Festivals in Ulaan Baatar

Sun baked soil billowed around us, thrown up by hundreds of horses' hooves. As I stepped back to avoid the nomads streaming past on their stocky mounts I could feel dust particles grinding between my teeth and sticking to my skin. It had been less than two weeks since I had left the British Isles with a group of nine other volunteers to take part in a work and travel scheme in Mongolia working for the Mongolian Youth Development Centre (MYDC) for the summer, but we had been lucky enough to be given a couple of days off for the national Naadam Festival.