Mongolia, day 4

This is going to be an EXTREMELY quick and badly-written post because the Mongolian man is shouting at me that he wants to close in 15 minutes and flickering the lights at the ashen-faced Counterstrike/World of Warcraft players.

I'm leaving Mongolia tomorrow for Beijing bright and early at 6am - some impressions that I can't write up properly:
1. A way people actually make money on the street in Ulaanbaatar - they sit next to some scales (the kind you get in the bathroom) and charge you to weigh yourself. Apparently it's even a lucrative business...and it's tailored toward tourists

2. I went to the Ulaanbaatar Black Market today - makes you appreciate the small things in life, since I joined a ten-strong group of westerners with some locals in order to find it, accessed it through a documentary-style shanty town, and left after seeing a man lying on the floor with his eyeball hanging out. One of the most amazing, chaotic places I've ever seen in my life, that stretches out for miles and begins with 'anomalous' stalls which may as well be called 'I stole these from the tourists' stalls: one of them is just a collection of miscellaneous British and European plugged devices (phone chargers, iPod connectors, etc) alongside clearly used, dusty old shoes from Topshop Oxford Circus and H&M

3. MONGOLIAN THROAT SINGING. YouTube it - you might not regret it

4. I spent three days in the countryside staying in a Mongolian ger - I went rock-climbing, I rode a horse through the Mongolian mountains in slip-on trainers, jeans, and a T-shirt (in other words, mostly clad in anxiety.) Although not keen for a repeat performance with the horses, the Mongolian countryside is Lord of the Ringsy AWESOME. The only not awesome part is hanging out with a big group of mad tourists whose improvised cocktails mostly involved pickled kiwi - yes, pickled kiwi - and 'Genghis Khan' vodka, getting drunk, and then realising the nearest toilet is a half hour walk away. Over a hill. And a ditch. And some rocks.

There's a hole in the ground, of course, but it's pitch black and falling in the hole is a serious potential problem.

5. The view of Ulaanbaatar shows a massive city considering the population is 1 million, and the entire population of Mongolia sputters on at only 3 million. Wanted to take a picture while I stood on the top next to the HUGE communist monument they have there that has the local heroes (Genghis Khan, Sukhbataar) placed next to Lenin and a huge mosaic of 'the communist dream' still standing prominently over the country's capital - but I wasn't allowed to take my camera within any distance of the black market, as (sternly) advised by the nervous local who only agreed to take our naive little eager group of whiteys (OK, we weren't all white, but we should have been) into the jaws of the beast after a lot of badgering and enthusiasm. Even when inside, he insisted, we all stayed together in a semicircle and it was clear that no non-locals had entered the grounds for a very long time

I wish I could describe Mongolia with the kind of writing it deserves, but this is being prevented now by one of its own citizens (ironically?) I probably won't be able to write from Beijing but will try faithfully and LOTS, I promise. In between enjoying meals that don't only comprise curdled milk in various forms.