Ulan Bataar's countryside

30 hours on the Trans-Mongolian, we went through customs and immigrations for both China and Mongolia, watched the train checked and changed it's rails, passed through the Gobi desert in the night and arrived at Ulan Bataar. UB Guesthouse has timely and kindly picked us up from the train station.

The city of UB resembles Russian, European small town with a few tall buildings. The signs are in Cyrillic but there are enough English around to be understood. There are still many signs of it's ex-communist status. But the country has been a democratic country since 1992.

UB Guesthouse is what I imagine a proper hostel is. Rooms with bunk-beds, good services for backpackers. Interesting enough, it is run by a Korean, Mr Kim and his Mongolian partner. Lots of backpackers. Tiny kitchen packed with people to get breakfast.

Very quickly, we jumped on the opportunity of a trek to the nearby country side, to stay a night in a farm in a ger.

So an hour car ride in the early Monday morning, we arrived in Terelj.

Surrounded in rocky mountains, the nomadic farm is located in the sandy plain where their cows and horses grazed. They put us in a ger- the Mongolian round tent. It is surprising comfortable and warm. Dave and Jon had a lot of fun sticking woods and papers in the iron cast burner.

Big Tibetan dogs sat around our tent, waiting for us to throw bits of food to them. It is amazing how dogs can eat a lot and eat everything. San was not pleased when the dogs raided our tent and ate the chocolate.

In the evening, we had a go at horse riding. Dave was unsure. I enjoyed it. San was trying to talk to the horse. But Jon had the most fun as he was riding with the farmer's son who showed him all the tricks.

In the middle of the night, i woke to take leak in nature. Was surprised by how bright it was outside the ger. I could not see any stars as it was almost a full moon, it shone like a lamp in dark room, giving light to the plain. Everything else was quiet. It was a serene moment for me until I realised I really have to go. Nature call!

The children had a fabulous time with horse riding, helping the farmer boy with little chores, watching the farmer chainsawed firewood, staying in a tent, and simply just rolling around in nature and making lots of noise.

So much to learn, the world is so big...



- Posted by Mich using BlogPress from my iPhone