ULAAN BAATAR

July 31st. UB  It was finally our last day in Mongolia, a month nearly to the day.  It gave me the opportunity to work a bit on my neglected journal.  We also did some last minute shopping and purchased an antique Mongolian knife and flint set that we DHLed back home.  And, we finally made it to the worthwhile Zanabazar museum, a good collection of traditional artwork with the highlight being the collection of bronze Buddhist statues made by the first Bogd Khaan, Zanabazar.   To make sure our Russian visas were still due to be ready by the next day we stopped at Legend.  All looked good except that they couldn't get us a ticket to Estonia from St. Petersburg at the end of our stay so they made the decision for us to get tickets to Lithuania instead.  It would make us backtrack up to Estonia and back to Lithuania but in the end I guess we were still glad to finally be getting the visa.  

August 1st. DEPART for ULAN UDE (RUSSIA)  The morning went quickly.  New British flat mates arrived at Zaya's that morning from Russia.  We were lucky to grab a cup of coffee with them and exchange stories.  They were bound for China next.  It was really a shame we couldn't have talked with them more but we had to get our passports at 11:00 and after that we only had time for a nice departure lunch at the California Restaurant before boarding our train.  When the train pulled out of UB and we watched the soviet city give way to the ger-burbs I had to think what an odd place it was.  For everyone's fascination with the rural nomadic lifestyle in the countryside I am not sure if UB wasn't one of the most interesting things about Mongolia.  It wasn't particularly pretty but it was a peculiar and unexpected collection of different elements.