A new bike!!!

Brand new but what a heap of crap it is, a red Mustang 5 and the pride of Chinese engineering. Shame then that the pride bit didn't extend to attaching the mirrors or footpegs properly, aligning the wheels or ensuring that the clutch works and doesn't jump out of gear every few hundred metres. But at least it is a bike, and we now have our independence back and can get on with our trip. The rental thing didn't work out, so buying was the only option. Had to withdraw a million and a bit tugrik though - so we were millionaires for about 5 minutes.

However, the day was frustratingly difficult and stressful and it took two full days to do a simple job. As with yesterday, we really needed to get out early, to the shop we had found the day before, buy a bike, then get US dollars and specific paperwork in order to get a Chinese visa on Wednesday. But that never happened and it took all day to get the bike business done. The shop had already told us we had to do this but could not/would not tell us how to do it, where to do it or how much it would cost. But we were advised to take a Mongolian to haggle on our behalf, and the two guys were great. A very kind gesture.

But after six hours of grid locked traffic and archaic banking systems, we finally bought a bike, and now have our independence back.

But check out the shop design – this is a place that sells bikes but was there a ramp or any easy way to get the bike out? Nope. And within minutes I'd been told off for not having a helmet on and Jamie ( brother) had had a fight with a pickpocket who tried to dip him.

However, as it all took so long, we still need to get dollars and print papers for our Chinese visa. Couldn't do that last night as we were so late back, and everything is now shut until Friday because of Nadaam. That has created quite a bit of stress for us because they will take our passports For a whole week – a document that we need to keep with us at all times. Bugger.

Death of a motorcycle

Yep, sad but true; my bike finally died today.

She started up well enough this morning and sounded so promising, pulling well, the rattles had gone and she positively purred for two kilometres before spewing her oil all over the place and then giving up completely. Poor old thing. Mind you, that wasn't what I called her when I had to push her three kms back to Purvee's mostly uphill. Hard work, and not the best exercise I've ever had.

Don't think it was down to any of our mechanicing yesterday though. We went through everything logically and methodically, but this engine has been trouble from the world go, so I reckon that I was just unlucky and was dealt a rogue when I bought it. But then again, it's rego is LJ12 JNK. So maybe it was an omen; junk by name, junk by nature.

But after a quick bit of butchering, I removed my seat and jubilee clipped it onto Nad's luggage rack, and we were off again, this time two up on a battered 110 cc Chinese scooter, back into the UB traffic to find a bike hire place.

The tourist info office was useless, although the woman was very nice and practised her German on Nadine. So we went to the Oasis Guest house ( rubbish directions in Lonely Planet - no mention of the two roundabouts that also have to be negotiated before getting to it from the church) to see if they could help as it is a meeting place for over landers. The owner offered to rent me her Serow – for $85 US a day. I think not, especially as it clearly hadn't been run for about 90 years and was covered with the dust of generations. Then she suggested a buy back - £1800 US and she'd buy it back for $500US, making a tidy little profit of $1300.00 in the process. No thanks, not in that state, and not even for the $65 a day that she then came up with. Nice lady but cheekily unrealistic and trying it on. Shame.

So we spent the afternoon chatting to Adrian,(Hubb, Romania) and Alec (UK), then the two Swiss bikers we'd met in Kazakhstan ( Alois and Norbert) who pitched up, as well as WWE (Geordie Will). Adrian kindly lent us his laptop to try and find a bike hire which we did, but it was too late in the afternoon by then to do anything, so we'll save that for tomorrow or Monday.

Riding two up is quite a laugh, particularly on our botched machine, but we did OK getting through the traffic and avoiding the craters. It was nice for me too as I was able to sit on the back and film while Nadine did her thing and stopped us from crashing. And she did OK too, although I did nearly fall off the back once when she accelerated when I wasn't holding on.

Family arrive tomorrow on the train from Beijing and everybody is looking forward to seeing them. We're off to Gandan Monastery in the morning, then maybe a quick punt to the bike hire place before heading to the station to meet them – no doubt with the welcoming hordes. We have even tidied the ger in their honour; hope they appreciate it!

