Mongolia

Am currently in Ulaan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia, with half an hour to go before we have to be back at hotel before catching the train. UB isn't the most beautiful city on earth (and it has been raining today and quite cold), but the Mongolian countryside made up for that.

Spent 3 nights sleeping in gers out on the steppe. First two nights were in a tourist camp so was relatively comfortable. The last night we did a homestay which was great fun, but nuts at the time!!

While at the homestay we spent most of the time riding horses which was a bit of a trial for someone like me who has never ridden before. I could barely walk last night!!! I swear we spent a least 6 hours within 24 in the saddle. Was quite lucky that we got to ride out to a mini festival which started with a Buddhist ritual at the top of a hill. Monks chanting and then an offering of food (including a whole sheep). I kindly accepted the piece of small intestine I was offered, and then proceeded to accidentally drop it over the side of the hill. After that we rode to a tent where the rest of the festival took place, which included Mongolian wrestling and a horse race run by the kids. We were the only two westerners there so it was quite bizarre.

We also went horse riding at night. There was virtually no moon and we were meant to be out guarding the horses from 11 until 2 in the morning. We only made it until midnight. It was quite scary riding at night, especially when your horse is going a little nuts and braying rather eerily every 5 minutes. We had a lot of trouble finding our ger in the dark and managed to ride through someone elses ger camp and got chased out by some scary sounding dogs. It was officialy nuts. Cool in hindsight but at the time is was "What the f... are we doing out here?". Especially considering my huge horse riding experience of a couple of hours the day before!!

Wish I had time to upload some photos as the scenery was amazing. Herds of sheep, goats, cattle and horses roaming the fenceless countryside. We stayed in the herdsmans ger and ate the same food as them which involved mutton in various forms. No more small intestines (or any other offal for that matter) thankfully.

That is about it for now. Gotta go catch the train to Russia. Next stop Irkutsk.