St.Petersburg > Moscow > On A Train > Irkutsk > Ulan-Bator > Beijing > Xian > Chengdu > On A Boat > Hong Kong

Ulan-Bataar & Terelj 10.09.02 - 15.09.02

Day 16: Ulan-Ude - Ulan-Bataar

Woke up in Ulan -Ude station and I was freezing. Found a 5 cm gap between window and windowframe. Outside temperature was 5 degrees in celsius and I had to fill that gap with dirty socks. Border crossing on Russian side took 5 1/2 hours and 3 1/2 hours on Mongolian side.

Day 17: Ulan-Bataar

Arrived in UB early in a morning and got to take first shower in four days. As usual, spend first day in a new city just walking around. Tried to buy train ticket to Beijing, but they were all reserved by black marketeers and other hustlers. Had to get ticket to Jining instead. At least I managed to find some APS - film.

Day 18: Ulan-Bataar

Todays goal: Find a traditional Mongolian hat. I took a cab to local black market where I spend most of the day, huge place. And I did find that hat too! In a evening I ran in to three Finnish girls, only Finns I saw on my whole trip.

Day 19: Terelj

I met Danish and Australian guys in my guesthouse yesterday and we all wanted to stay one night in a ger. Our guesthouse arrenged the whole thing and we took a cab to Terelj in a morning. We stayed in small village in a beautiful valley. It took 20 minute horseride to get there from the road. My first time riding a horse, I might add.

Day 20: Terelj

Once again I woke up freezing, I think that temperature dropped belove zero last night. Around 11 AM weather got warm enough for us to start our 3 hour trip around terelj with horses. My ass still hurts while remembering that horseride. I had fun though. Later that day our cabbie took us back to UB.

Day 21: Ulan-Bataar - Dzamyn-Ude

I decided to visit Gandan`s buddhist monastery in a morning. Unlike monasterys I visited in China, this was a real deal: No tourists walking around (well, besides me), just monks doing their thing. I sat in a courtyard listening some guy playing the flute and almost decided to become a buddhist monk, but then I remembered that they live in selibacy and snapped out of it. Visited in museum of Mongolian history in a afternoon and then it was time to catch a train to China.

Mongolian border

Ulan - Bataar

Terelj

Ger in Terelj

Gandan monastery