Day 7- 28/7/11 - Thursday

It is nice to wake up on your birthday in another country....as usually it means you don't have to work. Although I had received my Birthday presents back in Australia, Cinthia had secretly (given she had packed both suitcases) brought some balloons and blew them up when I was in the shower.

We proceeded downstairs to have breakfast, where I used my important travel companion.... a plastic tube of Vegemite to have some Vegemite toast. You can take me out of Australia, however you can't take the Australian out of me.

Unfortunately my health took a turn for the worse, with a realisation that the yak milk from the day before may have been the culprit. Who would have thought.... unpasteurised, non-homogonised, non-refrigerated warm yak milk could be hazardous to your health. Non thinking Craig had gulped the whole bowl, whereas Cinthia had refrained from consuming this local tradition. Not one of the smartest moves I've ever undertaken.

Refusing to let yak milk stop our city tour, we proceeded with our guide and driver to check out UB's main Buddhist temple. The temple contained a rather impressive gold coloured Buddha (made of copper) standing over 26 metres high. It was easy to see the pride and repect the people of UB had for this Buddha. One can only wonder how demoralised they were when during WWII the Russians melted down the Buddha in order to use for war efforts.

On the way out of the temple our driver tried to impress Cinthia with his pigeon catching skills, and then passed over to Cinthia this dirty flying rat! Cinthia said its heart was racing, not surprising given it was entrapped by a creature 200 times its size! Buddha would not have been impressed. She did however let it go quite quickly.

Onward we went, to the Mongolian history museum. This museum was a well set out display of 10 rooms stepping through Mongolia's history in a chronological manner. The unification of the Mongols (post the Turk and Uighur eras) was led by Chiggis Khan (known as Ghengis in many countries). He proceeded uniting Mongolia to extending the empire well into western Asia, controlling the entire silk road region. Post Chiggis' death, his sons extended the empire into the whole of China, through most of the middle east, and also into western Russia and parts of Eastern Europe. This all happened within the space of 50 years, and with an army less than 100,000 men. Like all empires, it eventually receeded, with a failed campaign in Japan a contributing factor.

The most impressive empire in history, covering more land mass, and more people, than any empire before or since. This was reason enough for Chiggis Khan to be voted Forbe's Man of the Millinea in 1996, an award the Mongolians are proud of. Our driver had already shown us his rather large Chiggis Khan tattoo on his back.

That evening we went to a Mongolian Traditional Folkloric show, which had 6-7 short performances covering different parts of Mongolian life. These included 2 classic singers, a musical recital with old Mongolian string instruments and cow horn trumpet, a sharman display and a dancing routine between two young lovers. The highlight was however a contortionist, easily the best either of us has even seen. Whilst not as petite as the smaller Chinese girls that do contortionism, she combined elements of strength, balance and flexibility that had the audience spellbound. At one stage, she was spinning atop a pole on a table, her teeth wrapped around a metal plate joined to the top of the pole. Her entire body was inversely flipped over such that her backside was nearly touching her face. Has she any bones in that body of hers. Meahwhile, I struggle to touch my toes.

For my birthday dinner we had a Mongolian BBQ dinner, which was our selection of ingredients cooked on a large grill before our eyes.