Dinosaurs and Police

We just crossed the border from China to Mongolia and I am ever so happy to be in a place where I can understand what people are saying about me! (Today they were saying look at the girl in the weird pants!). We've just spent the week visiting the University of Inner Mongolia. Inner Mongolia, home to the Chinghis Khan memorial, an Indian Temple and alot of traders. It is also home to some pretty spiffy museums, including "Dinosaur Fairyland" which is a bit like the Jurassic Park Movie. We are suspicious about the inclusion of "Fairyland" in the title, maybe they were aiming for something like Disney land or theme park, but for now it just seems like elves should be dancing around the dinosaur statues. The museum was locked when we arrived, but mysteriously the janitor was sitting outside with a key and offered to let us in for 20$, so we had the place all to ourselves at a price cheaper than the normal admission! Today we are waiting for our train. The border crossing was a lot faster than I had expected and we have a 6 hour layover. The town here is pretty small (the hotel we are in is the biggest attraction) so it's a good time to catch up on my email. This hotel is a weird place, it is a Mongolian run hotel that does not let Chinese people inside. So the entire outside area (steps, balconies ect) are covered by Chinese people trying to find some shade, and the inside is very quite and empty. Fortunately for us, the hotel serves dinner to Americans. The Chinese people are stuck outside eating ramon noodles with cold water. Talk about awkward! We crossed the border from China to Mongolia this morning in a, er, educational manner. We had spent last night in a hotel owned by the Chinese National Bus company, which runs buses from Inner Mongolia to Mongolia. We did not want to take those buses because they are a bit packed and there is always a chance of getting left behind when they let everyone off to have their passports checked. So we hired 2 jeeps and a van to drive us across the border. However, it is illegal to hire private transportation across the border, or at least it is a valid reason for the police to pick on you. So the bus station called the police when they saw us getting into the jeeps. Fortunately, we had enough time to cram all of our luggage into one jeep and have that jeep drive away from the bus station. So when the police officer arrived he only found a group of students standing outside with day packs and waiting for taxis to visit the herding fa miles (which is legal). However, this police man though he was smart and waited to follow us where we were going. Thus ensued a fun cat and mouse police game where we would drive to one place, wait around, and hope the police man would leave. When he didn't we got out and drove to another place and pretended to be interested. Eventually we drove to a library and pretended to have a broken car. So we were "stranded" and obviously not about to cross the border. The police man offered to "help" if we would give him 20$ (apparently the going price for bribes). He drove off in his car to get "help" and we drove off to the border. Apparently this is a common way for the Chinese police to make a bit of extra money. It was funny, but confusing and I think the students nearly had a collective heart attack when the jeep pulled away with all of their luggage inside. The police speak English, so we couldn't give an explanation to them until we were a safe distance away. Luckily they all played along and we got through in good time. You will notice there are not yet any pictures on the blog. We have taken many and are just having an Internet speed issue. We keep getting timed out when we try to upload pictures. They will be up once we get to UlaanBataar.