Okay, so we've done the following since our last postcard: - Three Gorges River - big, brown, bit of a let down to be frank Xi'an - Had our toenails painted with little flowers and our hair cut - Terracotta Army - fairly bloody amazing actually Datong - Hanging temple - little but pretty - Caves - ginormous buddhas carved out of rock with the biggest incense sticks you've ever seen - Trip to Hohhot for Mongolian visa, bit of a nightmare getting there and big but super quick visa delivery, yay! Train to Mongolia Now we're in Ulan Bator having been on a 6 day trip to the White Lake, sand dunes and Kharkorin. We went on the trip with an Aussie girl and her brother. We stayed in gers, traditional Mongolian tents, that smell of mutton and fermenting milk/sour cheese. They also have their own wildlife - mosquitoes, flies and beetles, plus if you're lucky, you'll get a marmot too. The white lake was huge and even had its own seagulls. It was really nice and peaceful, we stayed in our own ger and went horse riding, trust us to get the slowest, most stubborn horses. There was a local festival on where we got to watch men in small pants and jackets fight each other, phwoar. There was also archery, horse racing, contortionism, horse head violin playing and rodeo. All very entertaining. The lake was volcanic and we walked to the top of the volcano, fantastic views of surrounding volcanic rock. The sand dunes were somewhat disappointing and full of baby frogs. Didn't spend too long there but spent a night in a local family's ger, which was hilarious. We were offered snuff and a pipe by the grandad of the family, who clearly loved having tourists to entertain. We watched the sun set from a hill with vodka in hand and then returned to the camp for more vodka, singing and stars. The family had a great home production line of fermented mare's milk, which we were obviously overjoyed to politely sip and sleep next to large vats of it. We visited the monastery at Kharkorin, the former capital. There was some good artwork there and a few new gods, including an interesting evil, naked, female one with special lady bits. Which links in nicely to the highlight of Kharkorin, Phallic Rock. Apparently put in place to counteract the naturally occuring 'vaginal slope', but we didn't see that. Look out for the photo (hopefully before we get home). Made our way back to UB and had pizza for dinner, a pleasant change from greasy mutton and dodgy dairy products. Heading back to China this evening for a week in Beijing before we return to the heartland.