food & drink

spectacular:

we'd been recommended the korean food in ulaan baatar, so tonight we sought to find some. i've never eaten korean before and we didn't know what would be good, and ordering an unknown far-eastern food in mongolian seemed slightly outside of our abilities. so off we trotted to mr. kim, the guy who owns the guesthouse we're staying in. "we'd like to eat korean," says us. his eyes lit up, he physically gains 2 inches, bringing him to chest height. "wait ten minutes," he beams.

ten minutes later and we're marching down peace avenue trying to keep up with the little fella. mr. kim is korean. we are filled with hope.

in the restaurant he announces his arrival to the staff and manager like old friends and soon we're sat in a private room; rowan, marc, matt, mr. kim and me, three waitresses conveying about 30 dishes of food, iced water and tea, and another waitress cooking more food on a stove at our table.

and what food it was. korean food is goooooood; light and spicy. we shoveled with metal chopsticks, pork and beef and octopus, garlic stalks, spicy radish, seaweed soup, deep fried mind-blowingly spicy aubergine, and so many others. we ate like kings of the east with mr. kim regaling us with stories of the beauty of south korea.

at the end he jumped up, sped off and paid for everyone. all he asked in return was that we tell people about his guesthouse so they come to him when they come to ulaan baatar. which to be honest i would've done anyway because it has been fantastic. it's clean and friendly and the staff are beyond helpful. there's always a great atmosphere, not to mention the whole organisation of the tours. so here is the official advert:

IF YOU NEED SOMEWHERE TO STAY IN ULAAN BAATAR, MONGOLIA
YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN'T DO BETTER THAN THE
UB GUESTHOUSE
ON PEACE AVENUE
IT'S A REAL SEXY BEAUTY
GO AND STAY THERE
NOW!

when we got back we found we're sharing a dorm with 2 french girls, an american girl and an australian girl. to celebrate we all drank ukrainian vodka (which is way better than russian vodka) and smelled bread.... (apparently it's a ukrainian tradition). very soon after we were in a bar for final drinks with the canadian boys.

mongolia rocks, just incredible, it is.
i've been completely blown away by how beautiful the land, how welcoming the people are and how far beyond expectations this part of The Big Fat Trip has been.

beijing is really going to have to go some to even get close. we'll start to find out tomorrow.