juliet

I really am in a ger in Mongolia: the guesthouse I'm staying in in Ulan Bator is a mixture of buildings and gers, and the net access is in one of the gers. This seems to be common here; I'd kind of expected that gers would be just for tourists, but a significant chunk of the population even in cities, outside the very centre, seem to at least partly live in them.

It's very cold (as I was leaving Terelj this morning, of which more anon, some of the little streams and riverlets by the road were still frozen over; and when I woke up in the small hours last night I had to put my hat & scarf on, despite the pile of thick blankets, to get back to sleep). But gers have stoves, and stoves are very efficient, so right here is OK.

( Russians and Mongolians and customs, oh my )

( Lost in Ulan Bator with no breakfast )

( Mongolian mountains )

Today I have done some much-needed laundry; and it all dried in the sun which has been very warm despite it being cold *now* and in the shade during the day. (A bit like a sunny UK December day, but more so in both directions.) And then pottered down to look at the Mongolian National Museum, which is thoroughly recommended. I now wish to read up about Mongolian history generally as my appetite has been whetted. Particularly the Genghis Khan era stuff.

And now I shall conclude as this is already too bloody long, and the stove has died down & it's starting to get cold. Off to Beijing tomorrow morning on the last bit of the Trans-Mongolian.