Dear all,

Finally a new update about our trip. Since the posts are drying up we really feel the urge to write again, it really makes us happy to read your messages! All the credits for the last story are for Jordi, i feel the pressure now to keep this level up, well let's give it a go.

From Irkutsk we took the night train to Ulan Ude, another train experience with the locals and finally Jordi got an introduction tot the vodka downing; 'only' one tea cup of vodka at the time he was offered by an older Buryat manwhom wewere sharing the cabin with. His wife and I were only spectatorssince this is a real man thing, which i was totaly happy with.

The next morning wearrived in Ulan Ude, the capital of Buryatia, a region the size of Germany with its one culture, language and habits within Russia. We were honoured to stay with a lady called Rada and her mother. They started a home stay to fill up the social gap her father left after he died, as the minister of Culture and a very respected poet in Buryat he always had guests over for dinners and drinks. We could still feel the hospitality and the warmth of this family and could learn so much about the Buryat people and culture in the short time we stayed in Ulan Ude.

The monastry outside of the city; Ivolgisnk Datsan was very impressive, our first buddhist monastry on this trip which hada slightly Russian touch. The sun was burning and we we're trying to find places in the shadow to watch the monks moving around between the different buildings.....we could never imagine thatwe could see snowon the roof the next morning.This definitely is our introduction to the land climate, incredible how a sunny clear day can change overnight in a cloudy, cold and snowy morning.

Well i have to say it were the perfect conditions to finalise our Siberian part of the traintrip, leaving Ulan Ude early in the morning for Ulan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia. Stark winds, snow, rain, never ending grey skies just the whole package to understand why Siberia is fairly deserted. I realy hope that we will be able to post some pictures later onbecause that realy will help your imagination setting the picture of this almost mid summer day in winter circumstances.

Since the theme of our website is crossing borders this will be the first alinea totally dedicated to this theme and here to speak about the practical boarder crossing between Russia and Mongolia. Of course we were well informed that it would take a long time to cross the boarder by train because off all the checks especially the traders wo would like to import goods to Mongolia are supposed to keep customs busy. We stayed for almost 5 hours on exactly the same spot at the Russian border, when we finally could leave the train for a little strol we realized it was just our carriage standing there. Nothing left of the ten other carriages, no locomotive, nothing to move us any further. Only about 20 tourist atmost who wanted to cross the border were waiting patiently in the train. After the carriage had moved atmost 200 meters we had the honour of waiting for another 4 hours before we were attached to a Mongolian train. I'm wondering if we will be able to beat this record anytime at our trip. If so, please can we have a better view than that ugly concrete Russian custom office blocking our window?!

Mongolia is such a nice and friendly country......which country isn't compared to Russia? The first Mongolians smiling at us made us realy feel warm inside, yes that is what we missed in very fascinating large spread country Russia; a smile on the people their face or just even a little glimps! Other than that the English signs besides the Cyrillic signs around Ulan Bataar also helped since in Russia everything is written only in Cyrillic.

We spend a day in Ulan Bataar getting an impression about the importance of Ghengis Khan, the great leader who once conquered China, after his 'visit' the Chinese decided to build a wall to protect them from any moreunwanted visits.They are so proud ofGhengis Khaneven in 2009 which will be the same as us Dutch people stillhonoring Willem van Oranje everyday.

We tookour time for mental and fysicalpreparation (read; eating croissants and wafels in a french cafe) for our trip to Terelj National park, 70km north of Ulan Bataar. We booked another 'home stay' with a Mongolian family in a Ger but we found out that wewere picked upthe next morning by a Dutch guy who lives in a Ger in Mongolia. According to the Lonely Planet (in the train our great travel mates from Down Under pointed this paragragh to us) he makes very good Dutch cheese.....we didn't travel 7000km by train to stay with a Dutch guy and eat Edam did we?!

Bert de Groot already build up a reputation among Mongolians and foreigners in the last eleven years, picks us up in the morning. First we go to the food market to buy the essentials for the coming days. He warned us it was going to be a local market, a kind of 'whole saler' '. We weren't allowed to take pictures. I can only say the meat goes here by animal instead of half an ounce, and it aren't restaurant owners buying their meat here but ordinary people. Goats, sheep, horses, cows everyting with four legs has been sold here. Dead, a live or deep frozen from last season; all differs in price. Bert is doing the negotiations and shaking hands with all the people who know him, interesting to hear him speak Mongolian with an Amsterdam accent.

After we visited several food markets to collect all the provesion we left for Terelj, this two hour ride finally took us most of the day. Since we didn't have any transportation to cross the several small rivers to get to the Ger. Finally the local butcher offeredus a ride with his pick up truck (when we were loading the groceries i was facing the head of a just slaughtered cow) but it got stuck in the third river wehad to cross.One of the big Toyota landcruisers from a city boy tried tohelp us but unfortunately there weren't any properropes avalaible. Workers from the Ger came by food with arope and we got out of the mud and could continue our trip. In case we don't have any plans after this trip i'll sign up for Camel Trophy, what a thrill you get out of it when you're able to continue with the car after a real mud adventure!

I can write another ten pages about our three day stay at the Ger but instead of that i'll drop some bullits and hopefully the pictures will complete any time soon;
Bert and his Ger hold;
* about 9 Dogs (Obama, Mccain, Mankepoot, Simba and many others with Mongolian names);
* about 12 pigs (minus one that was slaugthered just before we left and by now has been grilled);
* about 30 cows (for the cheese, cottage cheese and yogurt production);
* about 10 horses;
* no chickens because the dogs catch them;
* a 6 week old baby girl laying quitly in the Ger with two olders brothers;
* his Mongolian wife, her sister, her father and other relatives helping out Bert run the Ger
* we sleep in a fenced area, the cattle just walk around freely and return to the Ger for water and tp feed their new borns, it realy feels like the world up side down but in a good way!;
* no streaming water, toilet, shower or Jacuzzi (only the river, which is a ten minute walk from the Ger and has a temprature of maximum 5 degrees)
* the galloping sound of horses day and night; people use their horses as transportation vehicle, we even saw streetboys aka'hang-jongeren' sitting on their horses instead of Vespa's;
* the most beautifull (sky)views, stars and sunsets you can imagine;
* We walked in the mountains, hills are great for skiing! but no lifts available. We discovered one of the vallys by motor bike, Jordi could show his real driving skills, crossing small water streams, avoiding sheep and goats and bringing me home safely again!

Mongolia; we will return some day!!

After this amazing trip we already had to start packing again for our last part of the Transmongolian express towards Bejing straight through the Gobi desert. More about this in two and a half weeks when we return from our hiking trip to Mount Everest basecamp. We will leave at 5 in the morning for this great adventure. In the coming 18 days in the mountains we will have enough time to think of a good summary of our great time in Bejing; thank you so much Rosalie, Michiel, Daniel, Clarisseand Daan!

Love from Kathmandu and sorry for keep you waiting for the pictures,

Jordi and Sharda