Back to Mongolia and a Wood Burning Stove

Well, after many months living in balmy Bangkok my partner and I will soon to be returning to icy Mongolia, home of the minus 40 degree winters.  We'll be spending about a year there this time, presuming my visa comes through in order, so once the relatively warm summer is over we'll be settling in for many months of extreme cold, tucked away in our little house with nothing but the fire to keep us toasty.

In advance of heading up there we've been looking at places to rent in the city.  We'd usually stay in one of the many Soviet apartment blocks in Ulaanbaatar, but after the pain in the ass of going without hot water for two weeks last year we've decided to rent a real house for the year - one with its own water supply, generator and a couple of wood burning stoves.

It's the stoves I'm most excited about.  Mongolian central heating leaves much to be desired, and for much of the winter we're usually wrapped up in blankets even inside our apartment.  A wood burning stove, though, will keep us going all through the winter provided we keep feeding it fuel.

It's a little odd right now to be sitting on the balcony of my Bangkok apartment, sweating at 9PM in humid 30 degree heat while reading an article titled 'how to clean a wood burning stove'.  This is a skill that would never in a million years be required in Thailand, but I suspect it'll come in very handy in the snowbound nation a couple of thousand miles to the north