have endured another day of driving under the control of daddy.
when on the motorway the roads are rather good but when we venture too far off the beaten track the roads turn russia-esque making us feel we are on familiar territory but also fearing for the health of wilma and larry. swings and rounderbouts.

am in the second internet cafe since cross the big border which is far better than the connection i had in the hotel last night. the hotel was lovely on the surface but everything was superficial; for example, the sockets came out of the walls whenever i touched them. this was not good.
in teh morning when leaving the hotel tessie had her morning row with the hotel staff. tessie has these row with alarming frequency partly induced by her love of being able to speak chinese but mainly just being able to talk. the rows revolve around the staff being unable to washing things in the room, in this case the towel daddy had used to clean the pressure cooker which contained one week old meat.
this morning's hotel saga was dragged out longer than it normally is when daddy and tessie had an exciting arguement about who left daddy's phone in the hotel room. the day was saved when we went back to retrieve the phone from under the bed where the hotel staff had placed it. to reassure himself of its precence daddy took photographs with it all daddy. this cost us about 5 extra hours due to his lack on knowlegde on phone use.

the weather here has really started to heat up as we travel further south. although this does mean i have been able to stash away the thermals once more it also means that tessie's mosquito chat is back. i saw one mosquito today- aparantly she has seen hundereds.
i do feel that i should not be complaining, however, as i am reliably informed that we are not missing much in england weather-wise.
during our stay in china, so far we have not been able to dodge controvisy as daddy is forever making inappropriate comments of the like that cannot be repeated as we understand they are hot on censoring over here. we have also has mixed experinces with the people who stare at us where ever we seem to go. we are making plans to charge commision for all the extra buisness we bring into restaurants we eat in. must say we feel rather like the spice girls. exept more famous and cool.

now, im sure that everyone, reeve in particular, is wondering how daddy managed to damage poor larry once again. we had been subtlely lured into a false sense of security by the roads of china and therefore, when we woke up at the crack of dawn, and started to drive we did not see the first few extremely large potholes. we managed to smash into an impressive number especially as the day was rainy and overcast. when we stopped for breakfast high up in the mountains (along the scenic route we had been following) daddy thought it best to check how larry was getting along. it was then that we saw that larry's left wheel (as yet uneffected) was standing at 45 degrees outwards. me were forced to use yet another set of wheel barings and when changing them the wheel had been so badly abused that it practically fell off.
since teh incident we have tried to buy new barings and trailer wheels and have bought two new tyres for wilma.
when trying to get another of wilma's wheels changed we went to an incompetant garage and were forced to change the tyre ourselves or risk it exploding.

today the whole camp has gone on an economy drive. this has been much needed as we have only been able to camp once since being in china, have thus far been ripped off by hotels and had to pay expensive tolls on the roads.
today we spent over 20 pounds sterling on the roads and we pay at least some every. this has not been all bad though as without the good roads our progress would be painfully slow.
today we managed to eat extremely cheaply with breakfast costing roughly 50p for five people. rather proud of ourselves.
tonight we have managed to say in a couple of rooms above a street restaurant. particularly chuffed as the room even has a large balcony overlooking a hospital and costs 1.2 pounds sterlilng per person. impressive or what? however, we will not be able to have a shower as it costs extra. daddy has has reasoned that we would not have any water camping. great.

walked on an ancient city wall today with a bouncy castle at the bottom. hoping to drive on some more roads that other people would not advise tomorrow. all in the aid of good scenery.

we would just like to take the time to say that we were rather pleased with our last letter writting frenzy (i hope you appreciated the effort) and would like to say that there should be another soon as we got about 15 postcards each from queenie from our tour company. i hope you were not under the impression that we would buy postcards; having said that, we have picked up some pretty cool chairman mao gear even if i do say so myself.
we are also rather pleased that queenie is with us as it means that we have been able to unload lewis onto someone else for a change. his lessons are going swimmingly but this is somewhat over shaddowed by his love for his new book of puzzle adventures. lewis would like to say that he hopes all his friends are enjoying school back in london.

final thought:
hello to everyone but a specially grand tour camp welcome back to ling.
we are excited that she has been to syria but upset that she has managed to upstage us in the travelling stakes.
she should have picked the exciting side of town to say in. it would have made a great story.

am honestly still working on the photographs but my computer still has no battery as someone (daddy) burned out the intervor in the car and the search for an adaptor has so far proved futile.