As for the bike, well despite it's demise, I remain totally impressed with these little scoots, and they were well worth the dosh we forked out for them. The whole idea was to see how far we could get on two basic and standard Chinese scoots, and the ultimate destination was Mongolia. We both ride bigger and far more capable and suitable bikes back in the UK, both of which would have made it far more comfortably and quickly than the scoots. But that wasn't what we set out to do, and our trip would have been a totally different experience had we ridden them.

But the scoots idea appealed, particularly once the naysayers started, and although we were determined to get here one way or another and prove them wrong, neither of us really expected to make it still riding the same little machines as we left London on several months ago. But we have done just that, and the only things that are new are two back tyres, two valves and one cylinder head, and both bikes have been given a very hard time along the way. And until yesterday, both were still trudging along after 10000kms plus, regardless of the extreme heat and mega piste we have dragged them through and over, despite the river crossings and the bodges en route, despite the rubbish fuel and crappy oil we have used, and the lack of TLC. Both are still on the original front tyres, both retain most of their original bolts, both frames are still intact, both are still on original front and rear sprockets, and only headlamp bulbs have blown. OK, my engine has been more problematic than Nadine's and I probably should have stuck to my guns and insisted on replacing the whole engine in Turkey as I wanted, but that's the way it goes and overcoming the dyed in the wool but well intentioned male focused ' we know best because we're men' ways there was just too boringly difficult; we could have stayed at home for that. So another note to self: trust self and mate next time and don't be railroaded, however nice and well intentioned people are.

But all is not lost; my bike is still structurally better than Nadine's so we will swap the dodgy bits over to pimp her ride. Her rear wheel is more buckled than mine and is missing a spoke, and her headlamp unit is rubbish, so both with make a huge difference, and she should be good to continue on to The Gobi. Hopefully I will find a hire bike though, as two up all the way there and back, via Dardal in the north east might be a bit of an ordeal, especially with luggage!

Saisan and Sukhbataar Square

It rained last night again, and on and off again this morning. The weather seems to be a bit ropey at the moment but it is very humid and we are at about 1200 metres, and surrounded by mountains, so I guess stable weather is not really something that can be guaranteed.

But the amount of water that ends up in the streets is a bit of a hazard because not only does it wash soil and gravel onto the carriageway, and fills every pothole and crater so you can't see how deep they are, but UB is famous for its missing manhole covers. That means that there are just huge manhole sized holes in the road, particularly near the kerb, and these of course fill up very quickly. That makes walking – crossing the road or filtering up lines of traffic a very risky business, but it has to be done because the traffic here is so disorganised and gridlocked, you would never get anywhere unless you did, So far, we have avoided any disappearing road incident sough.

Rode out to Saisan this afternoon. It is a huge Russian memorial on a hill to the south of the city. I went there last time I was in UB but it was in the winter, and the thing I remember about it most was how remote it was. But not now; there is a huge amount of building work going on – high rise flats, offices and even large town houses. The memorial has almost been swallowed up, and you can't even see the Winter Palace from the top like you could before.

The memorial is to soldiers of previous wars and it is very Soviet; a tiled panorama depicting scenes from the Russian empire, which of course included Mongolia although on paper Mongolia was only being 'looked after'. But it is now very graffittied which I found a bit disturbing; it never used to be so, and the people it commemorates are still dead.

 The stone ovoo that used to be immediately behind it is no longer there either, but rubbish is scattered in its place. Not nice and a real shame that such an impressive place has been trashed. We spent a while up there though, looking out over the city - until a thunder storm started. So back into the city for some lunch until it stopped.

My bike is running very badly and can only be bump started. Hopefully it is only a dodgy battery, and it is smoking badly too. It is a bit of a pain in traffic because it conks out and I have to push it and then kick it into gear. That amuses gridlocked motorists though and works off some calories for me. For a while, Nadine was push starting me by sticking her foot on the rack and shoving me; that lasted until she ran over my foot and leg, which light as a Chinese scooter is, still hurts and I now have a bruised foot to add to the catalogue of marks and scars from this trip.

