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Published: November 14th 2009
The capital city of Mongolia....is....cold, and.....not all that interesting!
We spent a day and a half wandering around, and saw all it had to offer. It's very small and sights are limited. The Natural history museum was a taxidermists dream, just full of animals from all across Mongolia as well as a few dinosaur remains! After that, we decided to skip the history museum.
The local monastery was the most interesting part, containing a 26.5metre high statue of buddha with many many worshippers turning the prayer wheels in constant motion. Monks walked round in orange robes and warm stirdy boots. Ulan Bator is classified as the worlds' coldest capital & it certainly was cold! Thank goodness for hat, scarf, glove shopping in Beijing! I loved seeing the children so bundled up they could hardly move!
I couldn't believe all the old people setting up shop on the streets, sat out in the elements for hours selling sweets and telephone calls. It was strange to see an average house telephone set out on a table or a wall in the street, but gers (in which many Mongolians live) don't have electricity and there are no phone boxes around!
Our first local Mongolian food gave us the impression we would be eating hearty food on our way round Mongolia. Judging by the menus and all of our dishes, it was mutton and potatoes all the way! We sampled the local 'buuz' dumplings....mutton again! (See the pattern here!)
The UB guesthouse was a great place to stay, partly because of the lovely central heating, but also because it had a really helpful owner who organised a great trip to the Gobi desert for us.....
J x
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The beauty of Ulaanbataar
bobbie Greaves
non-member comment
Coldest City
Dear Jennifer, you sound as though you are enjoying freezing your buns off in Ulaanbaatar. We have just had a big storm go through with masses of rain and weather forcasters giving dire warnings. I was cold (our boiler blew out in the wind) before reading about your exploits. Now I am really cold. Johnnie has sciatica which he is slowly getting over. He must get over it so we can go on our trip to Florida and then sailing. Much love, Bobbie