We remained in Mongolia for nearly a week after returning from the Gobi. As we were unpacking the van after the trip we found to our disbelief that we were sharing a room with Dara the guy we had stayed with in Novosibirsk! The next few days were spent with him and others from the hostel, sampling mongolian cuisine purchasing magic cloth from the black market and watching the trick shot billiards world championships on some momgolian sport5s channel until the ear...

We arrived in Ulaan Bataar with no prior hostel and as we had read good reviews about the UB guest house we excepted the free ride back to the hostel. The guest house is situated in the centre of what is a very small ugly predominently soviet built capital city but despite its apearences it is very easy to warm to the place as the mongolians seem to be friendly and the surrounding mountainous landscape is breath taking. The first couple of days were spent roaming...