20th July - Explore UB

I felt rather bad after a late night and tried to get some more sleep in the dorm but failed miserably and eventually got up about 12. I faffed online trying to upload some photos and catch up on my blog and then went out to look round the city and also to get organised with things I need for the next month in Mongolia.

The dorm rooms are very very crowded with 6 people in each room and the family that own the place sleeping on the living room floor at night. There are about 20 people all using 1 men's toilet and 1 women's toilet and 2 showers. There is no privacy what so ever in the bathroom meaning that there is no where to get changed where the area is not mixed. It is an interesting place but it is good for meeting other travelers and finding out about Mongolia and where to go. It is only £4 per night :-)

I got organised with a data (internet) connection on my Mongolian sim card. It works sometimes and then stops all of a sudden - but according to people in the shop that is normal for Mongolia. There will be no phone signal for most of this trip but as soon as there is a perminant settlement then it should work.

I bought a map, camping gas, sun-lotion, iodine for water purification and some medicines for emergencies. Once all jobs were sorted I did the lonely planet walking tour of the city. The square is nice with some oldish stone buildings but the rest of the city really is not very interesting and feels rather run down.


This is a view of a typical street in UB.


There is a huge square off the main street (Peace Avenue). This has some lovely old stone buildings.


In the middle of the main square there is a statue of Genghis Khan.


Apparently tandems are all the rage in UB at the moment....


This is the most modern building in the whole city. Most of it is quite antiquated.


I was not expecting to see penguins in Mongolia... oh the beauty of travel.... you find all sorts of things you are not expecting.....


Sheep's head for dinner anyone?


We had a really lovely dinner. Michelle borrowed my ears and forgot she had them on....

We ate loads and loads and loads. I feel like I have enough body fat now to hit the wilderness of Mongolia!


Tonight's fire and cooking performance was even more impressive than yesterday. Such a shame that a "Mongolian BBQ" is not actually Mongolian!


I really liked this "Heathful Soup"