Flat tyres and Throat singing

People i met here, who contributed to and improved my trip: Juliana (Russia), Ed (England), Harry (England), Shuhei (Japan), Mr Lee (South Korea), Bayra (Mongolia)

1 Mongolian driver (Bayra) and 6 bold travellers get ready to venture into the wilderness, we have 3 English (Ed, Harry and me) 1 Russian (Julia), 1 Japanese (Shuhei) and 1 Korean (Mr Lee). First stop.... beer shop. With 6 cold Borgio's freshly uncapped we were ready to take on the World! We immediately realised Mr Lee spoke no English and Shuhei only a limited amount, so a couple of beers seemed to help with the communication barriers!

Our first stop was a couple of hours west of Ulaanbaatar, at a small cafe for some lunch. A sheeps leg greeted us on the porch as we entered with trepidation.

The inside was actually quite normal and the usual menu of mutton and dumplings was served up. Having eaten, we stocked up the van with a few more beers and trundled on into the wilderness. The roads deteriorated the further from Ulaanbaatar we travelled and soon asphalt was just a distant memory.

Our first major problem struck around 16.00, whilst having a toilet break. When the side door opened, i could hear a hissing sound, which Bayra came to inspect. The look on his face and hand gestures made everyone rush back to the van, as he motored on to the nearest small settlement for repairs. Luckily, this was only 10 minutes down the road and made for a pleasant break.

The community was like something from Mad Max, situated in the middle of a dusty patch of land, with car parts and old bath tubs littering the area.

The people were friendly and Julia had a good chat with one guy who spoke fluent Russian and was now a farmer in this township of 40 souls. Eventually the mechanics fixed our tyre and we were on the move again.

Next stop was the 'mini Gobi', a small area of sand dunes for a quick 10 minute stop. Unbelievably we bumped into Brenton and Logan here, who we had met on Olkhon Island. We exchanged greetings before we had to move on, as the light faded into darkness.

We arrived in Kharkhorin, the former Mongol capital, and entered our felt ger around 20.00, as our host was just about to prepare dinner. Ed decided he would love to see traditional Mongolian cooking and went with her, to her ger. He came back 10 minutes later, with a big grin on his face and explained traditional Mongolian cooking was opening a bag and popping ready made dumplings into a pot of water! Oh well! Our ger had 6 beds circling the wall, with a log stove in the centre to provide heat and a table and chairs from which to eat and socialise.

Not a bad set up in all honesty.

Dumplings digested, airag (fermented mares milk) and Chinggis Khan vodka opened, our next treat was a Mongolian throat singer. He played 4 different types of instrument and sang Mongolian songs about Ghengis Khan, the country and people. He even cried during one performance. It was all very impressive and Julia and i decided we had not heard enough, after his 40 minute performance, so payed him a few extra dollars to do a private performance, in a seperate ger. A few airags too many and he was playing love songs for us to dance to. Julia informed me in the morning it was very romantic, although the airag made my recollection of the evening mildly hazy!