DAY 23

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After thunder and lighting and a few heavy showers overnight we awoke to another crisp clear morning - now that’s the way I like it! We had breakfast and organized ourselves for the bus trip back to UB, we had left most of our gear at the hotel so it wasn’t too hard to pack but I think everyone really enjoyed the fresh air and countryside and would have liked to have stayed a bit longer. We stopped at the UB memorial to all the conflicts Mongolia has been involved in over the years which overlooked the city. As usual there were a few people up there hawking their wares and one guy who was an excellent throat singer and we stopped to listen - who said you can’t get something for nothing! A quick stop at the Laundromat to drop off our washing, then back to the motel to shower and change before finding somewhere for a late lunch and somewhere to pick up some supplies for the train to trip to Irkutsk. We walked for ages to find the place the place Claire recommended for lunch only to find it was closed, so we chose one at random that took visa and took our chances - it turned out really good as there was enough on the menu in English to get by and it was fun. We wanted to pay by visa as we had deliberately used up all our Tugreks as you can only exchange them in Mongolia so it’s no use taking any over the border, we just kept enough to use the toilet at the border (100 Tugreks) because it is supposed to be a long time crossing. (Note: 1100 tugreks = $US1 and you can buy an H2 Hummer for 99 000 000 tugreks! - and there are lots of 4WD’s here)After lunch we went back to the hotel and took advantage of the wireless internet floating around to check our emails and try to sort out what was going on at home. We bought a phone card to try to phone home but that was a total waste of time as it didn’t work but luckily Rob had Skype to we borrowed his computer and talked to Jen and Simon via that (3 calls only cost 3 euro! - I’m going to get Skype when we get to Austria). A quick dash to the Laundromat to pick up our washing and it was on the bus to catch the train leaving at 9.10pm. We said our goodbyes to Boggie on the platform and settled into our cabin. This one was a four berth and nowhere near as luxurious as the train from Beijing and it was quite noisy but it was comfortable enough and the two spare berths gave us plenty of room. Sleep time, we arrive at Suhe-Bator at around 5.30am but border proceedings don’t start until about 7.30am so we just sit on the platform for two hours - how’s that for Mongolian organization!

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