Old and new

I tried to visit this old monastery in the centre of Ulan Bator but it was closed. They seemed to be setting up for a concert in the grounds. I was just thinking how peaceful it was away from the busy traffic when they started what sounded like the sound check for a rock concert! I’ll try to visit another time. I went to the national museum instead which was interesting and had lots of information in English.

I also prepared for a trip up to the north, changing money in case I don’t find an ATM, buying food for a long bus journey and topping up a Mongolian sim card that I’ve been lent by the owner of the (amazing) guest house I’ve been staying at.

Dinner was interesting. I went out with two other travellers I’d met. We went to a local Mongolian restaurant instead of the ones geared up to tourists. There was no English menu and no pictures of any of the dishes so we just picked things at random from the menu. All the dishes we picked turned out to be pretty good although incredibly oily.