ulan ude

The woman from the hostel, tanya, spoke limited english, but enough to get by with her guests. She ushered me out of the train station where her driver was waiting in a mini-van. We headed through the city, where I was shown the most important monument, a huge stone sculpture of Lenin's head (measuring about 20 feet high), and the main square from which i could find the minibus back to the hostel when i would be venturing out on my own. The hostel was a three story, wooden house in a small village about a 15 minute drive out of the city. It was surrounded by about a hundred other smaller wooden houses, surrounded by wooden fences and pastures for grazing cows, very cozy, if not a bit old west.In the afternoon, I caught the minibus(40 cents) and had a walk around the surprisingly modern city center. Not much to look at, apart from the riverside parks and beautiful surrounding hills. I briefly stopped in an internet cafe at the end of the pretty pedestrian-only shopping district, where a young man asked me from where i came. When I answered America, he just smiled and said 'Obama'. It's amazing how people react to meeting Americans these days, justifiably different from years past where i might get a scowl and 'damn that Bush'.Early the next morning I was served a lovely egg breakfast by Tanya, and headed 20 km out of town to see my first big buddhist monastery. Since this time I have seen about 30 more, so please understand if my writing is not so enthusiastic, but at the time it was a wonderful experience. I spent about 2 hours walking around the grounds, in and out of temples beautifully adorned with golden colored statues of the different buddhas. It being my first time in a buddhist monastery, i was terribly naive about the proper etichette of visiting such a place. I was 'scolded' by the monks on a few occasions. Things to remember: always walk clockwise around the inside or outside of temples and grounds; don't keep your hands behind your back; and never take photos inside without expressed permission. I decided to walk back to the bus stop, bypassing the cheap minibuses that run between it and the monsatery. It was 7km, distances can be deceiving when there are few landmarks. It was hot, humid, and the insects were a nuisance, but it also gave me the opportunity to walk through the countryside. The cows were my only companions, the crickets my soundtrack, the fields and rolling hills my view. The only unsettling thing was the confounded look of the minibus driver as he passed me every 5 minutes....