Tried to go right through the night without going for a pee as it takes ages to get all yer layers on and then leg it to the outhouse but I was bursting a couple of times so had to risk it lol.
Woke up at 8:45 in time to go to the food Ger for breakfast, which was scrabbled eggs, salami and tomatoes followed by the usual donuts and Mongolian Tea.
After breakfast we set off to go and see the large silver statue of Gengus Kaan (or however you spell it). It was pretty impressive to be honest and as it’s winter their was nobody else there which made it easier to get some good photos without hundreds of tourists on them.
Then we had an hour transfer to our hotel and arrived at about 12pm…..aaaawwww bliss! Nice warm hotel with a bath and shower. I’m also going to use the opportunity to upload some pictures while we are here. The internet is $6 for 24 hours so going to make the most of it. They guys are going to a museum at 2pm but I’m gonna pass and do all my web stuff as I’m not really interested in museums (so un-cultured I know lol).
Bought some postcards to sent to family even though I will probably be home before they actually arrive lol.
Our guide Jenny told us about a cultural evening at the local theatre at 6pm tonight, where there would be different acts doing deep throat singing, contortion and dancing etc. We thought we should give it a whirl so we can say we’ve done it and it was only £10. The Theatre was literally 2 mins away from our hotel so it was probably a good choice of entertainment for the night as it’s too clod to travel a great distance at night. When we went to buy tickets the start time was 7pm not 6pm so we decided to get some food from an Irish bar that she had recommended. It kind of goes against our trip ethos as we said we wouldn’t go in English pubs or Macdonalds etc but I guess technically its Irish not English lol. Plus it was right next to the theatre so it made sense I guess.
The food at the Irish bar was really nice, it was a large place and the service was really quick. We were all surprised at how soon it came as we’d all ordered a lot of different things. They don’t seem to do for the English tradition of bringing all one tables food out at the same time here, it just came as and when it was ready. We kinda at in shifts and some had finished before mine even came.
Straight after dinner we went back over to the Theatre for the “cultural evening”. As we sat down at looked through the leaflets it didn’t quite look like what we were expecting. It showed that there were main characters; chorus type roles and it looked more like a play in 6 Acts. Anyway we stayed put and the show began. It was exactly that…. A Musical, so all the dialogue and songs etc were in Mongolian so we couldn’t make sense of any of it. Even stranger than the show though was the theatre etiquette (or lack of it). People (despite signs etc) were taking pictures with flash on. Mobile phones rang constantly throughout and rather than be all embarrassed people just had full low conversations in the theatre on their phone. Very Bizarre. Tracy and Haiden left after about an hour, but me, Phil and Jason stuck it out for the two hours. We had hoped there would be an interval but half way through but no such luck. Then just as we thought it was over at the end of the show we did the usual clapping for the cast and thought that was it. But then EVERY single Members gets and intro each and another applause including backstage people, director. This went on for a further twenty minutes.
Spoke to mum on Skype before bed and then hit that sack. Tomorrow is our last night on the train AT LAST. I will glad to sleep in a bed that it’s rocking back and forth.