The Corporate Hotel Ulan Bator

... of the window at the Gobi desert, as herds of animals and yurts and the real nomadic people of Mongolia passed by.<br><br>We've already agreed that a revisit to UB will be in the retirement plan to see how this fascinating and captivating city changes.<br><br>We crossed the Chinese boarder at night and had our "bogies' changed whilst we snoozed on the train. The whole process was a much more civilized and action packed 3 hours.<br><br>

... or so, at every stop a load of old Russian women would line the train stations selling lots of fairly horrible Russian foods and some much needed drinks out of little wooden carts.<br><br>By the end we both felt less than 100% mostly because our diet consisted only of pot noodles and crisps which gets you down a bit after a while. The fact the we also lost five hours by changing time zones didnt help either. So over all the Trans-Siberian was as you expect &#8211 ...

... have two humps. I tried looking for a camel with only one hump and I did not see any. <br><br>· There is no need for knives. Everything involved with eating can be done with a fork and a spoon. I rarely saw any knives and not many families even have knives. I mean like butter knives, the ones you use at the dinner table. I have learned to spread butter with a fork. <br><br>· There are no dryers in Mongolia, at least none that I have seen. I am ...

<br><br><br> <br> <br> <br> <br><br>We've arrived in UB. Our<br>sadness at the loss of Molly is forgotten in the bliss of being off<br>that hellish bus. A girl who was in the bus with offered us a lift<br>in her dads car, which was fortunate as after 50 hours in a Furgon we<br>had atrophied beyond the point of walking. And it was raining. <br ...

... The walls of the temples were covered from floor to ceiling with small Confucious as well. Each one wearing a different color outfit, it was amazing the detail on these hundreds of miniature Confucious.<br> So after you are done spinning the cylinders you are allowed to approach the base of the stuatue and pray and then spin about 20 more cylinders then you must exit walking backwards, so you never show your back to the statue. <br> Afterwards we went back ...

... taking pictures a jeep of locals pulled up and the men got out. We were feeling a bit uneasy expecting to be robbed at any second. They spoke no English but through gestures we pointed to the bushes where the cubs were and showed them the pictures on the camera, they definitely thought we were crazy, and left laughing amongst themselves. When we got back to the ger dinner consisted of rice and milk and a few tablespoons of salt, absolutely ...

... one at the hotel several times. Food has been very good - certainly much better then we were told to expect. Very little shopping but we will have a couple of locals bring their wares for us to see. The landscape is very barren mountains and rolling hills but no farm land at least where we are. <br>Hope all is well with everyone &amp; I will try and get another email out before returning home.<br>Jeanne<br>

... could find, I didn't really care. I have never been so happy to speak Russian in my life - I was able to stop into a travel agency and find a woman who could give me directions in Russian, but not English.<br><br>Well, that's my last 48 hours in a tiny, tiny nutshell. I was going to post pictures, but I'm in an internet cafe and don't want to rummage around too much, seeing as I already bothered the guy enough earlier looking for directions.<br>

... on the street while other boys the same age walked by in their suits with their parents carrying their bookbags. It is heartbreaking as well to see kids lying asleep on the edgeof the sidewalk sleeping off a hangover. According to a guidebook, there are countless organizations that offer to take these boys in but that they have to come in of their own accord and accept the rules ofthe charity. Overwhelmingly, the boys prefer the ...

... garage and white picket fence, some drew New York, some drew Big Ben the london clock tower, but most drew San Francisco after looking at my snowglobes I brought and book. One girl drew a McDonald's which I thought was hilarious. Then after that we had then do a puzzles that we made for them and when they were done I would go around and teach them new words from what was on the puzzle. Then I taught them 2 songs and a rhyme, twinkle twinkle, itsy bitsy spider, and the ...