Hotel Tsogmar Ulan Bator

... cosy inside, the idea of a frosty trot to the outside loo at night really does not appeal. So we hire a car with driver and get into the country for a day. We see many sights along the way. We stop at the shaman cairn and get talked into visiting the art shop by the charrning owner. He has loads of interesting things, probably overpriced for the tourist market. But when he shows me a picture of his beautiful children and tells me that they are ...

... to one leaving the next day at 8am for five days – all transport, accomodation and meals for under 150 pounds!

Our team consisted of Tuul, our tour guide, Otchka our driver, two Australians, a New Zealander , a German girl and us! We were driving in this amazing old Mongolian people carrier that looked like a VW campervan but a lot more sturdy. And it definetaly needed to be sturdy – Mongolia, as far we can make out has just one asphalt road leading ...

The moon is half way there outside, the chill air penetrates the holey windows of Gana's Guest-house the three tungsten bulbs lighting up the large communal are where I am sitting alone tonight. It has been a long day, not one step closer to seeing sights, always fleeting through the cities we visit, leaving as if we were locals. Not having been to any museums, walking the streets without maps and with purpose. The scuttle of my fingers on the keyboard stop occasionally ...

... 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.

· 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 ...

... We exchanged the Russians rubels and then went shopping for the next 3 hours. I did't buy anything besides toilet paper and other essentials that other leaders asked me to buy while I was there.
The 4th of July was just another normal day at camp, although that day is Mongolian nationality day. For the most part though nothing special that stands out.
Then my birthday. My birthday started off well, I had a hot shower. Doesn't sound amazing, but you ...

... it, rice and milk.

On the third day we headed for Hustain National park, where we hoped to see the takhi or Mongolian wild horse. We arrived at the park around 4:00pm,to my horror there was actually a large tourist resort at the park gates, and we discovered that all the tourists leave in convoy at seven to drive out to the horses favorite drinking spot. Luckily we weren’t staying at the resort so we were able to head out at six ...

... into their ger. I can't imagine the sight we presented - three smelly foreigners in the middle of nowhere, one of them absolutely soaked through to the skin, completely unable to speak Mongolian, arriving right at lunch time. Yet these people thought nothing of ladling out milk tea and handing us a huge bowl of bread, and taking off my pants to boot, and generally speaking, acted as if this was a regular occurance. They offered us vodka shot ...

... 1502;י 01; על הטרמפ כמו אוטוב 93;ס. יותא זול לא יצא לי, לעומת זו, הדרך שלקחה לי 27 שעות בהלוך לקחה ר ...

... she said to us in her heavily Russian accented English. 'Mongolians not so selfish, put just one piece of toast in toaster! Always, two, one for you, one for other person.' Blinking, I looked to the other PacRimmers in the room, I asked them if they had wanted another piece of toast while Zaya watched me. THey all said no, and by this time, I was angered and indignant. This didn't matter to Zaya as she forged ahead into her ...

... evening tea
10pm bedtime

THen the staff usually have a metting or have to do more work to get programs ready for the next day. So basically as you can tell I am pretty busy all the time. This is the first real free time I have had. After this session is over then the staff have 2 days off inbetween sessions. THat is when I am planning on going in UB and I need to go to the market to pick up some more clothes. My roomate says that is very cheap. It should be ...