Spent the afternoon looking ( limping in my case) around Sukhbataar Square area. It is a huge open paved space at the end of Peace Avenue, sporting the Parliament Building, a central statue of old Chinngis himself, with Marco Polo and Lenin nearby. Unlike Saisan, Lenin has not been scribbled over. A local told me that when the Russians left Mongolia back in 1990, mass opinion was that it would be more effective to ignore the statue and disdain it that way than to draw attention to it by pulling it down.

We took the engine out of my scoot this evening and pulled it apart. It looks like several gaskets have disintegrated, which might account for the oil leak and the smoking – the oil splashes. onto the exhaust and makes white smoke. Lots of it. It is currently laid out on the ger floor on a tarp, waiting for a bit of TLC in the morning. Lets hope we can remember how it all fits back together

Ger Mecahnics

Rained again today – heavily, but that was Ok as it gave us time to fix my engine. We brought it into the ger last night after the light failed, and it sat on the tarp all night. This morning, we stripped it, cleaned it, decrudded the piston and valves, replaced gaskets, set the timing, put it all back together, and then played scrabble until the sun came out. Our fingernails are totally trashed now though.

And when it did, the engine went back in beautifully and fired up once we had connected it to the battery from Nads' bike. I will buy a new one tomorrow, but hopefully that will make it a bit easer to ride.

The Naadem holiday starts today, and there have been fireworks, music and revelry going on across the city. Either that or its a revolution and we haven't noticed. But the noise sets the dogs off again, and so it goes on. But who cares; its great up here with the locals who seem to have accepted us without question, and really are very nice to us. One of the neighbours made us a cake yesterday, and the little kids come and play around us , or join in while we fix the bikes.

They also come into the ger for a chat and are very quick to pick up phrases and sayings in English, which is funny as they repeat them to each other when they are playing.

Jamie and Nyaama arrive on Sunday ( brother and sis in law, plus 6 yr old daughter) It will be nice to see them but odd because they usually frequent the streets of Bromley. Nyaama is from UB though but hasnt been back for seven years. It will be interesting what she makes of the changes that have happened, but also what the family here make of how she has changed. I was speaking to Tuul about this yesterday, and telling her how Nyaama now looks very European – clothes and hairwise at least – and I think she'[s quite intrigued to see for herself. Its not that people here – particularly the younger ones - look or dress much differently from those in the west, but its the whole package – attitude, mannerisms, expectations, influences, etc as well as the more obvious clothes and haircuts. But Nyaama now has a very high powered job in London and her world is bound to be very different from her previous years in the ger community of UB.

The Butcher of Bondi

Or more accurately, of Wyong.

Look what she's gone and done to my barnet! Ok, so I've had an almost terminal case of helmet hair of late, and Nadine has a pair of medical scissors, and she sorted it. Sort of. But actually it is much better now and the resident sand and twigs are no more, yet she won't let me return the favour. Spoil sport. But wait till she's asleep;ha, ha.

Finally met up with Tuul (Purvee's wife – my sis in law's brother) this morning. Wires got a bit crossed as they always do with translation, but it all came right in the end. She gave us the tyres and tubes for Will, and we commandeered her taxi while she went shopping, and went looking for him at his hotel, which he had told us was on Peace Avenue ( the main street) behind the hospital. But the taxi driver didn't know it, and it wasn't behind either of the two hospitals he took us to. We searched unsuccessfully for two hours, with the cabbie making calls to his mates while he drove to try locate it. Then just as we were about to give up, a friend told him the exact spot and he took us there. And it wasn't on Peace Avenue at all but several side streets off it. Note to self: never believe other people's directions and don't try too hard for other people, especially when they don't appreciate the effort, and stiff you for cabs fares spent on them.

We are now resident in the ger community and it is great. Purvee has built a ger in his back yard for us and our bikes are safely parked in his compound. The neighbours ( and their dogs) obviously know all about us as they wave and yell San bainoo as we ride past – the neighbours not the dogs – and are very welcoming. It is excellent up here – terrible roads, a hotch potch of wooden huts, ger, wild dogs, wilder kids and intrigued people who as always, want to know who we are, where we came from, and why we are here.

