I can't f%$*ing believe I'm in Mongolia

This is so trippy -
I can't believe that i am in Mongolia, it's like a totally different world, for a start off the people are actually friendly and smile. And they are helpful, when the girl picked me up from the station, I asked was there a chance of maybe doing a tour tomorrow into the countryside and she said that she would arrange it. So unlike the Ruskies. Even on the train there was a palpable sigh of relief from the other other passengers when the Mongolian passport control guy came on with a smile on his face and a big friendly "Welcome to Mongolia!".
Things seem to have changed for the better. My entire carriage was filled with tourists , there was me and two Kiwis and a Mongolian guy in my compartment, and there were Canadians, Australians, Dutch, French, Swiss and Austrians. So it was a big international party as we trundled out of Russia. I think our carriage attendant regretted that she had let us get off at one of the stops to buy beer! I was glad that we had that one Mongolian guy though, and cabin mates were cool, some of the other travellers have a habit of being just a tab boring, it's like they are playing a game of my journey is more out there than yours. And many of the men were waxing lyrically about the locals cultures, really only stuff they had and we all had read in the Lonely Planet! But in general it was just cool to meet up with and get a chance to talk to other people.
We all were kind of regretting the beer and vodka fest while we had an 11hr wait/hanging around/sleeping/passport control/customs/messing with the train delay. At the beginning it was fine but then it was so boring and there was nothing to do. There wasn't even a little cafe where you could get a cup of coffee, I was so hungry and thirsty I thought that I was going to die. And we were all hungover and dehydrated and trying to dodge these shady looking guys wearing long leather trench coats and sporting Ray Bans trying to get us to change money. And the toilets were locked.
The countryside here is beautiful, just rolling hills and desert, we saw some Ger, the traditional Mongolian homesteads, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurt also wild horses. Mongolia is a really big country, but the population is only 2.1 million and 1 million of them live in Ulaan Baatar. The city itself wouldn't win any awards for prettiness but the people are lovely, if also known to be terrible pickpockets. So I have left all my valuables in the hotel. Our Mongolian cabin mate had us scared shitless with stories of knife wielding thieves and bandits. Even the lady in the hotel was like, be careful lots of robber want western lady's dollars!
It's funny here the way for the first time you can spot the tourists a mile away. Here was me thinking that so long as i just don't look flash then no-one will notice me and it'll be just like Russia, but well that's not really the case. There's no real hiding me being a tourist, especially when the Mongolian guy in our compartment kept laughing at me and the Kiwi girl and telling us we had silly big eyes. He was hilarious. Here it is considered bad luck to eat anything that has been taken from the ground or anything that your animals would eat so the people don't eat fruit or veg, especially veg. I think it has something to do with traditionally ensuring in harsh times that there was always food for the horses or the cows.