Due to the train timetable changing, we had an additional 5 days in Mongolia, therefore we decided to do a couple of side-trips before the main one. Our first was to Gun-Galuut, a nature reserve about 130km east-south-east of UB.

We were also in UB to try and get our Belarus visa. I think that is a separate story however... lets just say we were successful, but it wasn't without its stress.

We would be in Gun-Galuut for 2 nights in a Ger camp - like a hostel but you stay in Gers (yurts). You could say therefore it was Gerlamping... get it? like glamping, but GERlamping (haha?).

It would just be the two of us, along with our guide Hashi (who we would be with for the next month almost), and our driver Amraa. Amraa could, I think, understand more English than he spoke, but didn't speak much English, and Hashi pretty much spoke perfect English (and turned out to be a great guide).

The weather wasn't brilliant, but it did mean that we were able to get time on the massive Chinggis Khan statue (a 40m high stainless steel statue) without too many others. It is apparently placed looking east to his birthplace, and where he (apparently) found his golden whip.

P.S. over here, Ghengis is actually Chinggis (there is Chinggis beer, vodka etc).

We then drove around the "13th Century Camp", basically a collection of different tourist Gers which housed various things like shaman Gers, blacksmith Gers and other stuff. Meh.

We had lunch in a representation of what the royal Ger configuration could have been like in the time of Chinggis Khan. Lunch consisted of milk tea (a slightly salty, diluted, milky, very vaguely tea like drink, very popular with Mongolians), salad which we could eat, and fried mutton dumplings. We were meant to sit on the floor, however both me and the driver ended up sitting up on little stools, pins and needles are a bastard.

Mutton generally is something we will see a LOT of over the next few weeks.

After a drive along surprisingly good, dirt roads, we arrived at our Ger camp in the rain, and basically spent the afternoon sheltering from the rain in our Ger, reading.

At dinner with our driver and guide, we found out about their lives in Mongolia, and what it was like living through the period which spanned the Russians being in charge, to the Russians leaving in 1990, and the hardship that came afterwards as Mongolia became a free country. As an example, we were told that after the Russians left, despite the Mongolian's having millions more livestock than people, they were required to purchase powdered milk from Japan, and rationing continued until 1998. It was really interesting, and also hearing from Amraa who (through translation by Hashi) told us what his life was like as a 25 year old with a new baby.

Anyway we shared a bottle of vodka between the four of us, and then were treated to a short performance of traditional arts (traditional female singing, throat singing, horse hair stringed instrument, dancing and contortion), we were told that the Japanese tourist group had brought these guys from UB, and that they were award winning performers.

The show only lasted probably 20 mins, but it was excellent, the female singer I found especially good, its hard to explain, and it might very well have been the vodka, but I found her voice amazing. We saw a show with the group in UB, and none of those singers were nearly as good.

The next morning we were up at 6am to go find the Argali sheep, the endangered sheep that lived in the park, approximately 300 sheep remain, and we were taken out with the group of Japanese tourists by a ranger to hopefully find the sheep.

We all made it to the site the ranger suggested and apparently there were two sheep up on a ridge which Luke thought he saw through binoculars, but I didn't.

After standing around being chilly for about 15mins, and our driver having a good old chat with the ranger (possibly telling him how to do his job) we drove off on our own to the next valley... where there were... about 30 sheep in plain sight up on the hill near where we were driving, they then proceeded to cross in front of the car. We got some great photos, and most importantly we got the bragging rights! After exchanging all the high fives, we headed off to specifically find the Japanese tour group so that Hashi could let their guide know that we had found about 10% of the total sheep population in the park!! We don't think the ranger was particularly pleased.

Later that afternoon, we went for a horse ride with a local guide, they were good looking horses, looked well looked after, and able to cope with our fat western arses. My saddle wasn't the most comfortable and I have got a nice graze on my arse from the saddle, but hey, we went horse riding in Mongolia. Our horse guide had guide ropes for our horses (who seemed pretty docile), but near the end we were allowed to ride on our own after receiving the warning our horses might get excited about going home... they weren't and we couldn't really raise a trot. Ahh well, it was good fun and we saw some great birds out on the steppe, and a few marmot.

One thing this trip has taught us are the Ger rules:
- enter with the right foot;
- walk to your left and sit in the first place you come to;
- always walk clockwise (I messed this one up a bit);
- don't step on the threshold;
- take gifts; and
- a nomad greeting is to pass a snuff bottle with right hand, you must accept with the right hand and take a sniff... which leads to my next story.

We went and visited some nomads before dinner, and it turned out to be the ranger Hashi had pissed off earlier in the day. Great.

Anyway we did the snuff bottle thing, and the snuff was a white powder. I asked what it was (after of course smelling it), which was duly translated to the ranger. He didn't speak English, but answered "cocaine", the problem is, I just couldn't quite work out whether he was joking (spoiler alert - he was) but he said it with such a deadpan delivery, you just couldn't be certain.

Anyway, after a generally awkward visit, gifts delivered, we went back to dinner.

After a much quieter night (and thankfully a shower) we headed back to UB, to once again try and get our Belarussian visas, and start the next overnight trip to Khutsai National Park to see the Przewalski's horses.