As we write, our Mongolian adventure is already over! We only had 8 days, but the country is so huge that to have been able to tour beyond the Terelj national park - 2 hours from Ulanbator (the capital) - we would have needed a further 2 to 3 weeks at least.

We had a great 4 days staying in a family 'ger' (felt tent) in the Terelj. The food was pretty good (and pretty meaty) and the milk tea and the local hooch (made of fermented mare's milk) were both very hard going. It was a huge hilly landscape topped by blue sky, populated by only a handful of the 2.8 million people in Mongolia together with a few horses, goats and the odd camel. Apparently Mongolia is the least densely populated country in the world and there are 13 horses to every human!

In Ulanbator (UB) we stayed in a great guesthouse which was effectively a two-roomed flat that we shared with Deborah, a lovely New Zealander, who has just about completed her Masters in Mongolian socio-anthropology and is about to start her PhD.

The trans-mongolian train from Beijing to Ulanbator took 29 hours. Thankfully the border stops weren't too bad (the formalities for both borders were completed in 4.5 hours). Much of this time was spent changing the 'bogies' as the tracks in Mongolia (and Russia) are 3 inches wider than those anywhere else in the world. The scenery was stunning throughout, whether it was the rocky hills after we left Beijing, the Gobi desert which stretches from northern China well into Mongolia, or the rolling steppes. From Ulanbator we opted for the bus to Ulan Ude in Siberia. This only took 12 hours (just two of which were spent at the borders, Andy being most affected as an Irish passport is a rare sight round 'dem dere parts'), compared to the 25-hour train journey!

So we are now in Siberia and have already met some lovely Russian people ... and some grim-faced bureaucrats!