Sophie's travels 2011-2012: 15/2/2012 Terelj National Park to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia TRANS SIBERIAN RAILWAY

We had a quick breakfast in the ger camp before hitting the road back to Ulaanbaatar to make the most of our last day in Mongolia. First stop was the intellectual museum which was meant to be a museum full of puzzles etc – ended up being a bit of a letdown and fairly boring but an experience all the same… From there we grabbed a quick bite for lunch then went to the black market. The market was crowded with people pushing and shoving everywhere and I managed to get pick pocketed from a zipped pocked right under my nose – very disappointing but luckily I didn’t have much money in my purse which was thrown back at our feet (at which point I realised it had been taken!) After this everyone was fairly paranoid and freezing and we just wanted to get out of there! So we made our way back to the hotel and had a quick look in some of the safer shops nearby before heading off to a cultural performance. The cultural performance was amazing; it had traditional music, throat singing, dancing and even a contortionist which was fascinating! From there we went to a Mongolian BBQ feast for dinner which was unreal. You walked through and collected all the vegies, noodles, meats and sauces that you wanted then took it up to a massive BBQ and the chefs cooked it for you. They had massive tongs which they flipped around in the air while cooking everyone’s meals, great to watch and very tasty food (and it was all you can eat – heaven!)