Ulaanbaatar

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Today, Nikki and I have had a free day to explore Ulaanbaatar (known affectionately as UB).
The traffic is completely mad – pedestrians have to give way to cars, even if the light on the pedestrian crossing is green – indeed most people have given up and run across on red no matter what!
We had been warned it is a rough city and we should be on guard for bag-snatchers, pickpockets and bag-slitters, but we have had no problems and people have been very helpful. UB is a very surprising city – it’s a great hotch-potch of seemingly no thought for design, yet it has some real hidden gems – we stumbled upon an ancient monastery behind Soviet-style skyscrapers.
We have also been around the Museum of Natural History, which had lots of dinosaur remains dug up from the Gobi, plus the Museum of National History, which was a very good insight into the history and culture behind this country.
They were also making a documentary/movie in the national history museum, which was a bit of a lark to watch!
The guidebooks describe UB as the coldest capital city in the world and I can believe it. Although it has not been particularly cold today, there are snow showers forecast for tomorrow.
We are leaving UB tonight bound for Irkutsk in eastern Siberia, where I suspect it will be even colder, so I may be able to take ’snowy’ pictures on this trip after all!

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