intermediate post

am updating the blog from a rather swanky hotel (for us) in dengzhou in helan province.
the swankyness of this hotel is being judged by the fact that there in an internet connection.

however, they do not have an english adaptor or plug so this post will be very short and will not have the usual attention to detail and subtle replies to those who comment on our blog- these will come later.

we have had a heavy day of driving and daddy's enthusiam at smashing wilma and larry into the massive potholes that love suprising us on the roads caused larry to loose another wheel.
but it was ok as it was the other wheel this time that had, up until that point managed to remain in tact. we soon saw to that.

battery going on my computer.
details on exploits to come later.

we reached xian last night in the rain that has been virtually non-stop since we arrived in china.

the rain combined with the muggyness of most days means that out view of mcuh of the amazing scenery has been impaired but we have only camped once (a plus in my book).
queenie's bags are smaller than ours so it has not been difficult to pack all her stuff.
so far queenie has been lovely and is getting used to the old man's ways and is even cracking some great jokes of her own. however, she does appear a bit nervous and amuses us greatly when she pops out if the car to check the directions every 5 minutes.

greg, alex, frances and animals will be especially pleased to know that we ourselves are planning what animals to get when we are back in england. i was most disappointed when daddy wne tback on his word that he would get me a cat and tells me that i am only allowed to have a turtle as it will be really easy to keep when i am at university. great.
all this animal discusion has been going on while we have been on the hunt for dog and donkey restaurants that we have seen occasionly.

a few days ago we managed to secure our first big of donkey whihc was extremely tender but 'was covered in too much sauce', said daddy who is most pleased to have something new to complain about.
on our first night in china we also managed to grab two delecicies in one fell swoop- sparrow and silkworm. the former tastey if a bit cruncy (it was the whole of the scrawny bird on one stick), and the latter foul. silk worm, although crossed off out list is not something we would recomend to anyone.
we are now on the search for dog (which queenie doesn't eat) and as you can imagine the existance of hundereds of stray dogs in china has caused many jokes and much helarity amongst the camp.

i am currently typing to you from a guesthouse which is a little to trendy for us.
i think you will get the picture when i tell you that there was someone beatboxing live int eh bar in the basement last night.
have been by myself all day as the other have finally decided that the terracotta army was something not to be missed (though tessie insisted it was). as i have seen them before i have been exploring the city by myself for most of the day; i have had quite the adventure.
everyone who i have tried to speak to in chinese, through the aid of my trusty phrase book, has promtly gone of in search of someone who speaks english to translate. this in turn has made be somewhat conspicious. the first restaurant and bank i went to lead me to another where the people spoke english. this has been most disressing.

a couple of nights ago we stayed in a smaller chinese city. we arrived in the late evening and were fortunate enough to stumble accross the ancient part of town where we found some men playing chequers who lead us to a guesthouse tucked in a side street. the family we stayed with was lovely and the room the best an cleaneset so far: there was even a real toilet (as a pose to the squat ones that are the toilets of choice in china). the floor was stone and the bed was built in from stone and took us one half of the room.
that night we were in more the china that we had wanted and as usual took countless photographs.
will try to load some photographs today but this may not be possible as i need to charge my lap top but we don't have an adaptor and the invertor in the car thtat we ahve been using got burnt out.
i was nowhere near the scene of the crime.

since being in china we ahve ben on proper roads for the majority of the time as we have been travelling on the expressway despite the best efforts of the officials at the toll boothes on every entrance and exit to them. every offical has appeared to take umbridge with larry and the the number of fights we have had have been countless.
the charge of the toll varies with distance and we are given a card when we get on the motorway that we give back when we get off. when our distances and charges have been calculated that the further you go the cheaper it works out to be. it is still bloody expensive though.

seeing as we are back on the tarmaced roads we have tried to repair wilma and larry as best we can. we even went to a proper citroen garage in the last big town and, luxery of luxeries, we fixed the severed handbrake cable. when at the garage we acted as great entertainment for all the stuff who crowed roudn the car as though we were mao himself and took lots of photographs.

we are glad that this blog in not pointless and that people actually read it and promise to do our best to upload more photographs that will not get us arrested as queenie has told us some of them will.

we would like to wish freddie a happy birthday. we wish we could send you some caviar and russia's finest. if only we were there.

granny, say hello to kim, jean and abby for us.
we hope poppet gets better. show her the blog. am sure it would help.

chinese food is not yet making us sick although noodles in the morning is no loger novel, as it should be. hoever, we are missing good old fashioned granny-style jam and pickles. i am sure she is saving us some. also, i hope this plug for granny's jam is not going unnoticed.

lewis is looking forward to hearing from the new p1 and was most excited to hear from mrs de jager.

the rest of us are just excited to hear from anyone at all.
every comment is read and apprecited.

