We were glad to get out of Sukhe Bator. The hotel might have been impressive 20 years ago but was very run down although the bed was comfortable and clean and the shower worked. We wandered out in the evening and saw a nice looking building with the words “restaurant” and “karaoke” in garish neon lights on its roof. A girl inside looked bewildered when I asked about the restaurant before shaking her head. However the karaoke was working and we were kept awake until after midnight as some of the world’s worst vocalists were caterwauling with fake American accents. There was one man who sang some Mongolian ballads in a deep rich voice. The next morning we went to the train station across the road and were told that there is one train a day at 8.30 in the evening. We went back to the hotel to ask about buses, and learned that there is one a day at 8 in the morning. We asked about taxis and the receptionist, a young man who was about the only good thing about Sukhe Bator made a phone call and a taxi soon arrived with the driver willing to take us the 201 miles to Ulan Bataar for 100,000 tugriks (£21.28). The ride was somewhat nervewracking because he drove at breakneck speed while obviously drowsy because he kept rubbing his eyes. The landscape changed from coniferous forest south of Sukhe Bator to rolling grasslands (just as I envisaged Mongolia to be) to semi-desert with the occasional tree. I also expected Mongolia to be like Siberia; flat as a pancake. However it was a patchwork of ranges of low hills which rose in places to almost mountainous status. We passed large herds of horses and cattle, and flocks of sheep and goats which seem to spend their days crossing the road, even when it became a motorway. The people live mostly in round white yurts, except in the bigger villages and towns such as Darkan which comfortably beats Sukhe Bator as the world’s biggest shit-hole. It consists of grim looking tower blocks and industrial buildings for the copper-smelting industry. We expected Ulan Bator to be rather more impressive, but it is as much of a dump as Sukhe Bator. Still, we found a half-decent hotel for £23 a night which was substantially better than the Selenge at Sukhe Bator.
The main drawback with travelling by taxi is that you can’t stop every 10 minutes o take a picture without annoying the driver. This is typical of much of the landscape in northern Mongolia
