Trip-like preperations

Tomorrow we leave the Beijing Railway station at 7:45 am to head over to Ulan Bator (also spelled Ulaanbaatar) Mongolia for 4 days and return. The trip takes 30 hours and fortunately, this time we got Deluxe Soft Sleeper seats. It was through a travel agency that we bought the out-bound and return tickets. This was my first real encounter with a travel agency. We decided that they are not really for us. Their response time was amazingly prompt and they were very attentive. I have no complaints. They do their job well.

We went to the agency to get the out-bound tickets, and will have to pick the return tickets up in Ulan Bator. Since we were out, we decided to explore a bit. We had a decent Pizza Hut dinner in another clean and nicely decorated restaurant. I still find myself impressed with the Pizza Huts here.

We began to walk down the street and noticed a mall. This mall had crafts and all the supplies for lots of different crafts. There was also a salon supply area that was lined on both sides with supply stores. There were at least 20 stores selling mostly the same products. Hair gels, Hairspray, clippers, razor-cut scissors, trimming scissors, barber chairs, ect filled these tiny shops to overflowing. For anyone who has ever been in Hong Kong Food market and seen all the small shops in the mall over-flowing.. this is about the same thing, but on a much more compact and more over-stocked fashion. It's something difficult to explain.

After wandering about in this shopping mall for long enough so the sun wouldn't blind us while we walked west, we crossed the street with the intention of finding a taxi to take us home. The typical distraction occurred, and we were distracted by some dark alleyways.

We found an amazing Houtong area filled with homes, shops, and small restaurants. We meandered through the maze of turns and twists and came out on the other end, ready for home. When we finally reached the apartment we were happy and entirely too exhausted.