CHINA

hello everyone!

don't worry guys, we have been fully briefed on what we are and are not allowed to take photographs of so we do not get arrested. we have also even been provided with a bible of road way rules and regulations, which makes good bedtime reading, and free postcards so you should all be recieving one soon as long as we have your address.

we are most excited as have made it to china in one peice. crossing the border into china did not take as long as crossing the border into russia which we were most pleased about; however, once we had got through the mongolian side and the chinese side of the border we had to sit around for fours hours while they were processing wilma. we were originally told we would have to wait only two hours; as you can imagine this made the whole camp rather angry. our lunch that day, during the wait, consisted of milk, water and some pretty intersting cakes that queenie got us (see next paragraph); however, as we continued to get hungry after our hearty snack, we decided to venture out of the compound and into the border town of erenhot. on the way back we had a pretty interesting time getting back into the compound as the guard told us that we had to go through in a car or bus.

whilst we were waiting for wilma and larry we found that the officials at the border were friendly, helpfull and amusing, which was a bit of a suprise- they even supplied free ice-tea. during this time we also met queenie, our guide, who tessie instantly began chatting away to in chinese and no doubt laughing at daddy's and my expense.
so far we have found queenie to be lovely (just incase she reads this) and is very good at dashing out of the car to ask for directions. she also has a tent of which we are most jealous and a blow-up roll mat that even has a built in pillow- snazy or what?
daddy has already waded in there with some political hot potatoes. good times.

today we have seen some great caves near datong and are now about 300 miles from the border. they were more impressive than the terracotta worriors for anyone who is one their way to china. we were along side the chinese in the phototaking stakes and had to dodge the crowds at times but the caves were generally well preserved and the intricate carvings were made all the more impressive when you concidered the height of the ceiling- over 20m- and the the colour of the rock.

since our few nights in china we have only managed to camp once as the weather has not been suitable and has been muggy all day and night; however the scenery has been quite interesting although queenie promises us that there will be better landscape to come. we have also finally come to some hills once again; the combination of hills and good old russian-like roads ensure that larry has continued to be tested. we have had some choice potholes in the ground aswell which daddy aimed for perfectly and got 10 points.

we a currently looking our for some good citroen machanics (apparently daddy has seen loads since being in china) to repair the brakes. at the moment we are living on the edge.

we are cleaning ourselves and tidying up wilma and larry in preperation for queenie (our guide for china).

we will get to the border at 07:00, despite the lonely planet telling us the border opens at 08:00, in an attempt to beat teh passanger train that arrives at 08:00.

the whole camp is most excited about going to china as it will be somewhere new and hopefully have some fruit other than apples.

the big news today is that lewis and i had our hair cut. the only reason for this was that ice-creams were promised. i feel i got a pretty good deal and my hair is feeling properly clean for the first time since leaving london. the hairdressers style of washing hair was agressive but thourough.

i realise that all our blog fans out there did to expect another post today, particularly as we have not been the most regular users. however, we are making the most of the slow internet connection and have very little to do today.

THE SAND INCIDENT
i had forgotten to tell you about the most interesting and dangerous part of the gobi tour.
we had carefully been avoiding the deep bits of sand when we came across a wide pond of sand across the whole of the road with not path either side. tessie and i got out to make the car lighter, lewis go in the front to give daddy moral support and advice and daddy reversed for a run up. we decided that we would just have to plough through and, in the time honoured fashion, we got stuck.
it was suddenly all hands on deck as we detached larry from wilma and moved him to another part of sand just as deep. just as we were deciding upon how to get wilma out, a 4x4 drove up and i hailed it down. we think he only stopped because there was not way past us due to wilma's wonky angle and larry in the middle. the 4x4 kindly towed us out of the sand with embarassing ease (wilma was moved before she was even in gear). wilma then towed larry out all by herself. no problem.

zamyn-uud (border town)- the post with all the photographs has been completed, please read to the end- sorry for any inconvenience caused

we have made it through the mongolian gobi in one piece and are all most impressed with wilma and larry. we gave them a celebratory wash this morning in honour of their achievements.

