Long story, short. I do not have the correct visa in order to be paid by the University, so the plan was for me to leave Mongolia for three days and return with the appropriate paperwork. My good friend and colleague, Amaraa, agreed to accompany me to Inner Mongolia, Erlian, to be exact.
We took a train (15 hours there and 16 hours back). Here is Amaraa making up her berth in our six - eight person open car.

It snowed the whole time - beautiful and white, also very slippery! The large square sported the monument of the dinosaur! Not sure why, but it was different enough to catch the eye.

We stayed at the Ken Te Hotel. Nice enough, but bad phone connections. So, we found ourselves a corner office a few blocks away!

I, of course, took along knitting. Amaraa brought her Mongolian embroidery, which is quite stunning. She also does Khazak embroidery which is beautiful, but not as exacting as this.

We saw several women knitting in the malls. They use very long double point needles (you use four at a time) which looked quite dangerous! This women didn't want her face in the picture, but was pleased we admired her work.

We ventured into a Chinese Hot Pot restaurant, and although neither of us quite knew the protocol, we managed to have fun and a good meal.

Lots of shopping - very good deals and the exchange rate was amazing. We shopped in the markets, the centers, the supermarket and the food market. We shopped a lot while waiting for a number to take to the consulate in order to get my new visa.

Alas, we were not successful in securing a new visa. So, we experienced sunset on the Gobi as we departed, and there will be a chapter 2 to this story.

An adventure we may not have needed in order to get a visa, but one that was fun and not unproductive. I learned some Mongolian, bought a bottz steamer (and a few other things) and Amaraa and I mapped out her doctoral research!