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.