Mongolia

When most people think of Mongolia its normally Genghis Khan, and perhaps nomad herders in Ger "tents", so Mongolias been a bit of a surprise for me. (They are justifiably proud of their history)

Ulaan Bataar is a capital city with very fashionable women, beautifully made up, and wearing leather coats and boots in the cold. (One of the sisters from the train was a fashion designer of leather coats!) Yet there are also elderly people wearing the traditional del, sash and boots too. There's cyrilic (Russian letters) all over the place, yet internet and texting is done using english letters, and a lot of people speak passable or really good english. Instead of MacDonalds (which they have none of) they have 24 hour Buiz or steamed dumpling fast food restaurants. These taste surprisingly like Aussie meat pies! And they have traffic jams all over the place. UB is also a city with apartment blocks in its centre yet gers around the edges. It was the second country to take up communism, and has a fair share of ugly russian buildings, yet its proudly democratic now, and the city looks prosperous. (Country towns are definitly bleaker) Its weather has also been surprising - today is warm sunny day of 20, but I arrived to a day of dust storms, wind and rain and top of 10.

I'm staying at a homestay in an apartment with a little old lady and her husband, and I've spent my days in town wandering round visiting temples and museums. (Thats the main budhist temple pictured with a 23m buddha inside)

I also spent a a day and a half out in the country side in Terelj National park, staying in a ger (felt hut) and walking, horseriding and visiting local herdsmen. My guide was great, and I really enjoyed chatting and learning more about local life. It was sooo windy and cold though... I had about 4 layers on. A group camping across the river turned out to be shamans... so we went and watched some of their ceremony, and making of alcohol from yoghurt.