Ulanbaatar

I did say in the first post that additions were likely to be few and far between so here goes with the next update, or what I can remember as I forgot to bring my diary with me and am trying to back up photos at the same time so you will have top forgive me if I lose my train of thought!
We had a good-ish few days in China's capital though the heat did take it's toll, more on that later. We had to collect our onward train tickets to Mongolia which involved being shown to the top of an office block in the commercial district where some bemused staff handed the tickets over. I think people normally get them sent to their hotel but at least they had them as we had had no confirmation after transferring the money to them online.
We saw most of the sights in the centre of town, Tianemen Square with the imposing portrait of Chairman Mao at the northern end, the Forbidden city (very impressive), the Temple of Heaven (over-rated and very busy) and I saw the small Confucian Temple which was not only stunning in its own right but had a very interesting display about the man himself. I saw this myself because Amy had started to feel a bit unwell and so had confined herself to our air-conditioned dorm.
The 32 hour train ride to Mongolia then provided a perfect opportunity for relaxation and recovery, I hate to think how much we slept, though the other people in our cabin also proved to be good and interesting company. The train was late and so we did not arrive until the evening which left the exploring for the following day. We are getting bored of city life at the moment, it is the Naadam festival tomorrow, a highlight of the Mongolian year where the best compete in the supposed 3 manly sports of wrestling, archery and horse racing. It is raining now and forecast to stay so hopefully it will not be a wash-out. We then plan to head out camping for a night before starting our nomadic home-stay tour (www.gertoger.org). Better go now, pictures will have to wait I'm afraid. I need to develop a quick way of backing everything up...