The Continental Hotel Ulan Bator

... to get on, excited to get off! But it was less the journey that made it so good than the satisfaction of going so far without a plain and, of course, making it to Asia!

So Mongolia is our first proper stop in Asia proper and it’s an amazing country. Everyone coming to Mongolia arrives in Ulaan Batoor which a pretty grim city – a place thats grown far too fast and as a result has a really appalling traffic problem, a pollution problem and a hideous ...

I was getting deja vu...

We were staying at our final ger, due to head back to Mandalgovi the next morning, 260 km across more desert, on camels for the first few km to the nearest village, with the rest of the miles by jeep. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and, even behind the relative protection of the horse shelter, we had had to fight the bitingly cold whirling wind to get the tent pegged down. It now billowed wildly and ...

... br>
We won't mention the toilet -
The Toilet is just a pit with 2 planks across it and surrounded on only 3 sides but a plastic wall 3ft high and no roof. This was about 50 yds. away.
Carol's squat position in Yoga practice came in very handy! Any loss of balance would be unthinkable!
We also won't mention the washing facilities - as there were none! Only the water we brought with us and the fresh air of Mongolia to wash in.

All cooking ...

... 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 !)

Thought I couldn't be in Mongolia and NOT ride a horse in open country....

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 ...

... a chinese temple and was quite nice to look at although it did feel it was some what redocrated and the face that I was so tired did not help. From the monestry we headed to Sukhabtor square which hosts parliment and is the main square in the country. We managed to pick up an annoying tramp who kept following us looking for money after he managed to get himself involved with one of our photos. We lost him when we went to the museam of natural history which was ...

... as our props and do a strong dance moving around the chairs and dancing around them. The second was a traditional Mongolian inspired dance to "1001 Nights", and finally the last was to "Poker Face" where we used canes, that were actually broomsticks painted black. It turned out really well and we got praise from the directors saying it was one of the best dances. I was very glad to hear this because we stayed up until about 3 a.m. for a few ...

... used the Guesthouse as a base and means of booking tours to the untouched countryside. We followed suit.

Whilst sitting down in the reception area waiting for our room I bumped into our Swedish friend, Marie, that we met way back at the Napoleon hostel in Moscow! Marie, Ian and I teamed up with Stefan, a German guy, and Brazilian Bruno and booked an exciting adventure into the Mongolian hills....

... the ger, driving all over the place, and always, always the creepy laughter. Eventually, I hear a thud, and thinking that the vehicle hit a yak or something, I go back to sleep, hoping that incident will put the guy out of commission.

Day 3 - Police

I wake up and go outside to see what I can see. There are tire tracks all over the place, and the bathroom shed is nearly knocked over. Our van is gone. Thinking our driver took it ...

... was the long slog that we all expected with the cold and rain being a bit of a surprise - not many warm clear days. When the sky cleared it was always accompanied by a bitter Siberian wind from the north. The Landy has broken down twice - no real surprise there, although the first problem with the suspension was purely down to the appalling state of the roads in Russia - the road changing from smooth tarmac to potholed track in the blink of an eye. Problem soon ...

... mountain. Every step too ages as the ground was so unstable after several earthquakes going back through the years. After 10 hours of hiking, climbing and walking we reached the lake and set up camp as the sun set on what was to be a very cold night, it was a well deserved dinner and into the sleeping bag as it was far too cold to be outside. As we went to sleep we could hear scrapping and noises outside the tent, through paranoia we convinced ourselves it was wolves although when we ...