The kids are really cool too and have been playing on our bikes, and most speak a few words of English -even Purvee's four year old - which they have been practising on us, and they really giggle when we get the Mongolian phrase book out and muller their language. It really is very difficult to get the sounds right as sounds seem to come from the back of the throat rather than the mouth like European languages. The women in the hotel had a good laugh too this morning but taught us the correct pronunciation for the most polite of Mongolian phrases after the initial greeting - “ how are your animals fattening?”. This is really a countryside phrase but we have adopted it as a bit of an icebreaker as it always makes people laugh and then chat to us.

 

So this afternoon, bikes unloaded, we rode around UB. Traffic was chaotic but certainly no worse that we have already encountered in Africa or earlier on this trip. Also had a quick whiz through Sukhbataar Square, past the embassies – all of which look decidedly dusty and a bit worse for wear – past the statue of Lenin which was deliberately left intact, untouched and undesecrated after the Russians let the Mongols have their country back, then had a look at the statue of Sukhbataar and the other bloke whose name begins with N but I cant remember ( Just discovered it was N Enkhbayar), before trying to find a camera charger for Nadine, and a sim card. We failed on both accounts, so gave up and had an ice cream, chatted to some of the street kids, then moved on when a drunken domestic developed right in front of our eyes;this is not a busman's holiday for either of us.

Now back in the ger community, Purvee is home – he looks just like sis in law but with shorter hair, and its all happy families. Really nice to be here and part of it.

Sorted our visa extensions

Remarkably painless and surprisingly organised, and we're now legal here for another week after our visa was due to expire But the office has moved – it's now near the airport, next to the new sports dome, rather than in Peace Avenue. A bit of a fag to get there but Tuul's brother kindly drove us. Bumped into the English couple from Ulan Ude who were towing a caravan – Carol and Mike. They are staying in UB and having a good time.

Limited sleep last night though – all the dogs in the neighbourhood versus the town cockerels in a howling and crowing contest. What a bloody din. Need some supersonic earplugs for tonight.

Just off back into UB central for some lunch then a bit of sightseeing. Will probably go to Sukhbataar Square and then Saisan. Bought a local sim card so we can now text home etc. But is was a complicated process – had to go to several counters and do stuff in Mongolian cyrillic, then go to another place to pay, and master the mad queuing system that they have here. Luckily, Tuul was on hand to help us again, but still, the whole process took about an hour.

Well the sightseeing didn't happen. Just as we were kitting up to go out, the heavens opened and it tipped it down. Then the thunder and lightening started and carried on for several hours. The whole ger community disappeared under a fug of grey misty rain, and the mud streets slipped a bit further down the hillside as the water soaked into the dust.

So we did the sensible thing and stayed inside the ger playing scrabble. And Nadine used up all the credit on the new sim. Bad woman.

I have also overcome my fear of the toilet here. It is wooden platform with a hole in it over a long drop of about 3 metres. What lurks down there is too horrible to describe but lets just leave it that you really wouldn't want to fall in it. Anyway, it put me off until I was really desperate but now I have a system: empty pockets of anything valuable, open loo door, walk in backwards but very carefully, hold onto shed wall, place loo roll on floor in front and well away from drop, rearrange clothing as appropriate, squat, then hope nothing goes wrong. It really helps not to look down to, but fortunately it is dark in there. And definitely don't go in there after a few drinks.

So tonight we've scoffed pizza at Marco Polo on Seoul Street. Lovely and a real change from our usual fare of whatever we can find, with bits of grass in it. Had a funny ride through peak hour traffic to get here. Streets were covered in mud and stones from the earlier downpour, and it was gridlocked with police on every corner, dressed like ice cream men, waving sawn off light sabres. But they didn't seem to mind us sneaking past the bits they'd blocked off, nor filtering, nor waving and chatting to the stationery motorists, or getting our pictures taken by them. Don't think they really knew what to make of us and so let us carry on doing our thing regardless.

Ride to UB

It rained last night – quite hard - and again this morning. It had the effect of damping down the sand and dust a bit, but nowhere near enough. But it made the grasses alongside the tracks smell great. There is some herby grassy plant that grows all over the place here – maybe oregano or something as it is a familiar smell and it smells great after a bit of rain.

