At Ulan Bator I was met by a lovely young Kazakh girl who would take me to the hotel .It was going to be a late arrival, someone had parked directly behind the car and remained there stopping us from getting out for over an hour. Driver consideration in these countries appears to be very bad and even worse than my own country, and that takes some beating.
Disappointingly the room had not been finished so I was promptly given another on the fourth floor, and no elevator!
Being so late in the day I opted for a meal in the hotel restaurant, both tasty and cheap food . In Mongolian tugrits it was around T5000, and in Nz dollars $4-5. Well within budget! With a wide range of food both western and mongolian I found it convenient for most meals whenever there.
Handy to the shops and main street, Peace street stretched a long way from top to bottom.
The next day I had planned to spend seeing the Gandan monastery. Until I got my bearings in the city I opted to take a taxi, asking the price at reception it was about 2000T in NZ $2.00 ! New to the ways of asian taxis and being european I was charged 5000T! On returning it was a 15 minute walk down Peace street. Getting there early I was able to spend time with out the crowds. In time to see the monks at prayer, with their chanting, in the temples. There seemed to be innumerable temples with many monks spread over all of them. Interesting seeing a lady give each and every one of the monks a 500 ml carton of milk. While others gave an assortment of other foods and gifts.
The many prayer wheels just begging to be turned, it was a very peaceful spot in a vantage point above the city. The well built monks in the gold and red attire added much to the overall picture of the tibetan monastery.
After lunch a orientation wander around the city appealed, so a leisurely walk amongst the variety of shops on offer was an experience. Dodging the traffic even more character building.. Like all the asian cities I have visited of late this was no different, noisy, inconsiderate driving , rude pedestrians. the added danger here was the state of the roads and any footpaths that were being used. The footpaths if there were any were in a particularly bad state and you constantly had to be aware of them, for potholes, broken bricks and even manholes with maladjusted covers.
I heard it said that Ulan bator just grew ,with no real city planning, residents initially just picking a piece of land, putting a dwelling either a ger or house on their chosen land. The roads have no real order, pedestrian crossings essentially ignored by both drivers and pedestrians. Cars driving through pedestrians as they cross the road! There were certainly a few close calls that I saw, but thankfully no injury causing accidents. With the day gone it was back to the hotel for a meal and bed.
The next day saw me taking in the Natural history Museum, the life and times of the Mongolian people. For the small price of T5000 ($5.00NZ) was extremely interesting, there was a ger there to see as well. As I had chosen not to do the sleep over in the ger camp with others that had been on the train I enjoyed the displays. Charming too, was the school group that was going around the museum at the same time. Most children wanted to say ‘hello’ so it was something like 40 hello’s with some coming back again to practice.
I was particularly taken with the young people, the babies just beautiful, children like kids all over the world. The babies done up in a lot of clothes and coverings, one pram I looked in there was just this papoose like bundle, couldn’t see the child at all! Personally I didn’t feel as cold as everyone was dressed up to be.
The next port of call was the huge square with Genghis khan overseeing the activities. While it was big it did not match the size of Tiananmen square!
Probably the best kept of all the public spaces that I happened to see in Ulan bator.
People enjoying free time ,with the beautiful blue sky that the day had brought with it. A little boy and his dad playing with a remote controlled motor bike that zoomed everywhere, bringing smiles to those nearby. It was also a pleasure to meet the lads from the train in one of those ‘small world’ moments.
An extended checkout time allowed some spare time to change the mongolian tughrits into russian roubles at a local bank. That was an interesting experience, with a guards presence, queues of people, the little bank was packed. Then it was time to get ready for the train, as I needed help with heavy bags down four flights of stairs. A hectic ride in a Ulan bator taxi finished the city experience, meeting up again with fellow travelers on the next Trans siberian section across the huge asian continent. This time on train number 263. In this country the lower the number the better the train.