And so It begins.

Ulan Bator, Mongolia
May 30, 2009
10:47 am

12 Women
3 Men
3 bottles of Russian vodka
2 rolls of toilet paper
2 large packs of baby wipes

And Im ready to go! We leave tomorrow at 8:15am,so about 22 hours from the time of this post. After that I will lose contact with the outside world until June 19th as I travel through the vastness of the Mongolian landscape. So for those few of you that read this post I wont have anymore posts until then. I am incredibily excited and can not wait to get away from the city.

My group is pretty great. We have people from all across the world on this trip but as I have mentioned before most of them are women. I dont mind. I guess that women have a more adventurous spirit then men do. We are going to have to dig holes for toilets and not shower until we get back but I am all ready for that. A little dirt never hurt anyone.

I have checked out Suhbaatar Square about a block away from my hostel. It was built during the Russian era and includes a huge open area and a gigantic sculpture of a seated Chinngis Khan at the center of the squares large building. A little later I will most likely head to the National History Museum and after that take it easy and enjoy some of the comforts of the city like tv and maybe a nice meal at a bar.

Ulan Bator is an ok city. You can most definitly see the Soviet influence on the architecture. As well, I have been enjoying the mongolian people. They are very friendly but you can tell that they have a tough composure. Our tour guide was telling us that a famous saying about the Mongol people is that they have the spirit of the Dali Lama and the toughness of Chinngis Khan. From what I have seen this holds true.

I will be able to check email until tomorrow morning but until then thats it. I will talk to everyone soon and see you in the states before you know it.