Nadine changed the brake pads on both bikes last night while I cooked the grub, and they seem to be much better now. Its odd though; neither showed much sign of wear but both bikes had 'moments' where nothing happened when the brakes were pressed the brakes and nothing happened. Not great, and certainly not confidence inspiring.

So today then. We rode miles and miles across much the same awe inspiring landscape, but we are bit over that now as we are dirty and badly need to wash some clothes, and a bit fed up with 2 minute noodles and biscuits.

Got chased by two of the biggest nasty bitey dogs I've seen in a long time toady. We weren't anywhere near their ger but they suddenly appeared, fangs a flying and they really spooked me. Consequently, I was off like the proverbial scalded cat, and it took me quite a while to calm down after that.

Came across a small town after about 50 kms. Bought some food there and chatted to the lady in the supermarket. Gave her 5 year old daughter a pen. Then we spotted the paved road to UB.

 What a moment that was when we reached it, It was so good to be rid of potholes and gravel and sand etc. So we hacked it for 100kms, and descended into UB and the smog, and what do you know? The paving ran out again and we were back to potholes and crap. But we eventually got to central UB, true to type arriving at peak hour but it was Ok, with people hanging out of car windows, shouting to us, asking where we were form, welcoming us etc. That is still cool, even after all this time on the road.

So now we're in a hotel, scrubbed clean and almost human looking. And we have eaten well – a proper meal and we both feel better now. The staff here are lovely; the bell boy helped us with our stuff and within seconds was covered in the same dirt that we were. But he was all smiles and didn't seem to mind that much – although he probably did poor chap– and produced two shopping carts for us to roll our stuff up to our room.

Tomorrow we have to do some visa stuff and then track down my Mongolian sister in law's brother who has been expecting us for several days. But my phone won't work. Thanks Virgin; a real crappy service you provide. And we also have to go to the kids mental home, so we will be here for a few days.

Big Dirt Day

Bit fed up day. Set off earlyish. Had to unpick the roads after going the wrong way yesterday. Made our way back to the town with no name and found the one signpost to UB.

 Rode miles of dirt track to another unnamed town, then realised we were lost. 

Spent 2 hours trying to find our way to the correct dirt track, but it was impossible. 

Ended up in the town rubbish dumb, where a woman picking over assorted detritus, pointed us in the right direction. After several false starts and a temper tantrum, we eventually got on the right track to UB. 

Met a Canadian cyclist named Brian who was troubled by flies. Swapped stories with him and then carried on up over the mountains eventually reaching a flat valley where we rode for miles without seeing anybody. Saw some eagles, storks, camels and domesticated animals. A dried up lake with horses standing in it. 

Still have no phone reception, and about 150kms from UB. Set up camp on a hillside. Our stove isn't working despite my efforts to troubleshoot it, so I made a fire with the abundant horse poo. Dinner tasted quite good a la horse crap. Going to try and make UB tomorrow, as this has taken us a lot longer than anticipated.

A hard day today

Got away late but that was OK because that's what we'd intended to do. It was so nice where we were last night that it would have been a shame to leave it before we needed to.

Met two blokes travelling the other way together. Nick from Belgium and Devon from the States. They had bought q couple of Chinese dirt bikes in UB and were headed to Khuvsguul. 

Shortly after that I crashed. Quite a big off after hitting a patch of sticky mud - a full on over the handlebar cartwheel. I knew something was wrong when the mountains were suddenly upside down.  I saw stars just l;ike on Tom and Jerry and couldnt get up for a couple of  minutes, but was otherwise Ok. Bent the footpeg and jammed the gear lever, twisted the wheel so that they weren't aligned with the forks, bruised my ribs, leg and ankle and landed on my already not working very well wrist. But no problem though as caring nurse Nadine was there to take a photo. However she really let me down by failing to get it on video.

Piste got quite hard after that - gravel and sand, so it slowed us down. Needed a sleep to get over the crash thing which worked out very well because as I dozed in the dirt, Nadine fixed my bike. Win win. 

