Ulgii - Khovd - Ulaanbaatar

In order to get to Khovd for the morning flight today, we have to leave Ulgii before breakfast, and at 06:45 we are in the car complete with luggage and ready to go. The journey there is pretty albeit not as spectacular as we have seen.

Fairfields Restaurant

As we missed breakfast this morning, we stop at Fairfields, part of the same chain we had lunch at in Tsetserlig last week. I order another cinnamon bun (just as delicious as it was in the other place), plus two fried eggs.

My cinnamon bun and cappuccino, plus Mirbek's chocolate cake

Fried egg, served with a couple of slices of apple - that's different

It is one of the more cosmopolitan meals on this trip: an Englishman and a Norwegian with their Kazakh guide are served by the Australian restaurant manager in Mongolia.

MIAT Regional flight from Khovd to Ulaanbaatar

Along with the lady who received the serious groin injury when she was hit by a horse and rider at the Nomad Festival, and another tourists who is wearing a medical boot, we get to board first. Which means we have ringside seats watching everyone else get on the plane.

We are sitting near the back of the aircraft. In front of us is a German lady with an empty seat next to her, as she is waiting for her husband to board.

The chap who is sitting in the very back row of the plane (3 seats behind us) arrives to find his overhead compartment full of crew stuff. He takes his backpack to put it in the first available space, which happens to be above the Germans.

"No, no, no" shouts the German lady, with her friend across the aisle adding "You cannot put your bag there, that space is theirs". They then physically prevent the poor Aussie guy from placing his bag in 'their' compartment.

In all our flights (some 800 or so), I have never seen anything so ridiculous.

Khovd Airport

View from the plane

Ulaanbaatar

Seeing Daari and Mantakh waiting for us when we arrive at Ulaanbaatar is like meeting old friends. The traffic from the airport to the centre of the capital is really beyond a joke today. It is only 45km, but with the stop start, stop start and the cars just moving a few metres at a time, it takes us over three hours.

Beatles Monument

This incongruous monument to one of the most popular bands in the 60s and 70s, also symbolises the fight for freedom by the Mongolian youth in communist times. It was at this very spot that they would come together and listen to forbidden Western music and discuss ideas of freedom and democracy. The monument replaced that of Lenin when the USSR collapsed and Mongolia gained their freedom in the early 1990s.

Dinner

There is a private function in the restaurant this evening, so they are not serving dinner to guests until 21:00. We just have to wait. At 21:00 on the dot, we wander in and are shown to a table with a RESERVED sign on it. We are impressed that they have saved us a table, until two local ladies turn up and look confused and disappointed when they see us sitting there. We would be quite happy to move if they want us to, but they settle on the next table and nothing is said.

My red wine

David's Kaltenberg beer

We both order a ‘make your own pizza’, mine with smoked salmon, peppers, onions and blue cheese, while David chooses bacon, mushrooms, onion, peppers and blue cheese.

My pizza

David's

And so ends our penultimate day here in Mongolia. Thank you to Undiscovered Destinations and their local team for arranging this incredible trip.