Managed to get to Sukhbaatar square in
time for the collection of the 9 yak tail banners. It started a bit
Benny Hill/ Black Adder but they soon settled down and it got quite interesting with lots of colour and lots of fanfares and strutting. Apparently, there were also three men dressed as Gestarpo officers, complete with black uniforms and swastikas but fortunately we didn't see them. Weird though. We got quite close
despite the police cordon.
Then off to the Naadam stadium. Got
tickets and good seats easily. Definitely worth seeing, again lots of
colour, noise, traditional dancing and costumes. A speech by the
president. Then the presentation and parade of the Mongolian olympic
team bound for London.
Then the opening rounds of the wrestling competition. Spent and interesting couple of hours watching men strip down to nothing and adjust themselves, but then got bored and heading off to lunch.
We're off to see the archery this afternoon. Then off to the horse-racing tomorrow followed by knuckle-bone shooting - knuckle-bone shooting is a bit like tiddlywinks for carnivores.
And on Friday we really must do our
Chinese visa's or else we're done for. No amount of pleading or
sob-stories ever works with Chinese officialdom. We know this from
bitter experience.
