Day 11 - I have a date with my Mongolian policeman. After breakfast at the hotel (they also serve rice and kimchi for breakfast... there are a lot of Korean businesses here), we look for the police station. After an hour and a half's walk, we find it. Fortunately, we are on a first name basis (ahem!) as no one speaks English, so the officer in front points us to our policeman's office.
After much sign language, I get him to call up our travel agent who translates the details of the incident to him. He carefully writes this down on a piece of paper and even corrects what I think is grammar (not sure why since our Insurance would not be able to read Mongolian anyway, but I do commend his conscientiousness). Sigh, I now feel like a connoisseur of police stations having seen quite a few by now. The place resembles a bank more than a police station. As we sit at the desk, officer after officer comes in with cash notes, which our dear policeman records and adds to his neat pile of notes and papers. There must be a lot of parking fines in Ulaan Baatar ;P Two hours later, I get my report, all nicely typed up in Mongolian. If I had my choice, between the russkies and the mongolians, I'd take my chances with the mongolians anyday.
We spend the rest of the day in the city, buy a North Face jacket (with detacheable fleece) for 40000 Tugriks (approx 20 quid).
Showing posts with label Ulaan Baatar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ulaan Baatar. Show all posts
Friday, October 20, 2006
Back to the City
Day 9 - It's our final day at the ger camp. Woke up early to take panaromic shots of our surroundings. The vastness of the landscape still takes my breath away. I am not the only one trying to capture a little of this to take back with me. We are all a little sad to go.
We wait by the van whilst a man pulls what looks like an ox cart laden with our luggage. The horses have been let out of their enclosure and are spread out, some milling around us. The man whose family we visited yesterday came over and we greet him. Finally with all the bags in the van, we head off to the capital, Ulaan Baatar. As we drive off, the two mongolian boys mount their horses and ride beside us. We all shout "Chuuuuuuu!!" as they gallop beside us and we wave goodbye at each other. What a wonderful end to our stay!
Chuu!!
We reach Ulaan Baatar by lunch time and check into a 4-star hotel. The city is bustling and filled with exhaust fumes from cars and buses. There is yellow dust everywhere (ironically, the sky is clear blue, unlike China - we've been in China a week now and I have yet to see the sun, never mind blue skies) . There is construction everywhere. The hotel typifies the standard of construction in the city - it generally looks as one expects but on closer inspection the workmanship is shoddy - the finish is bad (my bathroom ceiling tile fell down in the middle of the night.. and I thought some mongolian was trying to get into my room) and one runs a slight risk of getting electrocuted via certain light switches (fyi avoid room 212 in the Bayangol hotel...). We have dinner at the Grand Khaan Irish Pub (www. gk-irishpub.mn) - we order the Grand Khaan spare ribs with chips. Yum! The food isn't very expensive - about 8000 - 11000 Tugriks (~ 2000 Tugriks to a quid) and they seem honest with credit cards. There is also free internet (wifi) so a lot of people bring their laptops in.
Lunch at the Grand Khaan!
Ulaan Baatar...
Day 10 - We walk around the city. Roadworks everywhere. No one seems to know how a pedestrian crossing should work. JD seems to get the hang of it though and so drags me across oncoming traffic. Mongolian women are very well dressed (they dress like russians, skinny jeans and knee high black boots). Vendors selling fruits, cigarettes (in singles) and old ladies sitting on stools by the roadside with satellite phones which people pay to make calls. Landlines are not yet fully developed (their telephone numbers are also only 6 digits long), so everyone uses cellphones. Apart from the area where our hotel is, the city is not very pretty. They try to plant grass and saplings to beautify the pavements but the climate is too harsh for these to thrive. We visit the State Department Store (like Russia's GUM store, Mongolia too has a state department store). Cashmere here pretty reasonable (about 20-30 quid for a sweater). We meet up with Tim and Sam and have dinner in an Italian restaurant called Della Casa (Mongolian food didn't look very appetizing). We bump into Lisa at the restaurant ;)
State Dept Store
We wait by the van whilst a man pulls what looks like an ox cart laden with our luggage. The horses have been let out of their enclosure and are spread out, some milling around us. The man whose family we visited yesterday came over and we greet him. Finally with all the bags in the van, we head off to the capital, Ulaan Baatar. As we drive off, the two mongolian boys mount their horses and ride beside us. We all shout "Chuuuuuuu!!" as they gallop beside us and we wave goodbye at each other. What a wonderful end to our stay!
Chuu!!
