Ari's Planet

sim coverage
http://travelsimshop.com/roaming_free_cost_sim.php#CoverageMap

weather
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=mongol...

lonley planet mongolia

ger to ger http://www.gertoger.org

currency conversion http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/asia/mongolia/currency.htm

How to get there? Coming from Japan, flights in September are >$1000 to go 3000 km! A flight from Japan to Beijing is ~$500-$600, and from Beijing to Ulaan Bator (UB) is another $500, so no help. Other countries are similar (Hong Kong, S. Korea). But, a train, e.g., the trans-siberian, from Beijing to UB is $130 for a 1st class berth, $108 for 2nd (http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm) and takes about 32 hours (http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian-timetable.htm). Information on booking is available, needs to be done weeks in advance to ensure a seat (http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm#specialist%20western%20agency). So, a flight of $500 minus $130 train minus $20 overnight in Beijing between flight and train (if needed) minus 2 days food ($20?) is savings of $330, divided by 32 hours comes to about $10/hr, which is about what I got (officially) paid as a grad student. Could also spend an extra day or two in Beijing if I wanted, besides need time to get ticket and find station. Need a multiple entry visa for China, though, which costs an extra $75 or so. Good thing I looked into this before getting the visa. Another option is go Beijing -> border town Erlianhot, cross by foot, then Mongolian train to UB, see http://users.utu.fi/jpkesk/BJUB.html, but no prices. More options are listed at http://www.scaruffi.com/travel/mongolia.html, including direct, indirect, etc. and prices. For the Beijing->Hohhot->Erlianhot->border->UB route it comes to $61(!) and 32 hr travel time, exclusive of waiting for trains/taxis/buses. So then we have $61 + $75 mutiple entry visa, plus say $30 in misc so total $166, or $500 - $166 = $334 net saving. Not too shabby. So I would need to allow say 4 days total, from when I land from Japan, spend a day in Beijing being confused, 2 days on road, some hours recovering from sitting in planes/trains/busses/taxis, overall should be quite a schlep! Maybe I just want to fly... or maybe I'm a spoiled American???

I also started a thread on this at http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/messagepost.cfm?postaction=reply&catid...