Chinngis

Hello, as you have probably gathered from Mel's post this hasn't been the most active part of our holiday to date. However I've accrued a large sum of brownie points (BRP, tradeable on most exchanges these days) that I intend to cash in for time in electronic shops in Hong-Kong.

I can't tell you much about Mongolia (unless you want to know about the view from room 301 in the DelGer hotel) but I like UlaanBataar. It's quite a small city and surrounded by forest/snow covered mountains. Their architecture is also a strange fusion. You'll see yurts, (reconstructed) Buddhist temples, and monolithic glass tower blocks on the same street. The people are very friendly and generally speak pretty good English and smile readily (a nice change from Russia).

On our fist day we went out to the temple complex that is in the West of the city. It was a bit strange walking about in temples while the monks were chanting in there and I thought I might be disturbing the sanctity of the moment. Then one of the monks stopped chanting popped a mobile out of his pocket and checked his messages. I don't think they take anything too seriously over here. A policy I also adhere to.

Today I popped out with our tour group to the Mongolian history museum. It was pretty cool. The most interesting part I thought was how the Mongolians shrugged off the Communist government by holding a mass hunger strike in the main square of the city. There were probably other factors involved but as I only have the information presented to me at the museum at my disposal I'll remain impressed until corrected.

So tomorrow we're over the border to China to eat dog dimsum and spit loudly in the street (I've been practising my loogie hocking and think I'm ready). See you there!