"It's just a load of sheep and goat"

We quite happily took the train from Beijing to start our "Vodka Train" tour through to Russia on Tuesday morning. We spent the last couple of days in Beijing chilling, getting to know our fab new group and buying some souvenirs (tea pots etc) and were itching to get started on our epic train journey.

The first full day on the train was fine as our carriage was pretty much all western and so we had a laugh with some of the other tour groups on there and managed to keep the "drop straight onto the track" toilet pretty clean and odour free  - the Chinese toilets really are the worst in the world! We passed by some fab scenery including a section of the Great Wall, sleepy Chinese villages and small industrial towns and then headed in the Chinese area of Mongolia (Inner Mongolia) and the Gobi desert. The desert was quite bizarre as it is the first that we have seen close up and everywhere was so barren with just a few nomadic camps and heards of cattle here and there. We didn't get to the border crossing to leave China until late at night and this is where it all turned quite surreal and comedy. We all handed in our passports and left the train on to the sparsely lit platform for the 2 hours it would take to check our passports and stamp us out. There we all ended up sitting on the side of the platform trying to drown out the "my heart will go on" music from the loud speakers with some group guitar playing and sing alongs. The boys got the beer in and there ensued a mutlinational si8ng along and football game for 2 hours...in the dark. Once the 'bogeys' had been changed on our train and passports were handed back then we hopped back on the train and on to the next crossing to get into Mongolia. This crossing was a little different - soldiers on the platform, all toilets locked and no-one allowed to exit the train. No real problem you would think....however the 2 hours before drinking beer had suddenly caught up with us (or orange juice for me) and a sudden desperation to relieve ourselves kicked in. There was a hilarious scenario where loads of us stood on the train jumping up and down, standing cross-legged, begging the guard to open the toilet for 1 hour and a half..which culimated in passports eventually being handed back and the train pulling off, the guard opens the door, flashes us a sneaky grin and jumps in there himself before us! we had to laugh and hold our legs at the same time!

we managed to keep the "drop straight onto the track" toilet pretty clean and odour free - the Chinese toilets really are the worst in the world!

The next few hours passed fairly uneventfully and we slept on and off until we hit Ulaan Bataar in Mongolia and met our lovely local guide - Toggy - in the afternoon. The last few days here have been great. The first afternoon we mooched around the town (at 800,000 inhabitants it felt like a ghost town after China) and ejoyed a great Mongolian BBQ meal in the evening with salad, teppanyaki and many kinds og meat  - such a refreshing change after China. On Thursday we left the heady lights of the city to go to our Ger camp in the outback. For those that don't know, a 'Ger' is a traditional nomadic felt tent that 35% of Mongolians use for housing around here. Our camp was set in a lovely valley of hills, sheep, horses, yaks and goats and provided a great backdrop for photos and walks. The last few days have been spent watching traditional Mongolian skills such as horse-riding, archery and wrestling, participating in horse riding ourselves (great fun), hiking in the 40 degree heat (easily the hottest place we have been on our travels I think and very unexpected!), playing card games such has 'cheat' and 'spoons' with our group and eating traditional Mongolian fare such as mutton, fermented mare's milk and curd! Yes, we had to try some of the local specialities and Nick was certainly braver than I in tucking into the horses fermented milk which is a local delicacy here. We visited a nomadic family and were all given the opportunity to try it but I declined - apparently it is an aqcuired taste - sour and alcoholic and by the look of the boys' faces they clearly didn't have a taste for it. last night we had a whole mutton (muscle, fat and some tube like things and all) presented before us for tea and tucked into it in the style of Ghengis Khan with our hands - ripping the meat from the bones. Apparently when in Mongolia.....Our local guide has also taught us some pointers to take away with us - like how to say "take your dog away from me" in Mongolian...sounds like..."Ngogha Gorede!" (very good apparently when you are approaching a nomadic Ger and also how to play some traditional Mongolian games using sheep knuckles - yes real ones that have been dried and this game is for the kids! This is where Nick picked up his new favourite saying "it's just a load of sheep and goat"!

Anyway, the last few days have been really chilled out and we have had a lot of fun with the group and our guide. Mongolia really is the land of Nomads, beautiful scenery, ruddy faces, horses, sheep goat and Yaks. Tonight we are having a last supper here in Ulaan Bataar before we hop back on the train and head into Russia. Only 36 hours on the train to Irkutsk and Lake Baikal.....