Back to Mongolia

I'm back out in Mongolia again, five months since I was last here. The project that we have out here has reached the end of its first year and it's time to take stock, review progress and plan for the second year.

After flying via South Korea last time I'd decided to take a more direct route that would cut around 10 hours off the trip out here: London - Moscow - Ulaanbaatar. It was time to try Aeroflot - the airline that I'd grown up hearing of people avoiding at all costs and stories that could put you off flying for life. Maybe it was just the way people recounted experiences of Aeroflot but you got the impression that if you had the chance to fly again then it had been a good flight! But the Russian airline seems to have come on a long way since those stories of the 1980's and 1990's.... though perhaps they still have some progress to make. The distinct lack of inflight entertainment was noticeable - not even a communal TV screen showing a silent movie of Mr Bean to help pass the hours. But I'd come prepared and of course this was a work trip so I had plenty of time to read up on some papers. The food was enough to fill the hole - though maybe a little more variety would be nice. Lunch and dinner were the same and the breakfast consisted of one Nature Valley Crunch Granola Bar. Normally where you would get a bread roll with your meal, Aeroflot served half a miniature slice of bread wrapped in plastic. But I don't want to sound like I'm complaining - Aeroflot is not as bad as people make out. It's just probably firmly firmly in the 'no-frills airline' category. Having said all that, turbulence feels a lot different on an Aeroflot flight!!

The descent over Mongolia was beautiful - lots of snow covered scenery as the sun was starting to rise. I was landing at about 7am although with my body clock still on UK time it felt like 11pm after a long day of travelling and I was ready for bed. The captain announced that the temperature on the ground was 22 degrees below zero - walking out of the terminal building you certainly felt every one of those degrees below. But fortunately the car warmed up soon and I was being told that the temperatures not too much of a problem as long as you don't spend too much time outside.