Day 15: Glamping in Terelj

After we got off the Trans-Siberian, we drove through the mad Ulaanbaatar rush-hour traffic and 80km out of Ulaanbaatar to the Terelj National Park, where we had arranged to stay with a nomadic family in a ger (a Mongolian yurt) for 2 nights.

As if to continue the hilarious we're-sleeping-in-bunk-beds-on-our-#honeyschmoon theme, our ger has 4 single beds. There are no showers and the bathroom (15m walk away) is somewhat of a joke - when we arrived, although there are 2 cubicals, one door was completely off its hinges, there was no toilet seat to be seen; and the presence of water is variable… But at least there is an actual toilet, as opposed to just having not-so-long long drops, which are situated in the hut next to the Western-style toilets.

"Nomadic" breakfast consists of tasty thinly fried oil-bread (similar to yummy "onion-biscuits" we get in Taiwan), jam and a bowl of warm milk (of unknown origin) mixed with semolina, rice or I presume whatever starchy thing is leftover from the previous day. Lunch yesterday was rice with fried stripes of mutton and a suspicious looking mound of coleslaw (which neither of us dared eat). And for dinner, we were served something similar to borsch (Russian beet-soup with onions, cabbage, potatoes and unspecified meat, but usually beef) and plain Mongolian dumplings (yumsk).

There are 2 main tourist sites around where we are staying to keep us entertained - the Turtle Rock and the Aryapala Buddhist Monastery.

Yesterday, we climbed up the hill to visit the buddhist monastery and admired the view of the valley from above. It was a short trip, which perhaps took us no longer than 2 hours. That having been the highlight of the day, we spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening reading, playing solitaire and fiddling with our ger stove. We decided to save the Turtle Rock for today's amusement.

Last night, as we listened to the rain pitter-pattering on our get, John said, "I'm trying to figure out how this is different to camping, well maybe *glamping*, at a low-grade campsite in the UK," I laughed as he continued with, "We might as well be in Wales with that rain and those puddles outside!"

I can't say he's wrong.... Except it's maybe a bit colder?