The UB

Our time in Ulan Bator (Ulan Bataar amd other spellings) was better once we got out of the city and into the country. City streets are crowded and I feel safer crossing an avenue in NYC than I do Peace Boulevard in UB.  We toured the National Museum which houses and impressive collection of traditional dress for both women and men for each nomadic tribe.  The curation was excellent, and I particularly enjoyed the last exhibit on how the former empire shook free from Russian and Chinese rule and became a democratic state. Mongolians gained the ability to travel internationally with passports as late at 1991.

Two other places I wanted to visit were both closed:  a monastery and a winter palace.  The monastery staff were playing soccer for charity and the winter palace was just closed...no explanation in English.  Being 0 for 2 sucked but it gave us the opportunity to pound some pavement and see life among the neighborhoods. Seeing Russia sparked memories from my childhood growing up in Germany; and Josh shared the similarities of UB to his time in Korea as a child.

We marveled at the number of cranes dotting the growing skyline.  This city and country are booming with mineral development.  Tall glass towers stand next to old monasteries in stark contrast. 

On our third day we hired a driver and escaped to Chinnghis Khan Statue.  As we pulled into the nearly empty parking lot for the privately funded monument, we saw the falconers.  I practically skipped over to hold the eagle and pose for the cheesiest tourist photo ever. And then Josh chose to hold the vulture and invited me in for a joint photo under the impressive wing span. We chatted with some Brits on a Shanghai to London drive in classic cars. One was driving an old VW Beetle.  My hat was off the man due to the caliber of the roads on his way home.

We ascended the stairs and toured a private collection in the museum beneath the monument.  We learned how vast was the empire and were impressed by the taxation and rule.  Artifacts from the Silk Road influence and armor and bullets and ornamentation and snuff boxes.

The monument is a vision of an entrepreneur who will develop the nearby land into ger camps and on the south facing parcels create an aemy of 10,000 horsemen, similar to the famed terracotta warriors in China.

Our driver then took us to a cave where communists used to meet and hide and onto Turtle Rock, a spot on natural formation in the middle of a national park.  Afterwards we met a Turkish traveler as we ate lunch at a nearby ger. The hostess was somewhat gracious, as she was paid for the lunch, but she chose to speak to the two drivers the whole time, occasionally refilling our mugs of salty milk tea.  With full bellies after cleaning our plates of traditional mongolian fare we stepped outside for fresh air.  A neighboring ger down the hill was blasting kareoke music.  Dude was rocking out.  Not quite the rustic experience I was expecting.  Power lines ran into the park and provided the gers electricity.  Our hostess had quite a nice refrigerator, laptop, cell phone, and tv....with an outhouse.  Our new Turkish friend recommended we visit a nearby monastery so we hiked up a large hill, spinned the lanterns, and took a peak inside the colorful interior. 

When we boarded the train the next morning we bunked with two French med students who are taking a break from residency to travel for six months. They shared their pictures from seven days in rural mongolia- horse back riding and camel riding in the Gobi and warming up in gers by burning camel patties rolled into pellets. Their best picture was of a baby camel who was abandoned and recently adopted by a ger neighborhood.  Barely a month old, he was as nearly 4.5 feet tall. He was so stinking cute in the pictures. And yes, I totally squealed at the sight of him and then more so when I heard his backstory. 

The beauty of Mongolia is certainly in its countryside, and with only a few days' stopover, we did not have time or funds to seek out those adventures. But consider them on the list.