What to do five days in Ulan Bator!

Following popular demand, and Annika standing by the computer chanting 'Update, update, update!', I've decided to take my responsibilities as blogger seriously and let everyone know what we're up to.

This afternoon we arrived by train to Beijing and are now staying at the slightly disturbingly named Red Lantern House, which luckily is not a brothel, but in fact very nice. Arriving to Beijing was fantastic after spending two weeks on trains and the cold of Siberia and Mongolia. It's sunny and warm, and best of all it's an actual huge city, which is a nice change from staying in nomadic gers in the countryside! Maybe I'm too much of a city girl, but I'm looking forward to going to having more than two food options (and actually being able to order vegetarian food in restaurants instead of just a double sideorder of french fries!), going to nice bars and all that jazz.

But I'm getting ahead of my story! We've spent the past five days in Mongolia, which was a country some of you may know I was dreading (I think my exact words may have been: "WHAT are we going to do for FIVE days in Ulan Bator?"), but after hearing exciting stories from other travellers who'd been there, we were both very much looking forward to going to such an exotic country, and it completely lived up to our expectations!

We spent a few days in UB with our three Australian friends and two new Danish acquaintances. Looked at a Buddhist monastery. Went to see a Mongolian song and dance performance, that included absolutely crazy contortionists that could bend in ways that no human should be able to. Got happily pissed on Chinggis beer with half the hostel at a local pub. Wandered around the enormous black market with a tight grip on our valuables, and stocked up on plenty of winter clothes, as Mongolia was quickly turning out to be the coldest country of our trip.

After a few days of leisurely exhausting UB's tourist attractions (which to be honest are not all that plentiful), it was time to head out to the countryside! A night in Terelj national park with a nomadic family, where we got to stay in a ger with a couple of others from the hostel. We arrived at about nine-thirty in the morning, just as a biting cold snowstorm was gearing up, and were led into the main family ger, where an enthusiastic Mongolian man gave everyone an enormous shot of vodka and instructed us to drink up. Bizarre, but it certainly helped against the cold. The rest of the day was pleasantly spent hiking in the beautiful snowy landscape, and horsebackriding, and the evening spent warming up by the stove and playing cards by candlelight with the other travellers.

Good times. Some day we'll go back to Mongolia and spend more time there, see the Gobi desert and ride two-humped camels. But for now it's all about enjoying the sun and the city life, and getting used to Chinese characters!