central UB, taking in some of the sights and doing some souvenir shopping. We spent a couple hours checking out the Black Market, a giant sprawling local market that sells just about anything you could want. Many of the goods being sold were cheap Chinese knockoffs of western made products, such as North Face jackets and bags. The quality, however was ...

... to get translated at some point.
The night before we stayed in, because Jon got food poisoning from eating an American style Pizza. The day was spent running around town, sorting out equipment, police reports for the camera, and various other important chores, like speaking with parents and friends on skype, and checking and updating Facebook. The pizza was only an impulsive buy, but it seemed the put the door in for Jon, who ran out of our orientation session ...

... and Tom hiked up some nearby hills for 45 mins getting some really good photos, its such a shame the weather was not so good yesterday. We headed back to Ulabantor to the local market which was massive and myself and Tom stocked up on supplies for the train ride to Beijing.

We all wanted to go and get some traditional Mongolian food as we have been to failry western places so far and we managed to get some ...

... perches on a nearby hill and it's only five minutes walk to this most electrifying place; I returned in a somewhat somnambulist state on my first visit, really affected by the mysterious rituals I'd just seen but couldn't photograph: clashing drums, chanting, incense, prayer wheels, the people praying and the huge Golden Buddha now restored - you get the picture.
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However, I need to keep my wits about me as it's also city-ger town - where the poor ...

... of random ****...like apparently at 25 I should be married with kids! He even asked if I was fertile as he thought this might be a reason why i dont have kids or in his own words 'does it work?' whilst pointing to my groin! I gladly informed him that all was in working order but I didnt want kids yet. This is just an example of the kind of **** we talked about. So anyway finished my last beer off and said I was heading back and then they decided to tag ...

... are working here, and since they have nothing to do, they get together to help out local things. It is a good group and it was nice talking to these women. They were really interested in what I do at the camp, and what the camp does with the kids. They seemed amazed that I was here, like I was doing some great deed, I didn't really understand because I don't feel that I am doing anything that deserved the praise they gave me.
So after ...

... saw loads of wildlife along the way including marmots (a large rodent that looks a bit like a beaver), hare’s, rabbits and sqirrels. We stopped at a small stream to wait for the horses to come to drink, it was excellent just us with no other tourists in sight. In total we saw three herds, pretty close up, beautiful.

The next day we headed back to UB, I was just beginning to think that I could happily live in Mongolia when we hit the ...

... one little stream in the wheeled bomb shelter, and then our driver tries to cross a river. Unfortunately, he went right when he should have turned left. We knew things weren't good when we stopped in the middle. We knew things weren't great, when he yelled "CHORT!" and popped open the van to look at the motor. We knew things were bad, when the van started to take on water. Gathering our things, we opened the door and jumped out. Our driver actually ...

... ambulance.. As it turned out a helicopter wouldn't come and neither did the ambulance, A doctor was sent out though, but by that stage it was getting dark and cold and a stretcher was made out of a sleeping bag and some poles to lift him up the canyon to the van. Four of the lads carried him most of the way out but it took six of us to get him the final stretch to the Van... Heikki needs to loose weight, he's a heavy fecker...lol... The doctor met us just outside the national park entrance ...