we drove 300 miles from ulaanbaatar to the border.

the whole camp is agreed that the gobi has been one of the best, if not the best, parts of our trip. the varried terrain and complete lack of road made it exciting while the vegitation, wildlife and night sky made it beautiful. one of the things that most suprised daddy was the contrast in temperature and landscape as we journeyed south; i, however, was not suprised being a budding and dedicated geographer (and having read the lonely planet).

the road was worst friday arriving at the border town, particularly as we were all keenly looking out for the 10 km of tarmac that was promised us as we neared the border. there is, in fact, about 1 km. friday was also the most sandy and having to close the windows to stop the dust getting in the the the angry heat was aweful.

our luxery in this town has been a some-what dubious hotel with, again, not hot water. for our much needed showers we were forced to use the camping shower that i recieved for my birthday which funnily enough had not been used in the great gobi incase of a water shortage.

since being in this town we have;
1. gone train watching and taken lots of photographs of the train in the station before they cross the border.
2. eaten at the same restaurant opposite our hotel 4 times and have become favourites.
3. looked everywhere for an internet cafe event though daddy was such he knew where one was. in the end we found a really expensive one and this one with a dial-up connection.
4. been to get larry's puncture fixed.
5. found more caviar at our new favourite supermarket.
6. called our chinese guide, who goes by the name of queenie, to arrange meeting her on the chinese side of the border at 10 o'clock this monday.
7. washed out clothes.



we must also say that we are most impressed with granny's budding computer skills and hope she had a good time on open house day. glad you are enjoying the photographs; they are made to amuse/ enthral all but some of the flower ones were taken with you in mind granny.

we hope trevor is well although know that alarming the locals is not a new concept to him.

we love you ling.

we hope that you are all as pleased as we are to be back on the road once more. we take it from the amount of complaints we have recieved that everyone has had enough of posts from ulaanbaatar.

daddy says:
the road from ulaanbaatar will be completed next year.
said road is being done by a chinese contractor with indian consultants.
we saw a massive bug. it was greeny-brown and was a cross between a spider and a grass hopper.

the internet connetion here is terrible so the following post is incomplete and under construction. the problem should be fixed in a few days.

on the move again

greetings from back on the road.

reeve will be pleased to hear that we average 10mph.
70 miles a day is quite a feat.

this post is coming to you from synshands- half way between ulaanbaatar and the mongolia/china border. we are in the middle of the desert and so far wilma and larry remain alive and well. the wind and dust has only really started today but we expect it to get a lot worse before we cross the border to china on monday.

the road has been nonexistant and the 'improved road' has proved little more than a raised and hardened bit of land if there at all. we drive along old tracks and make new tracks across the grass when the ground gets too bumpy or sandy. as per instructions and advice we have been following the railway and our sadness has been proved every single time we still get excited about seeing a train. what is also embarassing is the fact that although we only see, on average, on car an hour, every time we do they overtake us in a cloud of sand and daddy gets really angry and starts mumbling about boy racers.

the desert has been hot and dry for all but tessie has really been feeling the strain to such an extent that she has been halucinating tarmaced roads galore.

we are off to the boarder town now.



this is daddy at the questionable ulaanbaatar circus. he is happy. this is before the event. you and see the big top behind him. there were lots of empty seats opposite us but all full behind.

LOONGS 19TH BIRTHDAY DINNER. we looked for a lonely planet recomended restaurant but when we found it, it was not at all as the description had told us so instead we had to go the silk road restaurant just down the road. it turned out that this restaurand twas actually rather pleasing and served the elusive dish of good meat. we had window seats and so where able to have a lovely backdrop of one of the monestries in ulaanbaatar. we had a lovely evening which ended in theobligatory caviar and champagne back at the guesthouse.

this is the last guesthouse we stayed in which was a little out of town but was right next door to the largest monestry in ulaanbaatar. daddy liked it because we were able to park in the compound itself and so for the first time in ulaanbaatar we genuinely felt safe. although the washing facilities were clean and there was plenty of hot water (another ulaanbaatar guesthouse first) they were outside, as were the toilets. this is a photograph of me outside washing; this si one of the many duties that i am forced to perform. this time is took me literaly ages and daddy and tessie had so many dirty clothes.

