Basketball, Football, Horse Riding and Vodka

What a mad day yesterday was.
Started by us all sorting out our flights. I'm off to Soeul tonight with a few other ralliers and then onto Bangkok by myself to meet up with a friend from home. Then back to the Uk probably some time next week. Paul is off to Bejing today with an 18 hour stopover which we think he can't leave the airport (cos of Visa) then onto London. He has got on the same flight as 3 other ralliers.

Then a load of ralliers went to the charity head quarters where they piled us all into some of the nicer rally cars and took us off to one of there projects. A orphanage (of sorts) just on the edge of town. We all took loads of sweets, pens and pencils, footballs and a basketball. So after the sweets where given out the games began!

First it was basketball, and they do like their basketball. Proper court (be it on tarmac), so five aside us vs them and first to 10. After a very hot and knackering game they beet us 10-7. Damn it! Chris from Ulan Battered ripped his foot on the tarmac, so we did lose one of the better players.
ANyways, then onto the football and we took revenge. Don't think they play as much football as basketball. Think he hammered them about 8-3 or so. Nearly taking there goalies (a 12 year old) head of a few times (I was to blame for one of those). All of us now were well and truely knackered.
Then started a bit of wrestling - Mongolian style. and we didn't fair that badly. One comical moment when one of us spun one of them around (check out the photos below).
Thinking we were heading back, they took us some where on another edge of town to a Gur. Where the Ariag (fermented Meres milk) came out! Man that stuff is discusting. So after forcing a bowl of that down we where then taken to the horses, and a few of us taken for a bit of a ride. We all looked rubbish, compared to the 10 year olds galloping around.

We did then go back and after some pizza (these guys really do look after us) we all went to our hoels to get cleaned up before going to the Mongoloian BBQ restaurant. Choose your meat and sauce give it to the chefs and they perform all sorts of tricks with your food on the hot plate. Great fun and good food. Cheap too.

Then the beers started flowing and we all piled to a club around midnight where the vodka came out. 5 bottles later and sat drinking with the band we all stumbled out and got a taxi back, be it after a bit of an issue with some locals and a prostitute! So about 430 we got back to the hotel.

Now just trying to sort out all our stuff before flying on tonight!

Some more photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/stephenjameselliott/Ulaanbaatar
There is some on the Flickr account too.

Stephen