Back to the capital

Interrupted night

I woke three times through the night, each time wary that someone had crept into the ger.  It was the girl from the family, coming in to stoke the fire.  Not the best job in the world, having to do that several times in the cold dark night.  For all the occupied gers in the campground!

A simple breakfast was served around 0900. It comprised of bread, jam, cheese, soup and pancake.

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Chilling and exploring in the capital

Alma and the driver came for us around 1000, taking us to the Edelweiss Hotel back in Ulaanbaatar.  After checking-in, we grabbed lunch at City Cafe where we shared a sweetish kungpoh chicken and a very garlicky shredded cucumber salad.

We went to the Natural History Museum to see remains of dinosours and prehistoric mammals.  There were bones and fossils from 100 million years ago!

Above our lunch place was a massage shop.  I had a good Chinese-style massage including a very good head/scalp massage and a lot on the legs; not quite enough for my back.  Kim opted for reflexology.

While out and about we noticed well-dressed families and their young ones out at temples and squares.  We had seen this yesterday too.  It’s high school graduation time and they’re out for their photos.  We also saw a graduation party at our hotel.

After a brief rest at the hotel, Alma took us to Tumen Ek where we enjoyed a cultural show of throat singing, Mongolian music and dance, and some contortionists.  It kinda wasn’t too different from a Chinese or Tibetan cultural show in terms of the music and costumes, except that the language was different.

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Earlier, we had been accosted by two streetkids.  Alma had explained that vodka was the biggest evil in  breaking up marriages.  At Tumen Ek, Kim was approached by a man showing a note saying that his family had died in a fire.  He couldn’t help give him a small donation.

We took dinner at Khan Brau, a German beerhouse.  We shared a beautiful spicy pizza with crispy burnt cheese and a German sausage with mash.  it was possibly the trendiest place in town.  We finished off with two ice-creams from the street; they were very soft, fluffy and cheap!

Our finale for the day was a walk at UB Shopping Centre.  It was possibly the poshest department store in town but not quite Harrods.  But the supermarket was very good with a wide variety of international products.

Driving in Mongolia

Cars in Mongolia are driven on the US/European/Korean (right) side of the road, which should normally mean they would be left-hand drive vehicles.  But nope, in Mongolia they import used cars from Korea (left-hand drive) and also from Japan (right-hand drive).

I’ve seen this in Myanmar before.  It isn’t the best from a safety perspective.  But, it upsets me that Mongolia is competing with New Zealand for a share of used cars from Japan.  We in New Zealand get top-notch used cars from Japan for very little money when cars beyond a handful of years are past their economic life.