Today was a weird day.

We left rather earlier than usual, as it was going to be a long day, and first stopped at Erdenet, Mongolia's third largest city, and home to a massive open cut copper mine.

Whilst in Erdenet we went to the local market that wasn't really open yet and only seemed to see junk and Chinese knock offs, a carpet factory (which was just like visiting any carpet showroom in England/Australia), a friendship (read Soviet) monument and new temple. It was a bit crap really. We did have lunch at a fancy restaurant to make up for how bad the last Ger camp was, and even got to choose our own meals!!!! shocking! No one chose the Mongolian mutton options. There is only so much mutton you can eat.

That afternoon we drove to the Amarbayasgalant Monastery. This monastery was spared the worst of the destruction and still has a few temples in tact. We were allowed to take pictures inside, so I did.

We were showed round by a 16 year old monk who had been there since he was 6. He didn't seem so happy about having to show us (and another guy on a private tour) around. He expressed this by testing our guides by speaking for as long as possible before allowing them to translate. I swear one time he spoke for a good 5 mins and as our guide and the other guide were taking it in turns to translate, the other guide gave us a 2.5 minute synopsis of his talk.

As you can see from one of the photos we were a bit templed out.

On the way there, at a loo stop, Luke was challenged by Taivna to another wrestle, I am pleased to confirm that whilst I didn't see the bout, on the way back from the ditch us ladies found to pee in, I saw Luke basically sitting on Taivna. Luke was declared the victor.

We made it to our final Ger camp in time for the rain to start. It has to have been our worst Ger camp yet. You could actually feel the slats of the bed through the mattresses, and the sheets were so threadbare, that I was worried that if you moved too much in the night you would split them. It rained all night.

Our final day of traveling saw us back with the OG car group, which was great. The off roading was not so great after a night of torrential rain, however that was nothing compared to the roadworks taking place on the main (single track) road between UB and the Russian border (I am so pleased we are going by train). We saw so many cars and trucks stuck, and even helped one out, but it was amazing where the Mongolian's take their Prius and other normal 2-wheel drive cars. They really push them to the limit (and sometimes too far). Luckily the trusty UAZ's got us through just fine... well... they slipped, they slid, but we got to UB about 4pm safe and sound.

This morning I woke up to alerts from Citibank that there had been withdrawals from our account (the one we use for travelling), to the tune of around $6k. Neither of us had made these, and I am guessing my debit card was skimmed and cloned at some point. Great fun trying to call Australia from Mongolia, and trying to explain to them that you are calling them from some random field near a famous monastery in Mongolia! Anyway, the dispute process has started, and luckily Luke's card still works, so at least that is ok.

Anyway, back to our final drive.

We essentially exited the tour through a gift shop - a cashmere outlet store. We didn't buy anything.

That night it was the farewell dinner. I will save that and final opinions of the tour and Mongolia for a new post.