We stayed overnight in Beijing just so we could get the Trans-Mongolian Railway into Mongolia. We got the K23 train on Saturday morning, and were glad that it was a better standard than the overnight trains in Vietnam. We'd had to upgrade to a private 2 bed cabin as the others had all sold out and the cabin was clean and even had carpet on the floor. The scenery was green and mountainous as we left Beijing, gradually getting flatter and dryer as we neared the border. At the border we didn't need to get off the train for all the immigration formalities, officers came on board and collected our passports and other paperwork. The wheels of the train then had to be changed as the train tracks in China are different than in Mongolia. This process takes three hours so we decided to get off the train and have a walk about rather than being stuck on board, jacked up in the air in the wheel changing factory! After this was done we then had a short journey to the Mongolian border, again we didn't have to get off the train but it was a lengthy process and was 2am by the time we got underway again.

We arrived in Ulaanbaatar a little late on Sunday afternoon but went to Dennis and Carey's soon after. Monday we spent looking around Ulaanbaatar which was surprisingly modern, and the weather pleasantly warm. A few people, mostly older, were in traditional clothing but the young people were dressed in modern western clothes. The city centre had new high rise buildings with lots of glass and there were few of the concrete soviet style apartment blocks that we had expected. Many of the houses on the edge of the city had colourful tin rooves and there were Ger (traditional round felt tents) communities scattered amongst them. We were quite surprised how small the Gers were, even the Mongolians have to stoop to get in through the door, and the whole family and all their possessions fit in there. We went to the National Museum briefly and spent some time in Sukhbaatar square in front of Government House as the preliminary results of the previous days Presidential election were being celebrated under the watchful eyes of many police officers. There was much flag waving, chanting and clapping as the Democratic candidate was leading over the Communist candidate.