Back in UB again...

We were picked up by the Russian jeep and taken to Zaya's, where we all had hot showers and got into clean kit - lovely to feel scrubbed! After that, I joined Ciera and Chelsea on an expedition to find Chelsea's ticket for the next part of her journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway. The directions were not a bit helpful - UB does not go in for street signs - so we eventually found the tourist office in the Erel Bank and tey put us on the right track. About 10 minutes later we found the place and got the ticket - phew.

Then shopping, and cold drinks at Cafe Amsterdam. There's a Fair Trade shop under the cafe, where we found some lovely presents to take home.

Later, we met up with Moogii at Zaya's and he took us to the folkloric concert in the city centre. There was dancing in different styles, including a sort of ballet about an old man's dream. There are many different traditional Mongolian costumes and the dances, although they have the same name, are performed slightly differently in different areas. Sloists played the horse-head fiddle and a kind of flute and the Grand Orchestra played several pieces. The orchestra included different sizes of horse-head fiddles, similar to cellos and double bases in a symphony orchestra, a smaller type of fiddle that took the violin role, flutes and something like a clarinet or recorder, lutes and drums and cymbals. The music was beautiful, and we were really glad that we had managed to get to the concert.

Next, we met up with Gana and the students for a traditional Chinese meal, with a rogue serving device which tried to knock over glasses when you turned it round. Afterwards, we went to the Irish pub and shared a very large beer, but then it was time to go back to Zaya's and get ready for travelling home. It was good to see them all again, but sad when we had to split up...