the family at our last guesthouse were all highly welcoming adn spoke very good english. the wife had even been a russian and english teacher in her heyday. we all had our photos taken at the insistance of tessie and the husband in the guesthouse (in blue); they were taken outisde the ger in their courtyard which they use in the summer but is also availabe for rent for those foreginers who are too lazy to get to a real one outside the city. please not that we are not those lasy foreginers. when at the guesthouse we met a highly interesting individual called jason. jason is a young version of tony newman. he is a one man comment machine and has great chat provided that you are complaining. jason is from hastings and our words cannot properly describe him. we apologise.

oh my god, she is so amazing!

windy hill with a tank memorial at the top which we are using as a shelter from the wind whilst daddy is braving it and taking the shot. this was taken mere hours ago in saynshand.

birthday tea the day after my bithday (which bythe way was so special it spanded 3 days). what the photograph doesn't tell you, and i'm sure you're interested to know, is that is took daddy about 1000 matches to light the candles and 1 hour. the peak of the amusement and excitement (other than the cutting of the cake) was daddy light all the candles just before the wind promptly blew them all out before i had a chance to. we can safely say the cake was not worth it.

helmet/ hat japes at our favourite camping spot just outside ulaanbaatar, on our last night there. the helmet belongs to hendrick and it was a very cold night. i would recomend the use of a helmet in this way to anyone.

the balck market in ulaanbaatar. anyone for brown jumpers?

a proper picture of black market life. this is in the indoor section which we spent lots of time in as the day we went was teeming with rain and i even had my, now much loved, selapets on. the market was just a potholey as the roads and we had soaking feet.

the true gobi.

lewis making the most fo driving when in the gobi as it will be another 13 year before he is allowed to drive again. this was possibly the scarriest moment of the trip so far.

this photograph was taken on our first night in the gobi. the trains quite frequently during the night and were not condusive to a good night sleep. we still take lots of photographs of trains.

lewis obsessive tendancies were aimed towards lizards when in the desert although it was not until the third day that he was able to spot one himself. as usual they were imprisonned in a plastic tub after being caught but were subsequently humanely released. here were many lizards, from brown to green but all appeared very calm.

in saynshand, on our second day in the town daddy, tessie and lewis went to the small but pretty park in the centre. the amn who was watching over the park kindly put the fountains on expecially for them. behind the fountain is the town museum. this museaum was one the most interesting we have ever been to and is well worth a visit if you are in the area. the museum displayed everything from dinosaur eggs to portraits and was compact with not too much information. it was highly informal, with the lady of the musuem running out to find us change.

extreme dinning. we were spured on to new heights in dinning extremeness by bryn. we were inspired by his activites and felt compeled to put our travelling through the gobi to good use. we had cavair, champagne and candles. we stocked up in ulaanbaatar even buying tie substitutes when we stumbled across a buddihst shop. we had a white table cloth and everything.

the first ger camp we saw in the gobi, which are all situated by water sources. we were most impressed that this one had sunflowers growing although we did see may wildflowers of all differnt shapes and size with were put in lewi's scrap book.

saynshands again on one of the windiest days of the gobi section of the trip. some of the night were so calm and warm that we were able to sleep without the fly sheet on and so had a window through which we could watch the sun set and the moon rise. on our last night camping in the desert we took 5 minutes to watch an spotlight bright orange moon rise over the hill. sorry, the photographs taken were aweful. however, in this photograph i am trying to stay upright at the top of a hill next to a war memorial.

one of the many tyre-men we have visited. this amusing one has a special place in our hearts as he put the tyre on his head and made fun of us for having such small wheels. he also did the whole job quickly and by hand.

one of the water pumps where the locals pay to get their water, only 20 togrogs for one of those barrels. this was jsut before the desert in preperation for water shortage further down the line. we english folk found that the queuing system left something to be desired.

crossing the railway in the gobi which is far quicker and more efficient than driving, especially in anything other than a 4x4. i had to open the gates, which were a couple of bit of red and white painted metal.

this is one atempted sunset photographs. we did our best.

we have once again entered the big city of ulaabaatar for the final time.


we have come to ulaabaatar to make sure that we have everything we need for our forward journey through the gobi which will commence on saturday morning. it should take us about two weeks to reach the border by which time, it is looking increasingly likely, our permit for entry into china will have been granted for 22nd september.

however, the more important and pressing reason for coming back into ulaabaatar, that the camp agrees is not the cleanest, safest or best city we have been to, is for MY 19TH BIRTHDAY THIS FRIDAY, 12TH SEPTEMBER.

our last camping trip just outside the city (that we have just come back from) included more people that we picked up in a guesthouse- lea and tom. they are french and forced us to practice ours: we were rusty to say the least. lea and tom have two dogs called kelab and spooky who were big but were teh best dogs we have come across and even daddy liked them. they left us yesterday to continue their journey west but left such an impression that we invited ourselves to stay with them in their ger in the pyrennes next summer.
when we were with them we managed to climb, in our eyes, a big hill near to where we were camping. we were slightly put out that this was a big deal for us but not so for them.

