We drove through Ulaanbaatar as dawn broke on Wednesday morning. The road twisted around the edge of a natural basin; the city in the centre surrounded by light green mountains. At first glance Ulaanbaatar looks very busy and due to the sheer number of cars. Public transport is poor so there are roughly 500,000 cars for the 1.5 million people that live in the city. This is half of Mongolia’s population.
After a couple of hours sleep we got up for lunch which was bone soup. This is more like a broth. The waitress had to explain to us that you have to add what you want to the broth and then cook it for another 10 minutes rather than just drink the broth as we were trying to do! The tables had mini hobs on them, so you could do this. The labels for the temperature were all in Mongolian so I had a bit of fun randomly pressing buttons trying not to let my broth boil over on to the table.
The A team for the week consists of:
· Professor Emmeline Hill, responsible for the discovery of the Speed Gene, and her son Henry
· Reproduction specialist Dr Carol Readhead from Caltec University in California
· Dr Badarch Jargalsaikhan from the Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences
· The owner of the horses, Mr Jargalsaikhan and his son Uyasakh (our brilliant translator)
· The champion trainers and jockeys on the ranch
…. and me!
A special mention must go to Dr Warburton who has dedicated 16 years to improving health in Mongolia. The project has evolved from his connection and he has fully supported myself and other students completing research in Mongolia.
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