Back in my hotel room in UB after a night out in the country sleeping in a Ger.
Loving Mongolia frankly. Sadly we leave in the morning.
In the last couple days I've:
-Toured the local buddhist temples
-Attended a "cultural event" with dancing, "throat-singing" (Google it), instrumental songs and....contortionists.
-Tried local favorite, fermented mare's milk (wasn't that bad...you, know...for horse milk)
-Drove out to an impossibly beautiful spot to spend the day/night
-Avoided riding horses at the Ger camp
-Used the fastest computers yet on the trip for an hour and a half for $1.20 total
-Ate Mongolian BBQ
-Shot (poorly) an arrow
-Watched the end of the MLB All-Star Game
-Consumed copious amounts of beer and vodka
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Our local guide Nemo is absolutely terrific. English, his third best language, is nearly flawless and he seems to have this whole country wired. He formerly was a physician...but the money couldn't match what he earns being a tour guide evidently. And he loves the Celtics.
UB is just a town I love. Real energy and progress all-around. Construction is going on everywhere and is stylishly modern....completely different from Russia.
This is a city that is going to look very different next time I'm here.
The people being pretty and food and drink being insanely cheap doesn't hurt either.
I will say the traffic is nuts though...very few stoplights and even fewer crosswalks. It's a bit of a free-for-all. And on random corners there are folks with telephones who rent them out for you to make a call right then and there....human phone booths if you will.
One other bad thing here is that folks don't use hot water heaters. Rather there is one central Soviet-era water plant that pipes the hot water around the city. NOT a good system...as there are sort of "rolling blackouts" for this hot water and tonight we have none at our hotel!!
Tonight is our guide Erin's final night with us, so we're off to dinner and one final round of drinks.
Off to China in the morning!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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