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.