Alison: When we were woken up by the train guard on the morning after the late night boarder crossing it was already light outside and the contrast in the scenery compared to what we had seen the night before in Russia was amazing. There were smooth green softly rolling hills as far as the eye could see with horse and cattle roaming freely. The hills were peppered with the traditional Mongolian homes which are called gers (more on these on the next entry). Everybody emerged from their cabins with the same look of wonder on their faces and nobody could seem to take their eyes off the views. It was weird to think that we were approaching a big city because we got closer and closer to the time we were due to arrive but there was no city to be seen. Just as we were thinking that Ulanbataar must be very small and well blended into the hills, we rounded a corner and from nowhere there was a giant city! There were chimneys with smoke billowing out everywhere and it looked like one of the giant sprawling asian cities that we have come to know and love.

The train station was very crowded when we arrived with tour companies trying to entice tourists to go on one of their tours. We had booked a hostel in advance and they were collecting us from the station so we were relieved to see the smiling face of the hostel representative and to be swept away from the mayhem. As we arrived at 6.30am, our room was not yet ready so we decided to have a stroll around the city. The streets were fairly quiet at this early hour but despite this we almost managed to get run over several times! At first we put this down to being tired but we soon realised that it probably wasn't because we were tired but because the drivers are either completely mental or colour blind here because they don't stop at red lights!!!!

We decided to find a safer place to pass a bit of time so we went to the State Department Store which is a famous department store in the centre of the city. It looked like lots of people were in the same predicament as us and weren't able to check in yet as we saw half the people who we arrived with on the train in there!

Nigel: After our sleep deprived walk around the city and nearly being run over, it was time to check into our hostel and look at what tours we were going to do during our time in Mongolia. Before we set off on our tour we had a few days to explore the city and collect tickets for our final leg of the Trans-Siberia trip and even that was a mission. We had booked our train tickets through a company in London but they were unable to get them to us before we left so we were given directions to where the office was located and their opening times. From where we were staying, it was approximately 5km away. As we hadn't fathomed out how the buses worked, and looking at how they were driven, we were in no rush to get on one so we decided to walk it. This would have been ok if it wasn't 30 degree heat, the map we had didn't have a ridiculous scale, and the office not being open on a Sunday (the day we decided to go). So after two 10km round trips, we managed to pick the tickets up and saw parts of the city that not many tourists would have see or ever wanted to see. During our walk, we did come across a good Korean restaurant, which based on our previous experiences, are always good value for money as they bring out several mini dishes at no extra cost.

Also along the way back from picking the tickets up, we stopped off in the biggest monastery in Mongolia. For some reason (presuming religion) they encourage the feeding of pigeons. This is ok but not when you are trying to walk through them and a little girl runs up to them and they all fly off, in your direction. The most notable items in there was the massive Buddha statue which must have been over 50 meters high and the 24 carat gold miniature statues that they were selling.

The other thing that caught our attention in the city, was the Beatles monument in one of the squares near our hostel. We are unsure if they ever played in Mongolia, but it was erected after a local artist was commissioned to make it. Apparently the monument was made to remember the time in the 1970's when teenagers used to gather in apartment stairways and sing Beatles songs which they learned from contraband records smuggled from Eastern Europe. We also saw a couple of cars with British number plates and the words "Mongolia rally" written across the side. After some research on the internet, we worked out that the rally consists of travelling from London to the Mongolian capital via Prague and there are several restrictions in regards to engine size etc. The event is held in aid of charity.