OBSERVATIONS SECTION (by daddy, written by loong):
1. every mongolian road junction is nicely highlighted by a few crashed cars.
2. in ulaabaatar there are many policemen on poit duty twiddling battons.
3. during the night the temperature falls to just above freezing.
4. there are gers even in the city.
5. many of the minor roads in the city are unpaved.
6. the hot water is supplied by the central power stations.
7. there are loads of chelsea tractors (this is the right place for them).
8. the film, mummy 3 was really good.
9. diesel is about 1 pound/ litre.

helooooo cherry

we feel you deserve a private post as you are one of our most loyal posters.
you have been with us through the good and the bad (ling has deserted).
as a bonus your posts are actually mildly amusing.
i do hope you will be with us on my birthday 12TH SEPTEMBER- THIS FRIDAY, with a lovely birthday message.

greg, alex and francis

thank you to greg, alex and francis for their birthday message. we will be leaving ulaanbaatar on saturday and so hope to spend friday, my birthday, in the city at an expensive (7 pound) restaurant. we know how to have a party.

granny's "shout-out"

congratulations on your first highly successful post.
we had read your other two but gathered that ling had helped you with at least one.
the whole camp is impressed with your efforts.
i am glad to hear that you have made lots of jam and trust that you will keep a good stash aside for us to consume upon our return.
we hope to hear about adventures from liverpool if you survive the walking.
we hope this personalised messsage encourages you to keep posting.

also, we are sure that what we hear of your pie from reeve and cherry are lies. we trust ling on this matter. if we had been there i am sure that would have been no pie left.

Dear Reeve

the crew would like to thank reeve for all of his witty comments.
they have been most amusing.
we apologise if we have made you feel neglected.
in future we will do our utmost to respond with haste.
all your comments are most appreciated, especially by daddy who says that you keep the car rocking with laughter.

we have been in and around ulaabaatar for quite a while now and the camp is getting quite restless.

yesterday was a fairly bad day (apart from the quiz in the evening- i think we all know what happened there) for daddy and tessie. just as they were going into an internet cafe a man tried to rob tessie but she screamed, punched him and then daddy tackled him to the ground. the man did not put up much of a fight but his friends tried to make daddy let the man go and all the monolians came into the street and told daddy to let them go. a man from europe managed to phone the police and told daddy and tessie that he had robbed him the year before. teh police turned up and hit the would-be-thief twice before taking him to the police station. daddy and tessie wne to the police station to give a statemetn adn were told to come back the next day so that daddy could be reimbursed for his glasses that broke in the foray.
lewis and i were not there and so missed the excitement.

matt (fellow camper), was also with them and helped and bought daddy a big cake for bravery.

the attempted robbery was the last straw as the day before daddy had had his boots stolen from inside the tent in the middle of the night. never fear, daddy managed to get some really quite solid second hand boots that we think once belonged to edmund hillary. although we have been in one place we a still shocked at the amount of crime in this city, especially as nothing happened to us in the whole of russia.


a couple of days ago we managed to get our visas extended until the 23rd of september. we are hoping to leave on the 22nd but have got an extra day just incase of any problems.

on a lighter note:
i would like everyone to recognise that it is my birthday on 12th of september and expect that all readers of the blog (i know you are out there ling) will wish me well.

photographs with captions- novel

our first cultural experience in ulaabaatar- daddy and me outside the winter palace. everyone enjoyed the day. we would like to thank hendrik for his excellent photography.
the famous belgian cyclist (ooooh, aaaaaaah)- hendrik vandyck- and lewis. both at our regular campsite haunt just outside ulaabaatar, that is until we were robbed.

