Taxi dramas

We had very inauspicious start to our visit to Mongolia. After alighting from the train, we were met with the usual touts for hostels, and because we had to find an ATM, chose to jump in a taxi instead. A taxi driver came running toward us, and after assuring us that his was indeed a metered taxi, packed our bags into the back of his vehicle. First he drove us to a money exchange, even though we had specifically said ATM, and then we drove around, and around the city looking for an ATM that accepted Mastercard. As we were driving and stopping, the meter seemed to be going up astromonomically.....at one point it had reached 30, 000T, which is roughly $30 US. Maybe we were reading it incorrectly, and there was an extra zero? We eventually found an ATM, and decided to head to the hostel on the card that was given to us at the station, as our first choice seemed like too much effort after all the ATM searching. Well the taxi stops in the middle of a busy street, points at a building (which was not the hostel at all). By then the meter was at 50, 000T, absolutely ridiculous, and we had been pointing to it and shaking our heads most of the journey. Patrick jumps out and he attempts to give the driver 5, 000T, which is what the fare should have been (my door won't unlock, so I can't get out). The driver shakes his head, argues with us and almost goes to drive off. Patrick jumps back in, and the driver heads down a deserted alley, with us in the car and starts to make calls on his mobile. We all jump out, and Patrick starts to negotiate a price, although the driver refuses to open the boot for us to get our luggage. Patrick jumps in the driver door so he can't drive off, and I start taking down the licence number and shout to passers by to call the police (they all ignored us, except one guy who didn't really want to get involved and we didn't know what the driver was saying to him in Mongolian). Eventually Patrick and the driver agree on 10, 000T, the boot is opened. We grab our luggage and head for a main thoroughfare as quickly as possible.......phewww!

We found the guesthouse, organised a room, and set out to explore UB. It's really not a pretty city at all. The next few days were spent hanging around The Golden Gobi , speaking to other travellers and trying to organise a tour in the countryside. Fuel here, like everywhere else is expensive, so for us to go on a tour, the cheapest option was to get some other backpackers to join us to reduce the costs. We had to wait around a bit to see if there were others that wanted to take the same route. Eventually, we had 4 definite (us and 2 others), 1 maybe and if she pulled out, there was another Danish couple ready to go. We stocked up on toilet paper and treats, re-packed our backpacks, charged cameras and phones and were ready to hit the road.

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