Our guesthouse arranged for Michael and I to stay a night in a ger (traditional round felt tent) with a Mongolian family in Terelj National Park. The National Park is only an hour or so on a terrible road from UB. The park was very dry (as is everywhere we've seen), with lots of rocky formations and snow. We also saw a couple of Bactrian (2 humped) camels and an eagle used for hunting.
The Mongolian couple we stayed with were lovely, but it was frustrating we couldn't talk to them more (they didn't speak English and we didn't speak Mongolian). She cooked for us on the woodfire stove in the ger (mutton stirfry for dinner), and he took us for a ride on their ponies (they're too small to be called horses). We all slept in the same ger - Michael and I on seperate beds and the couple on the third. It got pretty cold overnight (the frost took all morning to thaw), but it was toasty warm in the ger.
Michael and I explored the area on foot as well, and thought it was beautiful, and quite different to the National Parks we'd visited before.
