Mongolia Arrived at last

We arrived in Mongolia at 5:30am and what an experience, the sun casting a shadow over the hills was just spectacular and breath taking. The plane came up from the south and banked perfect for our view out of the window We both had a lump in our throat at the views we could see. The airport was small with many old planes and helicopters dotted around the airfield. Okay it was more an airfield with a tarmac runway than an airport so you can imagine the plane did not have far to taxi with a short walk we were in immigration and got our Mongolian visa stamped. Then even a shorter walk to the baggage conveyer belt - only one so we knew we had the right one! Stepping out of the airport was a bit of a shock, brrrr chilly and the air was so fresh. We both took a large in-take of fresh air and both said we like it here already. The air was so fresh Jody said it smelled minty! Our pickup was waiting for us - Ghana, and he took us to his car. The road, if that's what you call it, from the airport was more like a slalom course because of the number of pot holes. The countryside was as we had imagined, no fences just hills rolling in to the distance and no barriers to stop you going where you wanted to. True freedom of the countryside. The city of Ulaanbaatar was like an old communist Russian city, concrete buildings which could quite have easy have been built in the 1950's. Our accommodation was no different, a brick built 9 story apartment block, heavy doors and a lift to the eighth floor took us to our room, well apartment. Our bedroom had a double bed just a little larger than a single bed and it was as hard as rock. But before you could say Mongolia we were both asleep. Four hours later Eiggy (Iggy) arrived and welcomed us and made us breakfast. She spoke very good English and helped us with questions about what we could do. We then ventured out to get some money from an ATM. This turned out to be uneventful two machines said our banks said no! After a short walk around it was time for another nap. Next trip out we had to get food so we had to find some money. The first ATM kindly said yes and we had our first meal in a Mongolian restaurant. The food was lovely, Bryan had mutton and potatoes and Jody some noodles. This was the first hurdle over as we were expecting it to be dreadful. At least it was better than the food in Seoul! Now it was really was time for bed, it was 6pm but it felt like day three for us already. Jody was sleep walking back to the room, she was so tired that she fell asleep on someone else's bed!