UB

The first train trip was fantastic... I was in a hard sleeper berth with a 60something couple from Wales (Ang and Peter) and a Mongolian woman headed home from Beijing after studying Chinese for 3 months. Spent an equal amount of time staring out the windows and sleeping. One of the highlights for me was passing the Great Wall and being able to see it at different points over an hour. Truly amazing. Ang and Peter were great, telling me all about them and their month long Trans-Mongolian journey, which they booked through a tour group and spent an obscene amount of money on. They were sweet to me and at one point I recall being tapped in my sleep by Ang saying "Cait, honey, there are camels outside! Look!" The Mongolian woman was amusing as well and wanted to practice her Chinese and English and seeing as we were all crammed in a 7 x 4 room, she had a captive audience. The best part was when we got sheets from the car attendant and she asked us what they were called... Sheet sounded like Shit and she must have said "Please take Sh-eeee-ts a dozen times as we were rolling with laughter. Hysterical. Had to have been there I think.

We stopped at 10pm for about 3 hours to get our passports checked and change wheels, from the Chinese wheels to the old Soviet wheels. Passing through the Gobi desert was vast and empty, with occasional herds of animals and one hitch towns.

Snow covered the grounds and the peaks as we passed through the mountains and began to see gers (traditional round, felt homes), we were getting closer to UB.

Ulaan Baatar itself is tiny compared to Chinese cities, but nestled in the mountains and ridiculously cold. Lots of square block-like buildings. Katie lives near a statue of Lenin and a Mongolian wrestling palace. Men and women roam in traditional Mongolian dress and fur hats. Lots of root vegetables and vodka and scary meat.


A man walking around in a del (traditional dress)

Katie is great, has a nice apartment and is a wonderful hostess. She has a wonderful and welcoming group of friends that have been sweet to me and I think I forgot how nice it was to hang out and laugh and have people interested in your life. I went to school with her yesterday and sat in on her classes. She teaches Biology and Physics at a Mongolian school and it was cool to see how great the kids' English is.

More to come. Time is up on the computer for the day.