Ulan Bator, Mongolia

Having read a lot in my travel guide and on the internet, I had some expectation as to what I would be facing in UB, but as usual, the reality is even wilder than the books can lead you to believe. UB is a city of over one million people in an area framed by mountains on all sides. UB is stuck somewhere in the mid 1970s. Large blocky (Soviet) style apartment buildings, a strange looking language that to my inexperienced eye appears to be Cyrillic (Russian), old beaten up cars, downtrodden looking people, a sense of desperation in the air and I haven’t even left the train station yet!

So here’s my first observation. While cars are driven on the right side of the road like in the U.S., there are no laws or import restrictions on where the steering wheel is located for cars on the road, so the cheapest cars that can be found are brought in. Approximately, 80% of the cars have steering wheels on the right side (curb side), this makes passing on the left very interesting. Most cars are dinged and dented, older vintage and not clean. My guess is a new car doesn’t stay new very long here. The roads are in bad condition forcing drivers to veer around various potholes, drop offs openings, etc. I know a lot of young people in the U.S. (and my family) would love to go off-roading, but here all it requires is owning a vehicle. The main roads are equivalent to off-roading and wait until you see the countryside. The photo below of a manhole is in front of a popular restaurant.



I guess someone needed an extra manhole cover.

So I walked around town trying to get a feel for what’s going on as I had maybe six hours to spend before bedtime and the next day when I'm headed out to the countryside. I walked to the big department store, change some money into Togrogs, the local currency, which is 1,350 per U.S. dollar. I started looking for cashmere which is locally produced but felt the prices are too high, so it’s back out on the streets. Over to the big square, Subkataar Square, where most public demonstrations or celebrations are held to see if there are any photo ops. Not finding any, unless you are into statue photos, I decided to explore by heading onto a back street.

My antenna goes up as I looked around at the people staring at me so I boogied out of there back to the main street. (I later found out that the locals on this street like to gang up on Caucasians and many visitors have lost battles here.)I headed the other way to the famous temple, Gandan Temple, which allows photography for a fee. I took some interesting photos of the temple and the people before exiting to explore more of the town. I was so excited about the photos of the old guy in the street that I began looking at the photos as I was exiting the area and "doink" I smacked my head into a low hanging pole at the exit gate. Talk about your wake up calls!

Here are some samples of these photos:






Back to another popular area looking for a dinner locale and wouldn’t you know it? I met Jerry Seinfeld. No not the real Jerry. I’m walking down the street in UB and I found a Kenny Rogers Roasters. This instantly creates Seinfeld/Kramer flashbacks and brings a smile to my face. (Sorry for those who don’t get it but there’s another one coming in the next blog plus a Bruce Willis moment later.) No, I didn't dine there, either

Taxis are another interesting thing. Taxis charge 750 tog ($.55) per km. If you stand on the street and put your arm out to flag a cab, you may be picked up by any person driving any vehicle that will take you to your destination and charge this rate. There are official taxis but they are tough to find. These unofficial taxis (we used to call them gypsy cabs in NYC) can be anyone with a car so you don’t wait very long.

Otherwise, the streets are filled with small vendor kiosks or stands where they are hawking whatever people will buy, food, fruit, cigarettes (by the each), telephones, newspapers, clothing, books, etc. There is a really large fake market called the Black Market which I planned to visit when I returned in a few days.

The other major annoyance is the continuous cacophony of horns from buses and autos. The traffic was horrible as the roads aren't built to withstand any traffic so it only takes a few vehicles to cause pretty big delays. I was happy to see there were no scooter, mopeds or bicycles which are a big pedestrian pain in Shanghai.

What did I like? Inexpensive food, hotels, guesthouses, cooler temperatures, 260 days of sunshine which makes for a dry cool environment and the city is a mile high which means the air is thinner than most of us are used to.

My last comment for the day before I went to the countryside is about a book I found. Even though I brought a pretty big book with me to read (Rain Gods by James Lee Burke), I felt like there would be a lot of downtime so I looked around for a second book. The book that caught my attention is called, “Dateline Mongolia” and it’s a story about a young U.S. journalism grad that was looking for his first professional position and the only job he could find was as the English language editor of the Mongol Messenger, a UB weekly newspaper. As I have been reading the book, it’s amazing how his experiences in the late 1990s explain a lot about what I have seen and felt about UB. On my return from the countryside, I bought a copy of the Mongol Messenger newspaper and will send the book and the newspaper to the 7 Sisters reading club for their enjoyment when I one of them visits in November.

One lady was happy to see me leave...