Dream Hotel Ulan Bator

The Soviets restricted the movement of Russian citizens and some famous names resorted to fleeing to the West as the only way out. The new regime seems equally keen to hang on to us. We spend three hours at the Russian border before any passport or customs checks. Five hours in total. We still can't work out for whose benefit! <br><br>Ulan Bator has a slight frontier feel to it. On the outskirts of town we see Gers ( the Nomadic tents) dotted amongst more ...

... 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! <br><br>So Mongolia is our first proper stop in Asia proper and it&#8217;s an amazing country. Everyone coming to Mongolia arrives in Ulaan Batoor which a pretty grim city &#8211; a place thats grown far too fast and as a result has a really appalling traffic problem, a pollution problem and a hideous ...

... they have them in really upscale places, but no average household, nor at camp or hotels will you find a dryer. I have also learned from that, that it takes about 2 days for clothes to dry if they are not in the sun. <br><br>· It is perfectly okay to wash your clothes in a sink, with less than perfect water, only using a bar of soap. I have washed almost all my own clothes with a bar of soap, something that would be considered disgusting and strange ...

... making a call to our hostel of choice adn finding it fully<br>booked, Yenchika's dad took us to another cheap hotel. What we had<br>thought was a kind favour to visiting foreigners actually turned out<br>to be an extortionate taxi ride to a fairly miserable hotel. Still,<br>it was clean and we had our own balcony on which to cook noodles.<br>

... the bus and drove to the Natural History Museum in UB. The power was out so we walked down the road a little ways to the massive square in the middle of the city that is outside Parliment. We took some pictures, then it started raining a bit so we walked backed to the Museum to see if the power was back on.<br> The power was on so we toured the museum, which honesty was kind of boring. It was just a bunch of bugs and stuffed animals, not like teddy bears, but ...

... but when you&#8217;re surrounded by such poverty you can hardly leave food, so we struggled on gulping it down.<br><br>The next morning we departed early following a breakfast of rice and milk and headed towards the old capital city (Kharkhorin). Along the way we saw more foxes, buzzards and our first eagles. We stopped for lunch around 11:00 and then continued to Erdene Zuu Khiid, the first Buddist monastry in Mongolia. In the afternoon we ...

Since I'm leaving Mongolia tonight, and since I haven't really posted anything properly about my thoughts on Mongolia, I figured I'd do that now. The souvenirs have been bought, the food eaten and the postcards about to be written, and now I'm just biding time until tonight's train. Firstly, I'd like to rescind my statement about Ulan Bator. Yes, it is full of Soviet-style apartment blocks and sketchy street children (I really do feel bad for them ...

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... of the streets. <br><br><br><br> Zaya and her Hostels:@Zaya is the owner, opperator, and queen over her two hostels in UB while you stay under her roof, you are under her thumb as well. She had a very low opinion ( and tolerance for ) Americans before the PacRim group began to occupy the better part of all her rooms..... and we did nothing if not uphold and strengthen her conviction that Americans are selfish, stupid, a-moral ...

... jumped over the moon one. Then was musical chairs. They had a good time and I now have some pretty funny drawings of the US.<br> It has gotten easier and I am starting to learn the routine of the day, but it always is wierd when I et special treatment. Like yesterday I was sitting having breakfast and one of the kitchen staff brings out fried egg whites. I ate them and it was nice but I feel awkward getting special treatment. It has gotten better though, I do really ...