R & R

We took a leisurely drive along the South side of lake Baikal only stopping to try a local delicacy - Onul fish, smoked. Yum!
The fish was being sold by 3 rather odd people: 2 very drunk men and their mother (who had a full beard and refused to be photographed). They were very proud of their wares and started dancing around drunkenly holding up handfuls of smoked fish.

Next, we bumped into two dutch registered Mercedes mini-buses. One was being towed by another. They were were the property of a bunch of Dutch farmenrs and their sons. One of the buses was being towed by the other and had been for the last 700 miles. They were hoping to take them both to Mongolia and sell them. We didn't have the heart to tell them that the border was closed to foreign vehicles......

We arrived in Ulan Ude at about 4pm.

We met the head of the Mongolian motorsport federation who tried to get us a room at the Mongolian Embassy - it was a purple and white monstrosity in the middle of town. We were refused.

So to another ex-soviet hotel but a chance to do laundry and get clean.

We went to the local 'mall' and had a few beers before heading out for a night on the town. We met one of the local 'players' who was, to put it mildly, full of sh*t.

He promised us a good night out - Alex accepted but I couldn't bear to be around the drunken obnoxious idiot.

The next morning I heard that Alex had only lasted another hour before realising that the guy was all talk and no action.