We reach Ulaan Baatar by lunch time and check into a 4-star hotel. The city is bustling and filled with exhaust fumes from cars and buses. There is yellow dust everywhere (ironically, the sky is clear blue, unlike China - we've been in China a week now and I have yet to see the sun, never mind blue skies) . There is construction everywhere. The hotel typifies the standard of construction in the city - it generally looks as one expects but on closer inspection the workmanship is shoddy - the finish is bad (my bathroom ceiling tile fell down in the middle of the night.. and I thought some mongolian was trying to get into my room) and one runs a slight risk of getting electrocuted via certain light switches (fyi avoid room 212 in the Bayangol hotel...). We have dinner at the Grand Khaan Irish Pub (www. gk-irishpub.mn) - we order the Grand Khaan spare ribs with chips. Yum! The food isn't very expensive - about 8000 - 11000 Tugriks (~ 2000 Tugriks to a quid) and they seem honest with credit cards. There is also free internet (wifi) so a lot of people bring their laptops in.
Lunch at the Grand Khaan!Ulaan Baatar...
Day 10 - We walk around the city. Roadworks everywhere. No one seems to know how a pedestrian crossing should work. JD seems to get the hang of it though and so drags me across oncoming traffic. Mongolian women are very well dressed (they dress like russians, skinny jeans and knee high black boots). Vendors selling fruits, cigarettes (in singles) and old ladies sitting on stools by the roadside with satellite phones which people pay to make calls. Landlines are not yet fully developed (their telephone numbers are also only 6 digits long), so everyone uses cellphones. Apart from the area where our hotel is, the city is not very pretty. They try to plant grass and saplings to beautify the pavements but the climate is too harsh for these to thrive. We visit the State Department Store (like Russia's GUM store, Mongolia too has a state department store). Cashmere here pretty reasonable (about 20-30 quid for a sweater). We meet up with Tim and Sam and have dinner in an Italian restaurant called Della Casa (Mongolian food didn't look very appetizing). We bump into Lisa at the restaurant ;)
State Dept Store
Monday, October 16, 2006
Ulaan Baatar and the (ahem) Chinese invaders
Day 7 - After so many days onboard, we nearly kiss the ground when we get off the train. JD is still 'swaying' on the platform. We are met on the platform by Baggi, our tour agent (The Trans Siberian Experience utilises local russian and mongolian travel agencies) who gathers us up and ushers us into a small van. We stop by a hotel to shower (after several days I think fumigation and sandblasting would have been more appropriate). Then it's off to a local cafe called 'Chez Bernard' where feast on a full English breakfast (bacon was excellent).
Chez Bernard
There we meet several other tourists who have been on the similar route but had stopped halfway at Irkutsk for a couple of days by the Lake (Baikal). Their train for most of their journey, apart from the last day from Itkutsk to Ulaan Baatar on ours, was the tourist train (sigh..apparently with wood panelling, food on trolleys and not a smuggler in sight). Needless to say it was a rude shock when they got on ours the night before (snigger). We exchange anecdotes and tell them 'next time' we'll get them tickets (from our friends at the 'russian special price' ofUSD75 -- for 25 passengers, as opposed to our USD 60 per ticket -- Russian Experience pockets the remainder of the GBP1000++, can you imagine??), use several and let our mongolian friends travel 'on the house' wth the remainder.
After lunch, Baggi takes us on a quick tour of UB (Ulaan Baatar). She gives us an account of the history behind the city -- apparently the Mongolians have had about 7 or 8 capitals, mostly around where UB is today before making UB the modern day capital. We're not convinced these nomads have quite got the concept of capitals as they are planning to move the capital (yet again) back to Kharakorum. Work is already underway in order for the new capital to be built in 40 years' time. She also gives us a brief account of the Mongol empire, how they established their capital at Beijing before the "Chinese invaders" drove them out..hmmm.
We also visit Sukhbatar Square and the Gandan monastery (one of the few Buddhist monasteries that were not destroyed by the communists). Our van then takes us out of UB (we will return for a 2 night stay at UB after our stay at the Ger camp). Harsh soviet style building blocks gradually make way to small wooden houses before giving way to a vast open landscape framed by majestic mountains in the distance. A couple of hours later, we reach our camp in the countryside.
Outside Gandan monastery
Turning prayer wheels
Closeup (Tim's pic)
Resident monks
Family wedding outside monastery
Sukkhbaatar square
The camp is rather tastefully done (pretty much the real thing although they could have perhaps not arranged the tents in 2 parallel lines, holiday camp style). Surprisingly, there is a separate brick building housing the restaurant, toilets and even showers. Toilets are flushing although one is not allowed to flush toilet paper down (I gather their sewage system isa basic one), so there is a bin in every cubicle for paper. Takes some getting used to...
We settle into our ger tents. There are 4 beds per tent. There is a central iron stove and a cupboard. The artwork on the furniture and tent itself is simply beautiful. We share our tent with a lovely couple called Antony and Theresa.
Our tent!
