Our hotel taxi was waiting for us promptly at 0630 for our transfer to the airport and our 0950 onwards departure to Mongolia; at last one of the highlights of our trip was fast approaching.

When putting this leg of our trip together we'd originally decided that we would love to experience the 30 hour Trans-Mongolian express train from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar (UB) but our two train experiences in China had now convinced us to scrap that romantic notion in favour of the two hour flight instead!

The hotel staff confirmed the departure terminal and the taxi dropped us off outside Terminal 2.A quick look at the departure boards inside and a quizzing at information confirmed that we were in the wrong place and should be at Terminal 3!We lugged our bags back outside, loaded them onto the free shuttle, containing numerous tourists who were also clearly at the wrong terminal, then took the 20 minute ride to where we should have been in the first place!!!

I played spot the new watch in the line for check-in as it was clearly evident, from the shining gold, silver and glass, that every foreigner departing Beijing was sporting a gleaming, spangling new Rolex or similar fake.Very funny, especially when they get home and try to pass off a $30,000 watch as genuine!!!

So, without any delays, we arrived at UB airport, somewhat bumpily, at about 1300 then waited an age for the luggage to arrive.

Our guide and driver then took us to Mongolian Expedition (ME) office so we could meet Batbayer, which took another age as the traffic in UB is absolutely atrocious, cars are both left and right hand drive and there is very little road discipline.After introductions we were kindly presented with a bright orange ME t-shirt each and a map of UB and Mongolia, paid the outstanding balance for the trip and drove to our hotel, the Bayangol Hotel, for our 2 night stay in UB before heading out into the Mongolian wilderness.

Our usual hotel debacle started pretty soon after arrival when we checked in to our room which we noticed was slap bang next to the lifts so was bound to be noisy.A quick call to reception though got us a room change...to one with twin beds.Our guide told us that the hotel was fully booked and that the twin was the only room available.It seems the Naadam Festival really does bring the tourists flocking, and the groups, which means, again, that we as independent travellers go to the bottom of the pile.

I began to unpack, p****d off that we were being taken for another ride, when Maria arrived and told me that we were moving to a double;So, having just settled into the new room and about to make tea I noticed that we didn't have a water filter so went to 'borrow' the one from the previous room.The maid, however, was not content for me to have it so put me onto reception who said no as it was the last one.When I asked why I couldn't just take it as I was going to be using it anyway there was a reluctant pause then an 'okay, you can have it'.I guess they had no valid reason for denying my request in the first place.

By now I was thoroughly p****d off with the staff whom I considered rude, unfriendly and unhelpful so my first impressions of Mongolia were pretty sh**ty.It started at the airport baggage claim when I was standing politely, as all (most) Brits do at the conveyor when I was swamped by Mongolians eager to push in and get their bags first!Then, on reflection, I concluded that the Mongolians had probably inherited the majestic social skills of both the Chinese and Russians and were likely to be as friendly as a Taliban at Thanks Giving.

Since we were still a little weary from the constant travelling we decided to just use the day to chill and recuperate a little.There was a small problem though as we didn't have anything to eat so off I wandered to find a supermarket.Fortunately, we were in the town centre and I managed to traverse the freeway style road unscathed, pass the dodgy looking characters sitting on the car park kerb by some broken glass and walk into the supermarket, that was in fact a department store; the supermarket was downstairs.

Basket laden with supplies, namely biscuits and choccy, I proceeded to the checkout, saw the till displaying MT (Mongolian Tugrik) 9,000, counted out the required number of 2,000 notes and handed over the money, confident that I had grasped the 2,350 MNT to £1 exchange rate.The till assistant looked at me strangely then gave me back 80,000 MNT; I'd managed to give her 5 x 20,000 notes instead of 5 x 2,000!

We relaxed for the rest of the day in the hotel but the sugar induced food munchies caught up with us about 2100 so out I popped to find a 7-Eleven or 24-hour food store.I found lots of decent looking restaurants, the central square, dirt pavements and cars and even walked past the hotel out of town in search of sustenance but returned to the room and Maria about 30 minutes later to find that she'd been waving frantically at me when I went by; she was worried because I'd been gone so long.

Room service came to the somewhat pricier rescue!

Despite my somewhat hormonal start to our Mongolian Expedition Maria was in high spirits.