Relaxing in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia

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We have done nothing but really relaxing in Ulaanbaatar the last few days, decompressing so to speak before we hit the trail again. We have walked the city, especially the area around our hostel just taking in the exotic atmosphere. There are very few foreigners here but there are enough people who speak English that we are able to get directions and conduct business.

We went to the black market a huge open air market today (the black market nomenclature is left over from the Communist days when the market was actually illegal as everyone was supposed to purchase everything in government controlled stores. Now it is totally legal and a fascinating place to go to shop and explore even if you aren’t buying anything. Our only purchase was to buy fabric which we took to a local seamstress the hostel owner knows and are having custom made vests that are very traditional Mongolian.

We visited a very interesting temple, took time out to see some movies and just rested in our warm beds (especially appreciated after the nights sleeping on the ice lake).

We are ready to leave the city.....

We will be taking a 15 hour local bus to Southern Mongolia tomorrow to the Gobi desert where a driver will meet us and take us on a 4 days exploration that will include camel riding, hiking on the sand dunes, horse riding, and not sure what else, no guide/interpreter this time - just the driver!!! The language barrier will be a challenge but we will really learn some of the local language and the driver will pick up some English. It will be harder but a different and good.

We will get back in a week. Talk to you all then.

Ned

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