Today we had planned as a quiet day seeing Ulan Baator. We went up the hill to see the Gandan monastery. This is one of the largest in Mongolia. We went into some of the small temples to see the monks in their daily routine. One of the temples was quite colourful with drums, cymbals and bells as wells as the normal chanting. The main temple housed an enormous statue of Buddha - 26 feet high - in copper covered with gold..We then went onto the summer palace. This was built in the late 19th century and basically looked Chinese -given they have swung between Russia and China this is not surprising. The buildings were interesting if a little run down - a smaller version of the Forbidden City in Beijing is what the guide book says. The place was full of various treasures - lots of statues of Buddha, tapestries and porcelain. The weirdest collection was the stuffed animals from the Victorian era - all sorts of animals though most of them were looking decidedly moth eaten.We had managed to get 2 seats for the circus performance - it was cheap (£3) and relatively short (80 mins) so we decided to risk it. It was full of Mongolian families - lots with small children so we wondered what kind of circus it was going to be. The venue was purpose built (a bit odd for a country full of tents!) and we had great seats. The acts were mainly different kinds of acrobats - most of which were fantastic. It was all done to various kinds of music - mostly pop music. There was a dog act in the middle that had poodles performing on their hind legs. All of this was all done to the song of 'Who let the dogs out'. Fran and I were doubled up with laughter - the Mongolians seemed to miss the joke. The Finale was 3 men a large wheel device that the had to balance on whilst it went round very quickly - they did it juggling, skipping and then for the final act they were blindfold.