More joyous border crossings Yesterday we wandered around and took in a couple of museums and although Mongolia was an interesting place we are glad to be moving on. This morning we had an early start again as our train to Beijing was at 8:05am. This time we were sharing a cabin with 2 French ladies; Sophie and Sylvie from Rouen of all places! At 7.30pm we arrived at the Mongolian border. More customs forms were distributed and once again our passports were li...

In the country We have spent the last 3 days on a trip into the countryside. Bimba, the hostel keeper arranged a guide and driver to take us to Kharkhorin, the ancient capital city. We were warned that some of the roads were 'bad' this turned out to be somewhat of an understatement. Anyway, driver was called, to us anyway, 'Driver' and the guide was 'Baggy' who looked all of 14. Me, Matt, Baggy, Driver and 67 flies headed out of UB in a Russian minivan and we a...

Meet the family We arrived in Mongolia yesterday; internet connection at the hostel here is dial up so will update properly when we get to China (after 01/10/07). Tomorrow we're going out of the city centre for 3 days with a guide and staying with a nomadic family and seeing some of the countryside. Met a MAD Swiss couple earlier who are 3 years into a 10 year trip CYCLING around the world!!! *Added entry for the day* A windy day today meant lots of dust...

The joy of border crossings We boarded the train yesterday at 5.45am. Matt and I found our cabin; this time the attendants were Chinese. Our cabin was locked which meant we had to wake the poor soul up inside it. He is a man called Mr Bolat, originally from Khazakstan but has lived in Ulaan Baatar for 20 years; he spoke virtually no English . Our other cabin mate is a 70 year old American lady from Florida, called Sheila. Sheila has basically done loads of trav...