Ger Camp & Ulaanbaatar

Woke up a bit cold today since our fire burned out overnight, and the camp was covered in close to a foot of snow. It was beautiful, and such a treat to wake up to. Except it was cold, and I didn’t have the proper dress for it. Layers it was for me.

After breakfast we left the camp to head back to UB for shopping, and sightseeing.

On route back we stopped and saw a cool rock formation, and made wishes at a shaman marker. It was pretty neat.
Once we got to UB, day rooms were given to us by the hotel, which meant repacking for the train, and hot showers. I opted to sightsee and shop first then head back to the hotel and relax.

Our sightseeing took us to the main square that we had only seen at night before, as well as the Beatles square which was blocked off due to construction. There isn’t really anything super significant here, but it is a nice city. We got some shopping done at Mary & Martha’s Fair Trade & Ethical store, where we all spent a fair bit. The items were cute and made by women who are trying to earn an income, as well as female prisoners trying to generate income to make the prison more hospitable. It was a great little shop and I’m happy to pay a little bit more to give back to the local community .

Afterwards I went to the department store for souvenirs. I really wanted my knockoff Starbucks mugs, but couldn’t find them. I did get some souvenirs for people and a few for myself.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Burger King for some real “authentic” Mongolian food, lol. We also hit the post office up, and sent off a bunch of postcards.
As we were cutting through the square we weren’t sure if there was a protest or a concert going on, but it was fairly interesting to see and watch.

And now after a hot shower, we are relaxing at the hotel. Another forty minutes in comfort before we are on the train for two days. After the two days we arrive in Irkutsk and go to Lake Baikal for a night before moving on to Yekaterinburg.Read more