Goodbye Mongolia

Is this the right way? The Lonely Planet Guide says that this place is hard to get to. It is the ancient ruined city of Khar Bulgas. "Do you think Butar knows where it is?" John asked.

After five days in UB where we refueled our bodies on fruits and vegetables, shopped, museum hopped, and attended a traditional dance, music and contortionist show (which was superb), we left again for the hills. John was tired of dodging traffic at every crosswalk. He felt like a magnet, where the cars were the steel. The drivers had the desire to hit us, it was only a matter of whether they could position themselves to do it. John crossed in front of one lady at a stopped intersection and she jockied her car forward to intercept. If it hadn't have been for the bag of water bottles hanging at his side, she would have clipped his leg. "Let's get out of here!" John cried, and the next morning we caught a taxi out of town.

We spent two days living in a ger along a river. There was no traffic, no noise, and there were hills to climb. It was perfect. When it came time to leave, we hoofed it two miles into the nearest town and caught the local bus back to UB. That left us one day to stock up, pack up and say goodbye to a country that was already on our list of places to visit again.