Inside the Ger
Theresa updating her diary
View from door of Ger
Dinner is served at 7pm and (surprisingly) with a lot of vegetables. Food was excellent. The chef looks Indian and I smack JD for trying to ask him for a tikka masala.
We stay on after dinner for a show. The show starts off rather badly as the staff put some extra logs on the fire to keep the Siberian cold out only to have to open the windows as the smoke threatens to asphyxiate us. It has the clumsiness of a school play in action. However, when the entertainment started, it completely exceeded our expectations. Although we didn't know it at the time, we were actually quite fortunate as this was apparently a famous group of musicians whose visit coincided with our stay. A lady called Mrs Namdig performs a solo for us. We later find out that she is the same person who sang in Enigma's hit song in the 90's (we were wondering why it sounded familiar). The group also plays some songs with their traditional instruments which sound so beautiful that we sit enraptured and completely silent. We also get to see a performance on throat singing (very disconcerting as the performer's lips don't move and yet you hear his voice and the upper whistling notes simultaneously). Next up is a performance by a contortionist whose movements are excruciating (for us that is) and stragely hypnotic all at once. I personally think this bit was for the men in the audience rather than the women..ahem!
The musicians
Mrs Namdig and Mr Namdig(?)
Contortionist
Chez BernardThere we meet several other tourists who have been on the similar route but had stopped halfway at Irkutsk for a couple of days by the Lake (Baikal). Their train for most of their journey, apart from the last day from Itkutsk to Ulaan Baatar on ours, was the tourist train (sigh..apparently with wood panelling, food on trolleys and not a smuggler in sight). Needless to say it was a rude shock when they got on ours the night before (snigger). We exchange anecdotes and tell them 'next time' we'll get them tickets (from our friends at the 'russian special price' ofUSD75 -- for 25 passengers, as opposed to our USD 60 per ticket -- Russian Experience pockets the remainder of the GBP1000++, can you imagine??), use several and let our mongolian friends travel 'on the house' wth the remainder.
After lunch, Baggi takes us on a quick tour of UB (Ulaan Baatar). She gives us an account of the history behind the city -- apparently the Mongolians have had about 7 or 8 capitals, mostly around where UB is today before making UB the modern day capital. We're not convinced these nomads have quite got the concept of capitals as they are planning to move the capital (yet again) back to Kharakorum. Work is already underway in order for the new capital to be built in 40 years' time. She also gives us a brief account of the Mongol empire, how they established their capital at Beijing before the "Chinese invaders" drove them out..hmmm.
We also visit Sukhbatar Square and the Gandan monastery (one of the few Buddhist monasteries that were not destroyed by the communists). Our van then takes us out of UB (we will return for a 2 night stay at UB after our stay at the Ger camp). Harsh soviet style building blocks gradually make way to small wooden houses before giving way to a vast open landscape framed by majestic mountains in the distance. A couple of hours later, we reach our camp in the countryside.
Outside Gandan monastery
Turning prayer wheels
Closeup (Tim's pic)
Resident monks
Family wedding outside monastery
Sukkhbaatar squareThe camp is rather tastefully done (pretty much the real thing although they could have perhaps not arranged the tents in 2 parallel lines, holiday camp style). Surprisingly, there is a separate brick building housing the restaurant, toilets and even showers. Toilets are flushing although one is not allowed to flush toilet paper down (I gather their sewage system isa basic one), so there is a bin in every cubicle for paper. Takes some getting used to...
We settle into our ger tents. There are 4 beds per tent. There is a central iron stove and a cupboard. The artwork on the furniture and tent itself is simply beautiful. We share our tent with a lovely couple called Antony and Theresa.
Our tent!Inside the GerTheresa updating her diary
View from door of GerDinner is served at 7pm and (surprisingly) with a lot of vegetables. Food was excellent. The chef looks Indian and I smack JD for trying to ask him for a tikka masala.
We stay on after dinner for a show. The show starts off rather badly as the staff put some extra logs on the fire to keep the Siberian cold out only to have to open the windows as the smoke threatens to asphyxiate us. It has the clumsiness of a school play in action. However, when the entertainment started, it completely exceeded our expectations. Although we didn't know it at the time, we were actually quite fortunate as this was apparently a famous group of musicians whose visit coincided with our stay. A lady called Mrs Namdig performs a solo for us. We later find out that she is the same person who sang in Enigma's hit song in the 90's (we were wondering why it sounded familiar). The group also plays some songs with their traditional instruments which sound so beautiful that we sit enraptured and completely silent. We also get to see a performance on throat singing (very disconcerting as the performer's lips don't move and yet you hear his voice and the upper whistling notes simultaneously). Next up is a performance by a contortionist whose movements are excruciating (for us that is) and stragely hypnotic all at once. I personally think this bit was for the men in the audience rather than the women..ahem!
The musiciansMrs Namdig and Mr Namdig(?)
Contortionist
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