Bus Ride to Chinggis City

Sain UU...which means "Hi, How are you" in Mongolian. (It is pronounced San Beno.)

Things have been crazy here. We are just now settling in and will be leaving Khentii Province in exactly one week and heading to Tereldj, a ger  (yurt) camp with our English students for 5 days and then we will end our time in UB for a few days. I can't believe its almost over. It seems in many ways it has been the longest 6 weeks of my life.

Here are some pictures of our journey to Chinggis City here....

After leaving UB, we hopped onto a bus and headed 6hrs. east of UB to the country side, and ended up in the Province of Khentii, a small  town named Chinggis City, the birth place of Chinggis Khan (pronounced Gangis Khan, if your American). There are about 5,000 people here and they do not see foreigners often, let alone 3 American girls, we felt like movie stars and quite suprised there haven't been any car accidents.

I met 3 girls on the bus and none of them spoke English. It was pretty difficult to communicate, but thanks to iphones and technology, we were able to use different apps to translate!

This was our view on the way to Chinggis City.

The bottom left picture is our fancy restrooms...also known as squatty potties! Most restraunts and houses do not have western toilets, so it's pretty common to see people going off into the distance when nature calls...

My Uncle Steve told me that Mongolian children are some of the most beautiful and cutest kids. At first I laughed and thought are you serious, but I couldn't agree with him more! They have the most beautiful skin and biggest checks with permanent dimples!

After a very long bus ride, we made it! Our living conditions for the last 3 weeks have been pretty booshie, we are staying at the Khan Burged Khentii Hotel. It is about $30 a night.  Occasionally we have hot water and internet, both of which are a hot commodity around here...