Day 11 - Getting Overconfident

We decided not to go to the Mongolian church in the morning: it was nice to go once but with no understanding of anything not the most enjoyable way to do church. So a little sleep-in!

Then to decide what to do until 4pm! After a couple of Skype chats with friends we decided to go out for lunch and do some grocery shopping in case shops did actually close for tomorrow's public holiday.

It seemed pretty sunny outside, and all the talk has been about how the thaw is finally coming, so we expected it to be quite tolerable outside. But once we got out there we discovered a little thing called wind chill.

The Lonely Planet guidebook had led us to believe that restaurants open every day of the week but the first ones we found weren't. Rachel was keen to eat more Mongolian food but the first place we found open looked like a western-style cafe. We went in anyway and discovered a very empty restaurant serving Mongolian food with some English translations on the menu. Seumas ordered noodle soup and Rachel got stir-fried noodles.

Then we walked to a supermarket a short distance away that had been suggested as having lots of choice. Sadly it seemed about the same as the one we usually go to... and still no carrots! We got canned carrots instead. It seems that capsicums and onions are easy to get and everything else is hit and miss. Rachel did find some broccoli which she snapped up.

Coming home we tried a shortcut which led to a dead-end and required much back-tracking. Sadly by this time Rachel was feeling the freeze and had painful fingers and one aching ear by the time we got home.

After an hour and a half of thawing it was out into the wind again to go to the English-language church. Not a long walk thankfully! The service was good and we had a chat afterwards with some people who work for World Vision. The woman, Linda, turned out to be in the Hall's Bible study and said she would have us over for a meal sometime before we left. We are quite keen because it is much more relaxing to socialise when we know that our words are being understood!

Then home where Rachel gleefully ate her broccoli and Seumas ate eggs on toast for the third night in a row.

Soon, another movie on HBO Asia!