Mongolia - day 1

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Mongolia - not quite sure where to begin with what so far has certainly been the most suprising and amazing part of the trip. I think the the only way to start is at the beginning.

We arrived into Ulaan-Baator station around 6am, the station looking very much like the Siberian stations we'd been seeing for the past 6 days (which makes sense as the Soviets built the railway in this country). We were met by our guide, Togi, who at the time I didn't realise would be with us for our whole time in Mongolia. The Irish lasses we'd met in Listvyanka, Cathy and Lianna (who's names I now remember), were also with Togi and it turns out now have the same itinerary as us all the way to Beijing. It's nice to have some English speaking company aside from John (no offence mate!)

Our little tour group of 4 were led by Togi to a local hotel for a shower and a breakfast. We had assumed this would involve hotel rooms, but no we were let into the hotel's sauna and bathing area (gender segregated obviously). A sit down shower (with a little stool for some reason) was not quite what I was expecting but after 30 hours on a train was welcome none the less. It seems most hotels have one of these "banya"s and it's a social place for friends to meet - there was a cigarette and drinks menu on the wall...

After breakfast Togi started our walking tour of the city at the centre of the city Sukbaatar Square. At one end of this square is a large building that holds the Mongolian government chambers and offices, and also a large statue Damdin Sukbaatar, the revolutionary who in 1921 ushered in the communist era. As with the majority of other former USSR republics Mongolia is now a free market economy, this being visible by the contrasts of the old communist style buildings in the city and the few gleaming new glass sky scrapers. Even with this new investment, though, Mongolia and Ulan Bator remain very poor places with few paved pavements (and those that are are in a state of disrepair) and badly tarmaced roads. This poverty is balanced with the energy comes with a people trying to lift themselves out of poverty, everyone is very young and there are many universities (Togi is studying Fibreoptics in the city). The city buzzes with an energy of a new generation who want to drink coffee, have mobile phones, drive Japanese cars and eat at fine restaurants. I think within a few years the city will change beyond all recognition, and will hopefully pull up the living standards of everyone in the country.

After seeing the square we walked to the centre of Buddhism in Mongolia - the Gandan Khiid monestary. This survived the communist era by being used to host foreign dignataries but since the fall of communism has returned to being a working religious site. I failed to feel overly spiritual, though I'm putting this down to being a Godless heathen, but I'm told the place does have a strong spiritual feeling. Even without this it was a lovely place to visit and quite unlike anything I've been to before - burning incense, monks chanting and locals spinning the mantra wheels.

Our next stop was the "State Department Store" which Togi reliably informs me is because it is the only one in the state, rather than it being run *by* the state - it's defintely a private enterprise. I'm sure the name, however, is unchanged from the communist days when it originallymeant owned and operated by the government. Here you can buy everything from pants, to inflatable boats, to ribbons and televisions - however our interest was souvenirs. There are not too many souvenir shops in the city and this was the larges, cue much purchasing of minature yurts and other such tat! We changed $100 each dollars into Mongolian togrog here, and this lasted us the 3 days including one "expensive" meal on our last night, everything is incredibly cheap even in the tourist areas.

After shopping was complete we ventured into a local cafe (under the guidance of Togi) for lunch. It was here that's Leanne's fears were proved correct that the majority of meals are meat (specifically mutton) based and they do not really have the concept of vegetarian. While we dined on buuz (mutton filled dumplings) and mutton filled pancakes Lianna had to survive with a carrot salad - still as you can see from the photo she seemed suitably impressed. The remaining three of us (and Togi) thoroughly enjoyed our hearty Mongolia fayre.

After lunch we quickly purchased chocolates for the nomadic family we would be visiting the next day and pilled into a mini-bus for the ride to the (tourist) Ger Camp we would be staying in for the next two days.

The journey was along some of the worst roads I've ever had the pleasure to travel along, both in terms of road quality and driving style. Lots of beeping, undertaking, overtaking and more beeping. Pothole doesn't cover it, pot "section" is probably a more accurate term for what we were driving through (yes, not over, through). The fact that the majority of roads outside of the city are actually toll roads even though they are in the same state actually made me laugh out loud (quietly of course).

On the way we took a detour to visit Mongolia's newest monument, a large 30ft high stainless steal carry monument to Ghenghis Kaan. It's hard to explain exactly how much the Mongolian people revere Kaan, he is on the majority of the bank notes, and lends his name to a bank, a brand of Vodka, a brand of beer and countless other products and services. The statue is a bizarrely modern looking monument but has been well done none the less and also has a small museum. The museum contains a history of the Mongolian empire, some ancient relics and for some bizarre reason a 9 foot recreation of a Mongolian boot (see photos). We also got to watch a self congratulating video about how the monument was built and what it stands for but somehow all of these bizarre things worked together as a whole and we all enjoyed the experience.

After another, thankfully shorter, mini bus ride (along a dirt track which resulted in a smoother ride than the surfaced roads) we arrived at Elstei Ger Camp - our home for the next two nights.

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Photos

Lianne discovers the only veggie food in Mongolia
Carrot salad - apparently very tasty

Mongolian food
Mutton dumplings and mutton pancakes

The giant boot
This is inside the Ghengis Kaan moment. No I don't know why either.

Comments

[Cathy]

Ah Ghengis' crotch..