Then we got a bit lost – there is quite a bit of gold prospecting going on around here and the whole landscape is dug up even across the tracks.

 

 And of course there are no signs anyway, and now there is a massive e town in the middle of nowhere with now name. Very weird.

Leaving Erdenet

A very strange departure this morning – we were chased out of the hotel by the staff. They came to our rooms, came in and shooed us out. It was only 0920 and we had intended to leave at 0930 anyway but it was very odd. Its not like they have other stuff to do for the rest of the day either – they just sit around and contemplate, or watch mongol tv. very loudly.

So we all rode to Bulgan where Lionel and Claude left us. we turned left towards UB, they went north towards a big lake and forest area. 

The people in the town were quite chatty – This must be quite off the tourist trail – and although as usual we were the centre of attention, today people were quite openly coming up and chatting to us. we have no common language of course but the Mongolian phrase book comes in handy and they seem to find that quite amusing as we can obviously ' chat' more than usual and are able to tell them where we've been and where we are going.

 We have also started to give out bits and pieces – we have some things like bars of soap ( still wrapped) hand cream , pens, a jar of straw berries. just mainly stuff we have picked up along the route or have had in our bags from London and they make nice little gifts to give to local people,things they don't see, at least in this form or with this wrapping and labelling, and they are quite intrigued.

We gave these two girls some scarves. They were with their dad on his bike. Nice family.

 

Our route south east was difficult though. The tarmac ran out on the outskirts of Bulgan and 300kms of rough dirt road lies ahead. At least it is mostly hard packed dirt with just the occasional patch of gravel and sand, rather than the other way round as it was in Kazakhstan.

But this is the Mongolia we came to see. We are now literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by grassy plains and low level mountains. The valley floor is absolutely flat with a small river running through it and ger are scattered here and there. Gangs of wild horses, cattle and goats wander at will and just do their thing. there is nobody – and . occasionally, a motorbike two up will appear,usually a couple or a family, either on the road or more usually some way across the plain, they wave then disappear over the next hill.

We also see herdsmen, usually on the plains but quite often galloping along the track with several horses roped together, or herding animals not too far distant and they always wave too. 

And do you know what? Even out here in the wilds of Mongolia, surrounded by nothing and no roads, people still lose one shoe or boot. How does that happen? How can anybody lose just one, and you never see a pair lying along the road. It happens the world over too, and Mongolia is no different.

But it is the wildlife that really impresses. Heron and storks abound along the river, as do other smaller birds and marmot things which appear, do the meerkat pose and then dive off down their burrow. Yesterday we saw some eagles close up. Huge great things the size of a Christmas turkey that wheel effortlessly on the thermal air streams rising off the terrain and just hang there, almost still. We see them daily, but today two of them landed not far from us and just sat there looking at us,, totally unconcerned at our presence. I suppose they have very little to worry about, predator wise and man is clearly not a big threat out here as the landscape remains about as wild as it always was. 

Our camp tonight is on top of a hill overlooking this valley. In 360 degrees, all I can see is one ger and that must be several kms away. There is no sound apart from the birds and some peculiar flying cricket – they hop and then open a sail like wing and go several hundred metres on the wind before landing for another hop. and they rub their legs in that cricket way as they do.

The bikes seem none the worse for their trans Mongolian experience either. They are still trudging along and we're up to 9500 kms now, still on the original rubbish stock Chinese front tyres but replacement rears, both have replacement Chinese chains ( changed way back in Kaz) but original sprockets. Its not like these bikes have to pass MOTs or anything;they just have to keep going and pull us over rough terrain that they were never designed for, and so far, they have excelled. We should really have changed the sprockets when we did the chain but we had lost the socket handle and so had no way of getting the bolts off so we left them, and they seem to be doing fine.

At Large in Mongolia

Raining this morning, albeit not very hard, but also grey and a bit flat looking. Found a bank in the nearby town but cards wouldn't work, so Nadine changed some dollars./ As usual, we were the morning's entertainment, so we tried a bit of phrase book Mongolian on unsuspecting locals, which made them laugh. A lot.

