Back at our hostel the following day we met 2 guys who were traveling back to the UK/Ireland from Korea. They introduced us to a mongol friend they met at the station called Eggi. Eggi had offered to take us snowboarding on the next wednesday so that was cool. He worked there and said he would sort us out :) That evening we went out for a drink with Mark and Dermot. Everywhere was closed so we wondered around finally deciding to give up and go and get food and go to bed. On route we met some mongolian guys our age looking like they were off to drink so we asked them where to go, they simply said follow us... ok... it may seem a bit dodgey but we were 4 big enough lads so we thought we'd follow for a bit to see what happened. after chatting the the mogol guys they came across fine, nice and friendly so we felt more comfortable, they took us to some back alley door which looked like a block of flats, they did a special knowck on the door and after 5 minutes it opened and we were presented with a full pub set up!! We spoke to the guys and it turned out that it was an illegal pub, apprently they are all over the place and are perfectly normal...just illegal thats all haha.

We sat down with our new friends and once again the bottles of vodka started appearing :) we got drinking and soon the singing started again. Myself and Adam stood up and sang the song about horses we had learnt from Sara at the ger camp. Everyone started clapping and cheering and it seemed to have won us a lot of respect. Lots of guys came over and started chatting to us and said how impressed they were which was really nice. We then sang a few english folk numbers to which the mongols replied with a few traditional mongol songs. The evening was going well.... then Adam stood up to show one fo the guys a wrestling dance he had learnt from Ogi, its an introduction dance before a wrestle match. As Adam pulled off his moves a big mongol guy who was a bit drunk stood up and said that because he had done the dance it was an invitation to wrestle and he wanted to accept and wrestle him hmmm, little bit worrying but of of the mongols said it was just going to be a bit of fun so Adam accepted the challenge and the wrestle match proceeded. It all started off ok, it was pretty intense and soon we realised that you cant have a play fight wrestle and that you actually have to try (in a good way, not violent, its just hard to play fight wrestle) and way after throwing each other into the walls, bars and tables Adam touched his opponents head...uh oh, this is a big no no in mongolian wrestling as its the sacred place on the body and not allowed. The guy got very angry and the wrestling match stopped and started to turn a bit nasty, the guy picked up a glass and treated to hit Adam at which point we all (about 10 of us) jumped in to stop him, we had some decent backup after our singing show ;) It all got calmed down and after talking to the guy and explaining that Adam wasnt a Mongolian wrestler "duuur" and didnt know all the rules the guy came over and made friends. Basically he was just a drunk but the night carried on in good spirits. Towards the end it started to get a bit strange and a lot of mongols wanted to take us to a club and get us prostitutes etc etc, and then it turned into they wanted to walk us home and know where we were staying. Adam and Mark were pretty drunk at this point but myself and Dermot kinda sensed something wasnt quite right so turned into parents and told the kids that we were leaving haha. After 30 mins of convincing them we left and headed home with out any more bother. What a great night!

The next day it was snowboarding time, we all got up except adam who, lets just say didnt have much sleep due to being wrapped around a toilet bowl for most of the night haha. Anyway, Eggi picked us up and took myself Mark and Dermot to Sky Ski Resort where he worked as a water engineer. Sky Resort doesnt get enoguh natural snow so they got an italian company who speacialse in making snow with snow cannons etc. Building Sky Resort was and still is the biggest project ever undertaking in Mongolia, its still going as the resort is goign to expand with more slopes and a golf course. that day involved getting over a hangover, teaching Dermot how to snowboard, eating some pretty good food and oh yeah..snowboarding a s*** load for free ;) The next few days myself and adam carried on snowboarding as i had missed my time in russia due to my shoulder. We managed to get a few friends to comae along from the hostel and taught them how to snowboard also, i think i need to become an intructor! After snowboarding me and adam met up with Ogi and checked out the museums and local food around Ulaanbaatar with Ogi as our personal guide ;) thanks Ogi!

That friday Dermot had been going on to us about St Patricks Day and that we were all going out so Eggi said he would sort something out. We now knew Eggi was the man who can do anything in mongolia and has also taught us the best saying... "Everything Is Possible In Mongolia" Friday evening we all met up and Eggi took us to a place where he said he had a surprise ... We walked in to a pretty lush bar with a stage for music, there was a gig set up so we thought Eggi was going to be playing, oh yeah Eggi also plays drums in a band. We got shown to a table that had been reserved for us and all the men were presented with a small bottle of vodka, this was due to it being national mens day/weekend. After a few drinks 7 of the most stunning girls we had seen walked on stage and started playing awesome covers with their own twist, they were a truly awesome band, not just coz of their looks but so talented too, drums, base, alto sax, tenor sax, pianno, guitar, vocals, all so tight in their timing, we'll find them on utube and put the link up. They are about to tour America so i think they are amout to hit the world stage so it was nice to see them before it happened. Mark and Dermot called some other guys they had met and soon our group grew to 15 people, the night was going to be a good one! Half way through the night Eggi told us that he knew the manager fo the bar and that it was his birthday so we all sneakily walked over and surrounded him and sang happy birthday which he loved and then convinced him to come out with us. We all went to a kareoke bar and hired out the biggest room they had and sang till the early hours, it was a wicked night. Oh yeah, Dermot realised halfway through that it wasnt actually St Paddys day hahah, me and adam had lost the plot with dates by this poitn and were just living day by day so it was pretty funny, ah well, we all had a good time anyway.

The next few days i carried on snowboarding with Egi and his friend Ogi (the b day boy). Adam went on a trip with Ogi (the 1st ogi) to a national mens day event so ill let him explain that in another post.