There are two station stops before Ulaanbaatar - Darkhan and Zunkharaa. Only dimly aware of the first, I awake in anticipation of the second. It appears from out of the complete blackness of Mongolian night - a ramshackle station house, a few weary-looking passengers and, lamentably, two drunks trying to hassle each other over something, both in the most inebriated state I think I've ever seen anyone in! Even taking into account wedding functions and festivals.

Eventually the sun rises shortly after we leave Zunkharaa and we are treated to our first glimpse of the land we've come so far to see - flat, grassy plains and majestic hills, populated by the occasional grazing horse, solitary jeep and telegraph pole. Before long we're approaching Ulaanbaatar and so we double-check our luggage packing, make one last cup of tea with the water from the Samovar, and get ready to disembark at Ulaanbaatar Station, 6269km from Moscow and around 10,000km from Birmingham! What does Mongolia hold in store for us this coming year? What influence will its culture have on us, on my composition and playing? And just exactly how cold will it be...?!

Ulaanbaatar Station, 7.32am precisely as promised, Mongolia time (GMT+8 hours). After five days of life aboard the train, the rush to get off it and onto the platform comes as quite a shock to the system. After fending off the taxi and porterage offers we walk only a few paces before being met by a man holding and piece of paper bearing the words 'Hannah and Steve'! This is Batsuren, who is the driver for the school we'll be working for as English teachers for at least the next year.

After loading our luggage into the car, we are driven across the city to our apartment block in the Bayanzurkh district, just behind the Flower Hotel. Our apartment is on the fifth floor of the block and has a small balcony with views east and south. We have a living room with a sofa and television, a kitchen with a fridge freezer, cooking hob and washing machine, and a bedroom and bathroom. We do a little unpacking then decide to take a look around this unfamiliar city on foot...

Our apartment is situated in the east of the city. It takes about 15 minutes to reach the central Sukhbaatar Square by foot. This is where the Parliament Building is situated, as is the Palace of Culture, the State Opera and Ballet Theatre and the Zero Kilometre Marker, from which all distances are measured in Mongolia. In the centre of the Square is the impressive statue of Damdin Sukhbaatar ('Axe Hero'), the hero of the Revolution of 1921, when Mongolia declared final independence from China and the People's Government of Mongolia was declared. His rallying cry is engraved on the bottom of the statue: "If we, the whole people, unite in our common effort and common will, there will be nothing in the world that we cannot achieve, that we will not have learnt or failed to do." This was also the square where the first protests were held in 1990, which ultimately led to the fall of communism in Mongolia. Although someone must have forgot to tell Lenin, since his equally impressive statue still stands proudly in front of the Ulaanbaatar Hotel to the south of the square!

The drivers in Ulaanbaatar are something else. They mostly don't stop for red lights, they don't slow down for, or make any attempt to avoid, crossing pedestrians and they don't have much concept of 'lanes'. All the same, they do seem to be able to handle their cars very well ("they handle their cars like they handle their horses", one person has since remarked to me), and miraculously manage to avoid what often seem like certain collisions!

Oh, and the weather - it's baking hot today! Also, apparently even in winter temperatures of -40 Celsius, because of the altitude (1325m), it doesn't feel much colder than winter back in the UK. We'll have to wait and see...

Sat 13th May - Sun 14th May2006
After our first full week at work, our first proper weekend off in Mongolia. We spend the afternoon at the apartment of one of my students, who has very kindly offered to cook a traditional Mongolian dish for us, Khuushuur (fried mutton pancakes). The food is delicious and I am seated at the head of the table as guest of honour. Hannah has to sit at my right-hand side since she's female... Mongolians are an extremely friendly people and have made us feel at home here, although they do tend to stare at you in the street as if you've dropped from the sky!

Today (Sunday) we plan to get up onto the hills surrounding the city and head off in a southerly direction towards Zaisan district. It becomes clear after hours of walking that although at all times you can see the hills wherever you are in the city, actually getting to them is not so straightforward on foot! We do, however, manage to take some nice photos and make it south of the train tracks, but have to admit defeat and turn back before it gets dark. It's maddening to not have at least set foot on one of the hills. We will have to wait for next weekend now.