Rode towards Darkan where Geordie left us. We are en route to a monastery and there is a lot of off road riding, which he wont be able to manage after his recent fall. The sun came out and we basked in it for a while, drying out and just chilling. Saw two travellers pass while we were there but they didnt see us. Bumped into them a few hours later on the road to the monastery and they turned out to be a French father and son on rented bikes, also en route to the same place. So we rode together.

The track to the monastery was 35kms off road along rough dirt tracks. A real buzz to ride but hard work and it is still difficult with my dodgy arm, although Nadine straps it and does some physio on it every day. That and several handfuls of Tramadol usually does the trick.

Camped in the valley in front of the monastery. It is so spectacular it is almost indescribable; surrounded by hills, gers dotted around, herds of sheep and goats and horses, and then at one end is this white and gold building that looks almost CGI'd. There is nobody here although locals wander over on motorbikes to say hello and a local elder visited this morning on his horse. Also met a father and his two daughters last night and we gave the two girls some scarves with which they seemed delighted.

 Claude and Lionel

It is so quiet here – when the sheep and goats shut up – that you can here the air on the birds wings. It is very strange and not something that we are used to in our noise polluted world but I guess that is one of the true benefits of being in the middle of nowhere.

But I do wonder what these people make of us descending on them. 

We must be like aliens but then again, many of the ger have satellite so no doubt they will have seen western people and ways vis that. They are really friendly though and we are careful to be very polite and welcoming. 

Well, why wouldn’t you? But then again, in our world it is easy to become wary of strangers, but even so, and even out here, it is important to keep some semblance of guard because that' is when it can go wrong and then its is even worse to sort out than if you nip it in the bud before it starts. 

The people in the border town where we stopped last night were a bit more like that – not surprising as they live in a constant stream of itinerant strangers and realised there is money to be made from them. Not just westerners but passing Russians etc. We got stopped coming out of a petrol station yesterday and two police officers tried to sting us for some bogus fine. We spoke to them for a while just to make sure but then it became apparent that they were trying to stiff us so we rode off. They didn't even attempt to chase or shoot us so we must have got it right. Or maybe they didn't have an ammo.

Rode through two rivers to get here too, and the bikes rocked. Brilliant little machines, steady as anything and they pulled us through the water OK. Their exhausts steamed a bit but they kept going. A lot to ask for a 110cc town bike with road tyres.

Also met an Australian woman in the middle of nowhere. And she came from just up- the road from Nadine's parents in NSW – Avoca. Bonkers.

It was so cold last night. It must have been near freezing but we are at 1000m but this morning the sun is hot hot hot. Lovely.

The monastery was even more impressive close up. The dilapidation was made up for by the huge golden Buddha statues and the large prayer wheels and it is clearly well visited and used, despite being so remote. We were the only westerners there though , which interested the locals, who crowded around us and our bikes as usual.

 A group of men were really interested in what our little bikes were, and were astonished to learn that they had made it all the way from London, particularly as they are Chinese; even here, in one of the remotest countries on earth, China has a name for producing rubbish.

One man had his little son with him ( aged about 4). He was very sweet and very shy so I gave him a whistle. His dad was delighted too and kept shaking my hand. It was only a plastic whistle but I guess its the small things that count.

The same group were on a minibus as we rode back towards the road and they waited somewhat eagerly for us to cross the rivers. They were clearly hoping that at least one of us would fall in, but none of us did, and they all lent out of the windows and clapped and cheered us enthusiastically.

Rode back to Erdenet, a large industrial city ( by Mongol standards) to the west of UB. There is a huge open cast copper mine here and also a hydro thermal power plant. He rest of the place is really weird though; its almost like the city has closed down but nobody has told the population. There were loads of people milling about when we tried to find somewhere to eat, but all the cafés were shut. We eventually found one by the bus station and ordered a rice and egg dish, which was good. However, while we were there, we were befriended by the city drunk who then got a bit boisterous and annoying. The manager tried to throw him out but he picked a fight with her, so a male customer threw him out and then kicked him up the bum. Unfortunately, he returned about 5 minutes later, armed with a large rock, which he moved to whack me over the head with. Luckily, Lionel saw it coming and disarmed him. And that was before I'd even had my dinner.