Final Leg of the Trans Mongolian (well with my tour group anyway)

Firstly appologies about the numerous Ulan Bator locations on here, there'll be another after this as quite frankly I don't know the full name places of where I went anyhow more of that in another blog.

After an early arrival (7am) after the night before's party we were collcted at the train station by our local guide Natasha. The Hotel Karakhorum was to be our "home" in Ulan Bator, and quite frankly it is one of the worst hotels that I have stayed at. The area is a very dodgy one and not one you would want to walk around at night on your own or even in a group. The lock on my door was broken, the showers frequently did not have any hot water because the fuses blew and the breakfast (which was included) left a lot to be desired. Oh and it really wasn't very safe to leave any belongings in the room as I had heard from Steve that he once came back to find a cleaner rumaging through his bag.

Anyway enough of the rant. Our tour guide kindly agreed to come and collect us later in the day for our orientation tour of Ulan Bator, as suprise suprise the four of us were feeling just a bit tired!

We were wisked to a Mongolian BBQ at our first stop and after all the rubbish food in Russia and on the train it was, to put it mildly, fantastic. We then went to the Gandantegchenling Monastry and saw a 26.5m tall Budha statue, the Zaisan Memorial which is soviet viewing platform which overlooks the city, another large golden Budha statue and finally the main sqaure which is dominated by parliament house and the statue of Chiggis Khan and his grandsons.

That evening we went out with a couple of the people we met on the train the day before, we also met a crazy spaniard who was planning on buying a a couple of horses with an american guy he met on the internet and travelling around Mongolia on horse back. The craziest thing about his scheme was that he only just learnt to read a compass the day before on the internet oh and he had a big knife to fight off any potential wolf attacks!

It was all the night all of us realised that UB is not the safest city on earth. Mongolians in UB, it seems like t pick fights between themselves and tourists. Its not a place that I would go out at after dark on my own and just about everyone else that I have spoken to since agrees (both male and female).

The next two days we spent at a National Park in a tourist Ger Camp about 2 hours outside of UB (can't remember the name of it - if you want to know the name look it up on the Tucan Website). There was not very much to do except to sleep, go for walks oh and to finish off the Vodka that we had left over from the last night on the train. Tony, Sam and I managed to finish most of the vodka off with the help of the owners husband, who just couldn't say no to a drink (Its not in their culture to turn down drinks).

Oh and before I forget I have spread the word on how to drink vodka and not get a hangover, its the Polish way of course!. A shot of vodka followed by a a shot of fruit juice, it works and I reckon that I have converted quite a few now (including the next tour group that I met).

After the Ger camp we had one last night in UB as a group as Steve, Tony and Sam had to leave for Beijing early the following morning.