oh ger

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Hello hello! We am in the middle of Russia currenlty and finally found some internet.
So Monglolia was a wonderful wonderful country! I really enjoyed our visit there. Here are some of the highlights.
When we first arrived at the train station we were almost tackeled by people who wanted us to stay at thier hostels and guesthouses as we were getting off the train. (apparently this is a good thing to do at the train station to tourists). We had already had our sights set out on one house so we walked to that one instead of getting a ride to another. I have to say that Ulan- Baatar is by no means a pretty city, but it is very inviting and the people there are very pleasent and friendly. Once we arrived at our guesthouse, we got our rooms and settled for a few minutes. Mike had been sick on the train ride, so he wasn't feeling up to do a lot of touristy stuff, but the boys were dead set on getting tee times from the golf course. So we found out where to get this done. It was at the UB hotel, on the other side of town. Once We found the UB hotel and they were able to get thier times set for the next day. It was really funny because this is one of the nicest hotels in Mongolia, and most the people there could speak some english. But out of no where this one kid that was working in the travel agency just busted out in English and was so helpful! It was a riot watching these people work. After the tee times were set we walked around a little more and found an atm. My atm card was not working in china, but it started to work in Mongolia. Funny thing is that Corey's didn't work in Monglolia but it did in China! ONce we finished the atm stuff we went and had a nice dinner at Marco Polo. We ate some pizza and took in the evening, this city is really busy at night! Once done we went back to the guest house and went to bed.
The next day we embarked on our first road trip to the golf course. Our driver was very friendly and wanted to make sure that we saw all the cool stuff along the road. He also drove pretty fast and the road was really bumpy, so it felt like we were on an african safari! It took an hour to get to the golf course, the course was at the UB hotel 2 up in the mountains. Basically this course was in a pasture and had holes set all over the place. It was interesting trying to figure out where each hole was. As the boys played golf, I walked around and took many pictures of the flowers that were everywhere! They were awesome! So many different colors just sprinkled about the ground. It was a very inviting place to be. After the boys finished thier game we had a quick lunch at the hotel and headed back into town. On our way to town the driver stopped along the way so that we could ride some camels, and hold a golden eagle in our hands. They were both totally worth the 2 bucks that we spent. When we got back into town we went to a monastary in town. This was a nice place, but the time of day that we visited was a little off because there were some weird people walking around. From here we went back to the hostel showered and had dinner. After dinner we met a kid from China that was working in the town and he took us to a club in UB. IT was really a fun night at the club! When we were done dancing, we went back and slept.
The next day we boarded a bus with a couple from Sweden and headed to our Ger. This was a really fun experience, we drank fermented mare's milk, road horses, played cards, and ate really good Mongolian food. It was like camping without the smores. The only problem that we had was that the people who were our hosts did not speak to us accept for when we first arrived. We never new what we were supposed to be doing at any particular time. It was a riot because it was kind of a guessing game when we were going to eat or do an activitiy! We made really good friends with the Sweds! They were doing the same trip but from Moscow to Beijing and then through China.
When we finally left to go back to UB we got our bags from the hotel, did a few quick errands and headed towards the train station.
Mongolia is a wonderful and inviting place to visit. I would love to come back and spend more time here. The colors of the trees that we saw were like something that you would see in a painting! My Grandpa Jim would have loved seeing this country in the fall because it was his favorite season.

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