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Published: September 21st 2011
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The population of Mongolia situated somewhere around 2.75 million people makes the country in contrast to its land mass one of the least populated countries on earth. It's this fact that doesn't bother me one little bit. No people! What a delightful concept, just miles and miles of beautiful open expanses, rolling hills and the bubonic plague, but that's another story. To make way for this however I would need to make it through the urban capital conglomerate of Ulaanbaatar.
It was a dubious start however, I'd booked my accommodation ahead and organized a pickup from the airport by my guesthouse. Of the 200 of so passengers on board the flight I appeared to be the only tourist without a fella stood at the airport waiting for me with a nice little plaque with my name on it. As everyone slowly faded away into the respective oblivion of their lives I was left twiddling my thumbs whilst getting eagerly eyed by a bunch of rogue taxi drivers (just blokes with cars) that had entered the terminal. I tried calling my guesthouse but since entering Mongolia my phone had decided to shit its pants.
So not for the first time in
my life I would have to play the waiting game, on Asian times, and according to my guidebook Mongolians are renowned for being viciously late.
I sat and pondered the idea of human custom modding, what if a human man modded his own internal plumbing and developed the ability to be able to do wee's out his arse and poo's out his....but before my thoughts could creep any further a Mongolian chap appeared with my name on a plaque, just the way it should be.
Approaching his vehicle was an ominous affair, not really what you’d class as a taxi, and not really what you’d class as a road worthy vehicle either for that matter. But ‘Hey!’ who was I to judge? The guy did after all have my name written upon a plaque, so he must be legit…right? I opened the rear passenger door and squeezed myself and my King Kong sized backpack along the backseat of the vehicle. All over the car were name plaques, Claudia, Hans, Roberta, Christophe, past victims? The driver started up his beast and began to drive along a confused, pot holed huddle of a road, but at least the road
was paved, it’s when a vehicle strays off of the bitumen and onto an anonymous dirt track that ones colon begins to clench.
On the outskirts of the urban sprawl were a series of power stations and industrial factories with their steaming vents pumping out the toxins in joint force. Ulaanbaatar with is population of just over 1.1 million peeps is apparently the 5th most polluted city on earth in regards to air pollution. As I approached the city centre more and more commie blocks were springing up, pollution in themselves just at the pure sight of them. The ideals of an aesthetically pleasing existence within a community lost on the once ruling Russian communist party. Today however Mongolia enjoys its freedom via democracy. A financial boom is evident with a series of plush buildings, bars and parks popping up closer to the CBD, as well as Hummers, BMW’s and Subaru Impreza’s whizzing about the streets. Traffic heavy as anticipated with drivers stinking up the joint with their crass driving skills. Like a majority of Asian countries as long as you get from A to B then nothing else really matters, even if it means maiming a few school
kids en route, it’s the overall completion of the journey that systematically lies as the order of the day.
I checked into my guesthouse, had a quick power nap and then went for a mooch. I ventured over to Suhkbaatar Square and had a butchers at the huge statue of Chinggis Khan just outside the Parliament Building. I popped into the natural history museum and was quite impressed, they had some excellent Dinosaur exhibits and a fossil collection, mostly excavated from the Gobi region. Afterwards I visited the state department store and again was pleasantly surprised with what they had to offer, I acquired a high grade sleeping bag from the camping section to aid me on my trip to the Gobi and also managed to cure a chocolate fix that had been gradually building itself up to boiling point throughout the course of the day. There were a few other museums around the city that I checked out and after which I came to a full stop.
UB still a work in progress, evident by the amount of construction work going on. Overall not a great city by a long shot, but at the same time not
a bad place to kill a bit of time exploring.
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