The Palace Hotel Ulan Bator

... problem! What it does have going for it our some of the friendliest people in the world, one of whom met us at the train station. We’d completely forgotten to look up where the hostel was so it was relief to find a man called Basca holding a Golden Gobi Hostel sign who picked us up from the station. The Golden Gobi is a really nice family-run hostel in a back street of Ulaan Baator and they organise trips around Mongolia for all their guests. We signed ...

... and the pegs were pulled straight out, leaving it secured only by the backpacks inside it.

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 ...

... just practicing.

There was another group of Russians this session and just like the last I accompanied them on two field trips, the first being into UB to the temple and for shopping and the second the Monastery. Both trips were pretty much the same as before except instead of one bus of Russians, there were three. On the day we went into UB during the shopping time it began raining lightly, which did not last though. Soon it was pouring ...

The end of my first whole session finished very well. In the last few days we had multiple talent contestь such as singing and dancing, a mini Olympics, which was hilarious to watch, and a mask show. The mask show was extremely funny because we took all the boys and dressed them up as American football players. We stuffed their shirts with clothes to make their shoulders look like they were wearing the shoulder pads and painted on the ...

... I go back inside and have breakfast. Th others I am with, say, "did you see the van? I hope our driver is ok." Running outside, I see the van. It is sitting on a ledge, 20 meters above a sheer drop. Scared for our driver, I see the ger owner and ask her. "The car?" she says, pointing it out. "No, no, the person, the PERSON!! our driver!! Is he ok???" She nods, and replies in Russian, "Normal'no." I'm not convinced. I find her husband, and ask ...

... with Jarvo straight under the Landy with a set of tools - the phrase "happy as a pig in muck" certainly applies to Jarvo when he gets a chance to wield a spanner! The second breakdown of the brake vacuum pump could have been a fatal blow to my trip had I not had the foresight (luck really!) to have bought a spare pump, despite the Land Rover Dealer insisting there was no problem with these parts and refusing to fit the newly issued revised part that would have prevented ...

... did venture outside knife and torch in hand it appeared it may have been a marmot which is a furry little thing about the size of a rabbit.... Wind probably blew a few noises too.. Anyway it was funny. It was another 10 hours of walking a different way through a rocky valley all the way back to where we had first camped. Of course nothing runs smoothly or as planned as we hit an impassable waterfall surrounded by vertical peaks. Myself and Pete climbed over and around a peak to meet ...