Blogs from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Asia - page 4

Goodday all, I just made a video a few days ago about my first two years abroad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jzkfo_Rdo4 From Tokyo I flew with MIAT, Mongolian Airlines, to Ulaanbaatar. Originally I thought about going to Mongolia in April but decided to go in May because of the climate. It gets very cold in Mongolia and Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital in the world. With an area of more than 1.5 million square km, Mongolia is the 19th largest country in the world but has just over 3 million inhabitants. It's sparsely populated and almost the half of the total population lives in the capital. The Mongolian Empire started to grow rapidly after it was founded by Chinggis (Genghis) Khan and possessed more than half of present Asia at the end of the 13th century. Due to its ... read more

So we woke early for our 7.15am train to Beijing, as Vicky and I headed back earlier the rest of the group stayed out, what a mess they were in the morning. Tom looked like the walking dead and Katie and Jo’s alarm only went off at 6.20am with a 6.30am pick up. Thankfully we all made it to the train station in time and made it onboard. We lost Martina thanks to the Chinese government miss informing her about getting a Chinese visa so she was having a few extra days in Ulaanbaatar (very jealous). Once on the train we tried to sleep but had these crazy Chinese/Mongolian porters trying to move us from our room and took our tickets from us so it was bedlam, finally they stopped harassing us and we managed to ... read more

Hi Everyone, Our journey on the Vodka train we have passed through the most spectacular landscapes from Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar. From snowy, woody, under privileged, industrial Siberia (in some places) to arid brown rolling mountainous areas across the boarder into Mongolia. We have brilliant photos. After two nights on a 2nd class carriage we arrived in UB at 5.40am, where we met on the platform by our Mongolian honcho Guetta. We were all driven to the countryside (about 60km), to a Ger camp: A Ger is a circular bedroom with a hearth in the middle. We went back to bed for a few hours and woke for breakfast at 9am. Neil and I then went on a 2hour walk up the surrounding mountains. This has been the highlight of the trip so far! The views were ... read more

GOLDEN GOBI GUESTHOUSE GOBI TOUR 6/19 to 6/27 2014 When we met outside the Gobi Guesthouse Joanna and I discovered we were the only ones on our tour to southern Mongolia, at least for a while. Two other travelers had cancelled at the last minute. So it was a women’s tour for a couple of days (except for the driver, Gumba), until a young couple joined us on the third day. Joanna is from Poland and speaks wonderful English and was an easy going travel companion. We left Ulaanbaatar for our eight day tour on a good paved road that soon cut off through the eternal grassland on a very primitive dirt road. We were rewarded with views of herds of goats, sheep, cows and horses and our first gers (Mongolian yurts). Our guide, Soko and ... read more

4 hours sleep in what was left of last night after our crossing of the China/Mongolia border in the wee small hours but, what better way to wake than to the sight of a herd of camels right outside the window of the train and right beside the railway line when I awoke at 7-30am and peered out. Camels on the Gobi. Yesterday was a very long day and last night even longer. We had travelled all day from Beijing to Erlian Station, arriving about 9-20pm, an hour later than expected, for we had lost an hour mid-afternoon when we had pulled to a siding to wait out something that was happening - never did find out what - sitting there in the heat of the day. The part of the train that we are in ... read more