Hotel Undruul Ulan Bator

Gobi Gurvan Saikhan National Park<br><br>This Park with surface area of 4.100 square kilometres stretches over 100 kilometres and includes the strictly protected zone of Yoliin Am. The Gurvan Saikhan Mountains (The Three Beauties) are the three rocky hills, the highest of which is 2,815metres. They belong to a mountain system dating to ...

... and the pegs were pulled straight out, leaving it secured only by the backpacks inside it.<br><br>Huddling beside the stove in the ger, desperately hoping for potatoes and a drop in wind level, we smiled our relief as our kind hostess Mrs Urna, suggested we sleep in the neighbouring ger as it was unoccupied, its family driving their herd far away for the winter. There was a storm coming, she said... a big one... it was going to get much ...

... we try that, the providnista (ticket puncher /conductor) denies us entry so we go back to my carriage and start yanking on the door handle until it opens.<br><br>I get on and cluster f*** avoided. <br><br><br>MONGOLIA to CHINA TRAIN RIDE <br> <br>Dom came and found me on the train and said that he and Max were sharing their compartment with a couple of nutcases so they were intending spending most of the day in the bar car, would I ...

... took over, fenced off, sometimes two in a yard, sometimes a car, sometimes a single ger on the courtyard of an industrial yard. Then they all disappeared, and ten minutes later, the road did too, becoming a maze, a network of dirt tracks, braided together for a while, then shooting off into all thee corners of Mongolia. We were tired, and I slept, the green expanse, the mountains in the distance, the rivers and the herds of animals fading until it was almost time to get off.

... park is was so beatiful and there was not a cloud in the sky. All you could hear was the sound of horses running, cattle grazing and the odd nomad going about his usual chores it was really peacful, I just sat on a rock for about 45 mins and just watched the world go by and also a low lying cloud coming into the valley through the hill which was beatiful. <br><br>We all meet for breakfast which was really food and ...

... I decided to try my luck again at riding because I'd effectively given it up some years before because of some nasty tumbles.... ( and taken up skiing instead !) <br><br>Thought I couldn't be in Mongolia and NOT ride a horse in open country....<br><br>I'm so happy that I've found my horse legs again and I rounded off the Ger Camp experience by riding out with Mongolians - the daughter of Shuren's Managing Director, a nephew, one of their friends and the ...

... very exciting because the previous session did not go to the circus. It was mostly acrobatic, but very cool to watch. They made these giant human towers 4 or 5 people high, and always on top was a child. So I am sitting a the circus watching these children get sprung up by a seesaw, doing a back flip and landing perfectly on the shoulders of another person who was standing about 15 feet above him, and wondering how, as a parent, I can get my 10 ...

... intruder.<br><br>When we got off the train things just got easier. Our names were on a board and we were driven to the hostel. UB Guesthouse was far from tranquil but it did the job. The main entrance / reception was like a cattle market filled with people checking in and out or heading off on excursions to the National Parks. We soon realised that people didn't stay that long in the city and ...

... hateful tone I have ever heard. THat progresses to pleading, begging, sobbing, which in turn gives way to a maniacal laughter, the kind usually reserved only for those in straitjackets. This cycle repeats many times, always punctuated by a revving of a car motor and what sounds like kicking a vehicle, and once, by vomitting. I hear another man's voice, calm and soothing, and I think it is our driver. Over the next hour, I hear a vehicle roaring ...

... Brisbane in Oz who will be traveling with us probably for the next month or so. His dry Australian humor is keeping us all laughing and we all look forward to his company over the coming weeks. Mongolia has been a breath of fresh air after the cold welcome of most Russians we encountered over the last two weeks. The smiles and the "Welcome to Mongolia" from the border guards was a complete contrast to the 13 hour frosty ordeal of getting into Russia. The trip through ...