Ulaanbaatar

We spent the next four days at the Oasis. A Gher camp and hotel which seems to be very, very popular with German tourists for some reason. It might have something to do with the previous owners being Austrian. The food was good, but by the time the other lads caught up with us and Uwe’s new travelling partner for the BAM road flying in from Switzerland there were 6 blokes sleeping in one gher! I’ll leave what it was like to your imagination.

Six men in a Gher. Hmmm

Tom has some relatives who live in Ullaan Bator so I was lucky enough to tag along when they came to show him around on Wednesday. I think we saw some of the best sights that no one tour could have taken us to. And as a finish to the day we went 40km south to see the statue of Genghis Khan. So to Batzul and his wife Jargal a big thank you.

The last monastery left. The Russians destroyed all the others

The main temple

Prayer wheels

The summer palace of the last king of Mongolia

Some of it was built in the European style

The main gate is very impressive

The Parliament building in the main square

There is a lot of new money in Mongolia

Modern Ulaanbaatar

Genghis Khan Statue

They like their Eagles and This Vulture

Batzul and his wife Jargal

The road north to the border is all paved. It doesn’t help that it was pouring with rain for the first hour as we left but we made good time up to the largest town just before the border and once again managed to find a good hotel. An early start the next day meant that we got to the border at 10.30. Two of us got through fairly quickly, but then for some reason they stopped processing people. We waited for the next two hours for them to do the paperwork for Uwe and David. They knew we were all together but that made no difference. But as other travellers will know you can’t complain you just have to smile and wait. By 14.30 we were rolling again and on our way to Ulan Ude. 

The metal man statue just before Darkhan