ONCE AGAIN IN MONGOLIA...

20 July 08, Ulaanbator

Yes, it was all a bit of a shock, but we are fine and sorting ourselves out now in Mongolia. we have looked at options and we have decided we want to avoid China, as it might give us a lot of problems again and we don't want to take any more risks. The best option would have been to get the visa again! and then go to Beijing and see the bits we haven't seen yet of China and then go to Hong Kong. But with the visa situation, nothing is guaranteed - how long it will take to get the visa. We met a couple from England who were stuck in Mongolia for 3 weeks waiting for their China visa. So we have decided we will instead go to Korea for 6 - 7 days before we go to Hong Kong. We do not need any visa for Korea and we don't need any visa for Hong Kong. We are planning to fly from Mongolia to Korea on 24th July. Everything is getting back into place again, and we are still laughing at our bad luck with China, and sometimes things are just not meant to be.

We are back in Oyuna hostel and the travellers we met before we headed for China were stunned to see us again. Some, terrified, as they were next to travel to China..

We spent our first night trying to figure out how we could get out of the country by going from travel agency to agency. As we got back to the hostel, we had a power cut and all of us in the hostel sat outdoors in the dark in the court yard just chatting. There were 8 of us - Americans, Danes and Brits. Most were working in China/Korea as English teachers.

We had a good few days to explore Ulaanbator further. We went to Ganden Monastery just near our hostel - it is lovely. Inside one of the temples it has a giant Buddha in golden colour. I managed to sneak a photo of it.
We went to a Thai restaurant with Michael Boedker - the Dane we met in our hostel. We were the only customer along with 4 people sitting at another table. 3 of them were Danish and one was American. One of the Danish girls got up and opened her top and went to the fan/cooler to cool down her front parts, the other Danish girl said "what are you doing", the first one answered "I have sweat between my tits" in Danish, Michael and I laughed, and then the second girl said "they are laughing at you", the first one said "who those there and she looked towards us", and then I answered in Danish "that is because we understand every word of what you are saying". She was so embarrassed and her friends could not stop laughing and the Danish guy with them said "never have I experienced this, this has got to be the funniest moment ever" - you should have been there to see their faces.
On our way home from the restaurant, we had the same 3-4 kids run at us and try to touch our pockets and standing in our ways. They had blocked our way the night before, when we were walking back to our hostel. One of the kids literally grabbed Amit's arms and his pockets and kept trying to hang on to him, Amit could have smacked him one, but he was a 11-13 year old and so he just pushed him off. They were so adamant, I was screaming at them, and passer-bys just looked and walked. Was shocking. I shouted and one kid who was peeing as we walked towards them, well, he peed on my back! My trousers were wet and I was disgusted! What a horribe experience. This we had never come across ever. In the end we managed to walk away from them and crossed the road. We were certain that those young children were "high" on something. Their eyes were all over the place.

We did manage to have a good time too and spent the last two evenings with good meals and drinks in the outdoor bar at the Khan's place where many expats hang out.

Seems we will be heading to Korea. Cannot go to Hong Kong via Russia or China as we need visas for both countries.