Sat 20th May 2006
Today - success! We found the best route to Zaisan, past the Naadam Stadium (the venue for the three-day national festival of 'manly sports' in July - wrestling, archery and horse riding with child jockeys as young as four!) and the Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan (now preserved as a museum). On past the Zaisan Memorial (built by the Russians to commemorate unknown soldiers and heroes from various wars) and the newly erected 29 metre tall copper statue of the Buddha - the original was melted down by the atheist Soviets for the war effort! We finally arrive at the foot of the hills we so desperately wanted to reach last weekend. This area has only recently opened again after a foot-and-mouth outbreak. The area was sealed off for three weeks and there is plenty of evidence of cremation, not to mention quite a few cattle skulls and assorted bones.

We climb steadily, but it's amazing how exhausted you become at this altitude (not mentioning fitness levels!), and we have to stop frequently at appropriate points. Their are many 'Ovoo' (sometimes written 'Oboo') - Shamanist rock piles for making offerings to local spirits. The Soviets tried to crush Shamanism but, due to the lack of holy books, buildings of worship or statues, they failed. When you approach an Ovoo, you walk three times around it 'sunwise' (clockwise), placing your offering onto the pile (another stone will suffice, although we saw blue silk cloth, a horse saddle and even a broken bottle of vodka!).

Eventually, we arrive at our destination, a ridge where we're able to see what's on the other side of the hills. In the distance is the Bogd Khan Strictly Protected Area and the Bogd Khan and Tsetseguun Uuls (holy mountains). We'll need to arrange a car journey to reach these though, since it's a 10-hour hike just to get there and we don't have any camping gear. The views from up here are splendid, and more than worth the effort. There are two more Ovoo up on this ridge and a view of the Presidential Palace. We spot an eagle and also a couple of crows hovering only slightly above our heads. I've bought my melodica along with us and so take the opportunity to serenade the landscape, after which we're invaded briefly by a herd of goats! Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Sat 27th May 2006
Favourite front-page newspaper article of the week, from the UB Post: "Precocious camel mother gives birth - a two-year-old camel has given birth to a calf in Jinst soum of Bayankhongor aimag. Governor of Khonongiin reports that both mother and baby are in good health. There are plans to put a silver nose-peg in the mother's nose." I don't remember the Halesowen News covering stories like this one!

Sun 28th May 2006
Today we have decided to explore a little north and east of the city. Walking north alongside the Selbe Gol (River), the first thing we come to is the American Embassy. All hi-tech security and patrolling guards, it seems so out of place in this part of the city, overlooking grazing goat herds, homeless people washing their clothes and the occasional passed-out drunk. We cross over the Ikh Toiruu ("Big Circle") Road, which describes a semi-circle from east to west, north of Sukhbaatar Square. On the other side of the road we continue along the river once more, and have now entered one of the many ger district area of the city (a 'ger' is a round felt tent, the traditional Mongolian home). Here you start to see another side to Mongolian life - dusty, weather-beaten gers and dusty, weather-beaten people, some of who eye us with more than a little curiousity. There's the occasional swastika, an ancient symbol in Mongolia meaning 'Sun' or 'Longevity'. We've seen a few since we've been in Ulaanbaatar, and it's hard to shake the western connotations when confronted by one. Most disturbingly, a couple we've seen haven't seemed to be actively promoting anything to do with 'Sun' or 'Longevity' - one being a tattoo on the shaven head of an angry-looking uniformed character (grimacing and shaking a knuckle-dusted fist) on a movie poster on the side of the Palace of Culture, and one emblazened on a red flag on the side of a young man's car. Not sure what to make of this, will have to investigate further I think.

We eventually decide to turn back from the ger district, which seems to stretch in a never-ending sprawl to the hills, which seem just as distant as when we started out! We return to the Ikh Toiruu Road and head east. It's very hot now and not much fun shambling along the dusty, rock-strewn pavements alongside the noise and pollution of the busy traffic - and the hills to the east don't seem to be attainable on foot either! We pass the Office of Border Protection and the Mongolian Military Museum and decide to head off south down a side road, away from the hussle and bussle. After a short walk, we come to a ramshackle stadium of sorts, with rusty metal hoops aligned in the five-circle Olympic design on its outside walls. Inside, there's a football match being played, watched by a few spectators, and so we decide to rest awhile, and sit down to watch the action. It seems to be the case that, apart from the hills to the south, it will be best in future to take a bus or taxi to the outskirts to stand a chance of getting up into the countryside surrounding Ulaanbaatar. But at least we tried. Next time, we'll brave the public transport - watch this space!