daddy enjoying the merryment of the evening- caviar and sparkling wine (russia's finest). these treats were recently bought from the state department store in ulaabaatar. the caviar is about 2 euros for 50g and the wine, i am assured was one of the best they had ever tasted. needless to say we have bought much of the same. the night during which this photograph has been taken was not a special occasion but hendrik did make us chips, chicken and maonaise. daddy is sitting in the kitchen of our new and extremely cheap guesthouse run by boggi who loves children but got introuble for pinching lewis' cheek: all was forgive with ice-cream. it was on this night that lewis and i were invited to see boggi's family. we had a traditional mongolia rice pudding and lots of sweets. we reached her brother's flat by taking a taxi, which is ulaabaatar means just any driver who will give you a lift. eveyone had a lovely evening but some remember more that most.

hendrik slaving away at the stove. he is earning his keep from all the times we took him camping with matt who comes form belguim via england. he is cooking on the one ring on the hob that actually works in the kitchen of boggi's guesthouse. we hope you can see the mountains in the background that are visible despite the flat being in the middle of ulaabaatar.

close up of russia's finest and the caviar. teh is teh one table in the kitchen but all the people staying at the guesthouse eat here every morning. we have made ourselves somewhat more at home than most and have brought in all the stuff from the car and trailer (including the precious loong-bought scissors) as we have found that crime in the city is high and we have yet to find secure parking. all our stuff takes up a lot of the kitchen and the dorm in which we are sleeping but means that we have access to all our stuff easily (the guesthouse is a flat on the 4th floor) and daddy cooks breakfast.

at our second guesthouse we met a couple of boys from holland who knew someone living in ulaabaatar also from holland. in the end we went on an expats night out to an expensive traditional mongolian restaurant. there was free entertainment that lewis enjoyed so much he had to have his photograph taken with the muscians in traditional dress.

this is the amazing solar system that lewis and i made during a science lesson. we make quite a lot of stuff. we attached it to the inside of the gazeebo and then the scrap book. i'm sure you will all see it when we get back.

the whole crew including newcommers hendrik and matt near our amazing campfire. i think lewis is setting up card den, den of cards.

this is a massive hill that we all managed to climb near our favourite camping spot. we are sitting around a buddihst pile of rocks. we had all walked around the rocks three times before putting three more on. we are just enjoying the view before story time with daddy and lewis. the hill is just south of ulaabaatar.

we picked lots of edelweis so that we can get arested when returning to the uk. they are a protected species in europe and are extremely rare but they are everywhere in mongolia. this is one of our better photographs and was taken on our walk up the big hill.

camping at night.

we are in ulaanbaatar once again with our new friends from belgium- matt and hiendrich.

we have spent a couple of nights with them just outside the city, camping. both have proved themselves proficient fire makers: we are currently the owners of a fire that has been going for 72 hours. hiendrich (member of the belgium paras) in particular has put the whole of the wood camp to shame with his efficient cooking, washing and going for a run and wash in the river in just his underwear in the morning. he has also shown he is a dab had with a barbaque- our first since being on the road.

Matt, an english expat and biker, has also made himself useful by recommending a cheap guesthouse that we can use during our nights on the tiles. tessie and i are particularly looking forward to ladies' night at a club near our guesthouse where all the ladies get free entry and half price drinks.

yesterday we did our first truly touristy thing in ulaanbaatar since arriving in mongolia- visiting the winter palace. i think you will get the measure of the place when i say that daddy throughly enjoyed it: it was not too big, had different things to see and, most importantly, had very little to read. the first building of the winter palace (more like a monastery) was fully restored but the other buildings were going into disrepair. the winter palace also had a museum where there were tapestries that granny would have been proud of; we even took two videos because we knew that granny would just be that excited about them.

two days ago daddy, tessie, lewis, matt, hiendrich and i ventured out of camp to climb a big hill near our tents. i have to admit that the thought of exercise was daunting. we stocked up with fruit, water, and chocolate and charlie and the great glass elevator (as treats when we got to the top). being mongolia, our walk up to the top was impeeded by the varies piles of rocks to honour the gods; at these rocks we had to walk around them clockwise before depositing three things that were precious to us. e.g. rocks. we were all sucessful in our endevour and were duly treated to a piece of chocolate each and story time.

it is now that we come to the sad chapter in this tale we call the blog...
on the night of the 1st september 2008 an unknown thief snuck into our camp and took off with our foot pump and the car battery charger. this was only discovered in late during the next day as everyone just assumed that daddy had forgotten to put the padlock on larry and had subsequently lost it. today we will have to by new ones. although we are angry about this incident, we would like to add that this is the first time we have had something properly stolen and we were not in the city.