Blue skies at last!

Helen: we were in china and hk for over 2 weeks and it was overcast pretty much the entire time. must've been pollution - 30 hours on a train to get to ulanbator in mongolia and all of a sudden the sky is a brilliant blue. the view from the train was stunning - first the gobi desert - flat sand as far as you could see with the occasional ger (yurt - felt tent) camp and a few horses, and then rolling hills with spiky mountains in the background and melting snow everywhere. and then, bam, the city of ulan bator. it's got such a lovely vibe to it compared to beijing - probably on account of its size (1m as opposed to 14m) - but also the people. they are v friendly and don't stare as much as the chinese. ub isn't going to win any prizes for architecture, and it's very grey here (not much grows in a desert so there's barely any trees and no grass, and most ofthe buildings are soviet inspired), but the food has been great (all european so far - we're stocking up as we're expecting nothing but goat meat and curdled cheese for the next week when we head out into the countryside). we visited a buddhist monastery this morning - was full of monks (with jumpers under their robes it's so damn cold here - we're both wearing our down jackets, thermals and hats - what a difference fromthe last year in the tropics!) but there were also loads of people in suits and on mobile phones, and wearing traditional costumes, just coming to pay their respects. felt like a living working place, not just for the tourists like in beijing
our guest house is crazy - we seem to be living in a (well estalished) shanty town on the outskirts of ub - its like the nomads just moved their lifestyle to the city - you can live in western appartment blocks and wear fashionable sunglasses if you want, and lots of people do, but here, they live in gers and family compounds like they always have. there is even a delightlful nibbly kid goat running around our place (its mother, which belongs to the owners in-laws who live in the countryside, abandoned it, so they are hand rearing it til it can rejoin the flock). c is impressed at their resourcefulness - they have just taken out the engine of a land cruiser in the yard, without a crane, and replaced it with another!
so, we're off for a tour in the countryside tomorrow, back on the 18th. will be our 6th wedding anniversary while we're away! (believe it or not, but we think we're going to buy an original Mongolian modern artwork as a pressie for each other - i know modern art isn't what springs to mind when you think about mongolia (more goat testicles, horses (we've had to impose a moratorium on Horse while we're here - there are just too many!), and furry boots), but we really liked it. picture to follow...
bye for now
hx

ps amusing ourselves no end by just wandering around trying to decipher cyrillic words on bill hoardings. often if you can transliterate the word, it makes sense. often, of course, it's nonsense, but it's fun trying. half their letters are backwards,which explains why it sounds like talking backwards when they speak. somehow, even though we can only understand a handful of words (cafe,internet, bank) it feels much less foreign and more inviting than china where everything was just squiggles. c made a good point - he said this place feels more familliar to us because it's a mix of asian and european - pity we won't see the culture change all the way back to europe...