Under the Ulan Bator spell

This is a story of two New Zealanders who were awoken from their blissful sleep by an evil cabin lady at 4am to ensure they got off their train 1.5 hours later. As Courtney awoke she realised that the window had been left open all night and the cabin was now about -10 degrees. After a quick wiggle round, Courtney managed to find her jacket and jump out of bed to attempt to close the window which now appeared stuck. Jamie continued to be blissfully unaware and nice and warm under his blankets.

After Courtney punched Jamie in the arm to wake him up, the evil cabin lady came back demanded our blankets off their beds. It quickly became apparent that she had awoken our cabin so early to ensure all her work was completed before the train stopped entirely.

Jamie and Courtney finished everything they needed to do by 4.45am and spent the remainder of the time in a zombie like state cursing the world for their lack of sleep brought on by them drinking until 11pm with their cabin mates. As the train arrived in Ulan Bator just after 5.30am, Courtney awoke from the zombie trance and quickly put on her backpack to face the early morning air which was now around -11 degrees. Their hotel was a 5 minute walk from the train station but the locals tried to tell them it was in the middle of town and would take approximately 50 minutes to walk. Courtney thinking that the locals must be right and Jamie's map skills were not up to par became scared that they didn't know where they were going and wanted to get a taxi to ensure that they ended up in the right place. It turns out that the hotel was in fact a 5 minute walk away and the taxi driver made a handsome 10,000 (less than 5 pounds) from a journey which took 2 minutes.

Courtney, feeling foolish for ever doubting her amazing Jamie, quickly apologised for her error and they wandered into the hotel praying for a miracle that would allow them to check in early. The hotel staff delivered and by 6.30am we were in our hotel room ready for a nap. An alarm was set for 8am to make sure we didn't miss breakfast.

After breakfast, it was time to see the sights of Ulan Bator and we decided on local transport to take us to Chinggis square in the middle of town. The bus in itself was a bit of an attraction, which was jam packed with locals on their way to work. Courtney found herself being pushed around by a 7 year old girl and couldn't believe the strength of this child. Realising that the national Mongolian sport is wrestling, Courtney thought this child has probably being training since birth.

After getting pushed around by a child, Courtney and Jamie got off the bus to explore the government building lined square on their way to pick up their train tickets for the Ulan Bator - Beijing leg of their journey. Their tour took them along kareoke bar and korean restaurant lined streets and across scary pedestrian crossings where the pedastrians needed to give way to cars on a green walking light. After grabbing their tickets they made a quick coffee stop and planned the remainder of their day which consisted of a visit to a cashmere shop, a bus journey to south Ulan Bator to visit the Zaisan Memorial Park and Buddha Park and a walk around the Gandantegchinlen Monastery. The view from the Zaisan Memorial Park was spectacular and was easily the highlight of their day.

After the Monastery, Courtney and Jamie made their way back to the hotel and Courtney went and did a quick workout at the hotel gym (which consisted of a treadmill, a bike and some dumbbells) before ordering a taxi to take them back into town to a very good Indian restaurant named "Nameste". The taxi journey took about 45 minutes to travel 3km due to the heavy Ulan Bator traffic. One thing Courtney and Jamie noticed was the Mongols love of the Toyota Prius, with a Prius spotted every 5m or so. Your arm would fall off if you decided to play "spot a Prius" here. Once they arrived at their destination, the taxi driver tried to charge them 150,000 Mongolian Tughrik but Jamie wasn't having a bar of it and negotiated a much better price of 10,000 Mongoilan Tughrik.

At the restaurant, Courtney and Jamie were hungry and were excited about the selection. They ordered a chat masala for an entree and a curry, a bread and a biryani for their main. When the chat masala arrived they realised they were in trouble and no amount of hunger was going to finish this meal, the Chat Masala was enough to feed the both of them without even having a main. They did their best and then when the mains arrived, they despaired. The Biryani was big enough to feed six people with rice piled at least 3 cups high, while the curry was about twice the size of what you would ordinarily get at a good UK or NZ curry house. Cue massive stomach bloating and a feeling of disgust. A walk was required to try and work off some of the food consumption, but no amount of walking in the crisp Ulan Bator air was going to save Courtney and Jamie from themselves.Read more