Ulaan Bataar - a “springy girl”

All the changing of the bogies and passport control etc meant we did not get to bed properly till 1.45 am. We are in no 2 compartment and the conductor who is either eating, cooking, or sleeping, is next door, making busy noise. There’s supposed to be no smoking but we can smell it coming from his area. He entertained the other conductors at various points in the night. At his end are 2 basins for washing and he washes his veg in them. The smell of fresh coriander was so inviting. When I walked past at 10 am he was chopping cabbage with an enormous meat cleaver - I had visions of him running amok up the carriage brandishing it and yelling at us to get back into our compartment! The Chinese dining car, which looked like a British rail type one, has gone back to China, and when I went along to sit in the new one I got a shock - it was very ornate, wooden carvings, rugs on seats, , walls decorated with swords and bows and arrows and golden antlers.

We could not get good photos of the Gobi Desert as the windows were very dirty and would not open.

We arrived in Ulaan Bataar mid afternoon to a very smart hotel which had floor to ceiling windows on 2 walls, on the 11th floor, with great views of the very modern city which is expanding rapidly. As it had been sunny all day the room was stifling. ( No aircon. )

We had a quick shower and went out to a Theatre for some brilliant local music played on very unusual instruments. The throat-singing was amazing, so haunting, and the costumes fantastic. Amongst this was advertised a “performance contortion by springy girls”. Here she is. After that it was dinner at Nomads which was tasty, then a cocktail in the blue sky bar, 25 floors up. It was lovely to sink into bed at midnight, but we had to get up at 6 am.