Lagodekhi

The last few days have been highly random. We had the post rally party on Friday night at a Mongolian club called Strings. Tim immediately challenged the British Ambassador to a drinking competition and was subsequently found lying face down on the floor sleeping. Tom managed to get equally drunk, albeit in a more respectable timescale, and woke up on the floor of an unknown hotel room with hairy Dave.

It was perhaps foolish to have booked a horse riding and ger experience for the next morning at 9am, as only Tim and not-so-hairy Dave made it to the collection point in time. Tom and hairy Dave managed to arrange an experience of their own at a more hangover friendly hour. Much cantering, whipping, drinking of yak milk and eating of fat balls went on at our respective camps and we all felt like we had experienced the real Mongolia.

We were greeted by the sight of Will and Felix's red Panda outside Dave's Bar on our return, the engine held up by rope and the whole car basically tied together! They had come in the evening before with a few other teams who crossed into Mongolia at Tsagannur. Word among the other rallyers was that at least 6 bottles of vodka were consumed in celebration and that some teams had tried to mount a statue of Mr G. Khan. Last night was spent revelling in our success once more, as ten of us went down to Ristorante Marco Polo for a slap up meal that cost more than any of us expected.

Throughout all of this we've been trying to get a way out of the country sorted, and today finally found a viable option. Since the Russians won't let us back in we are getting a train to the Chinese border, walking across and then getting a sleeper bus to Beijing. Hopefully flying home from there should be relatively easy, although we have come to expect difficulties to arise from nowhere. We're bloody bored of Ulan Bator now.