Day 54 - Mongolia Tour. Return to Ulaanbaatar

Day 15 on Tour.

Come morning & our ger is still successfully pretending to be a sauna. Thankfully we can take another shower before breakfast. Breakfast is a quieter affair than normal & the talking is subdued. We are late to pack the van & set off on the road again. We drive through central Mongolia heading towards the capital.

We stop for lunch at a roadside restaurant & order our last Mongolian meals. It's been nice to experience the different cuisine, but I don't think we will miss Mongolian food. Most of the year, especially winter, vegetables are extremely hard to grow & are hugely expensive. Fruit is in tins, as is some pickled vegetables. A lot of dried meat (mostly mutton) rice & pasta is eaten with dairy products such as fresh milk & milk curd.

Our tour guide has done an excellent job at providing large portions with variety & always surprising us with our meals.

We arrive back at Ulaanbaatar just after 3pm, it's a quick job unloading our possessions & taking them to the guesthouse. We say goodbye to our guide & driver, giving them a small gift each to thank them for looking after us & showing us their amazing home country. We then drop off 15 days worth of filthy laundry, including thermals, beanies, scarves, gloves & jackets covered in horse hair. Grateful Ulaanbaatar is now sunny & hot, meaning we won't need any cold clothes. While we were on tour, it snowed in Ulaanbaatar, a fact that feels unbelievable with the heat. Mongolia can really give you 4 seasons in one day.

We also go to the store, buy some beer & chips before heading to the guesthouse & retiring to our bedroom. It's so nice to lie on a comfortable, big bed & to have a few hours to ourselves before it's time for sleep.

- Alli