Capitals old and new

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After leaving the horses we were back on our trusty old camper van to endure another long day on the bumpy roads. We headed out of the valley and towards the ancient capital Kharakorum. This city was the capital when Gengis Khan was in power. Upon arrival we visited his palace grounds and walked around the city. We came across a European Cafe and were delighted to be able to eat french fries and drink coffee. We met some other travellers and spent the whole evening in the cafe. At one point some local musicians came in for a drink having finished a performance in another part of town and together with Miguel, the argentinian from our group who played the drums, they all played an impromtu set with their traditional instruments.

The final day of our trip was spent driving 8-9 hours back to the capital Ulaanbaatar. We had a small scare in the van as some sort of cable broke in the engine but our driver did some magic and we were going again without too much delay.

My last few days in Mongolia were spent in Ulaanbaatar where I visited some of the local sites and prepared for the overnight train to Beijing.

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