Expen$ive Ulaan Bataar

• Feliciawong's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Ulaan Bataar

Trip Start May 17, 2007 Previous
Entry Trip End Jun 30, 2007 Next
Entry

  Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia
Monday, June 4, 2007

Man, just one day in UB, and it feels as if I'm about done with the bulk of my US$500, WTH!!!!!

I just spent US$20 buying groceries for the Gobi trip.
Together with Rob's share, that's US$40 for 3 days' of food!!

And we only got pasta / pasta sauce / instant noodles / fruits / dried fruits / 1 x chocolate and some other small items like sugar and tea.
Grrrrrr!

Went alone to 2 museums today -- the Museum of Natural History, with uber uber cool 3-m high T-Rex skeleton, dinosaurs in battle (apparently they were buried by a sand dune while fighting, duh), lots of dinosaur bones/eggs/nests etc

00 Soviet Block

.

The entire Gobi used to be an inland sea zillion of years ago.
There are also fish fossils etc there, alongside tonnes of dinosaur bones and other prehistoric creatures.

After that, I went to the Museum of Mongolian History, where the history of Mongolia, from paleontological times to Genghis Khan to the Chinese/Soviet invasions, until today.
Pretty cool stuff, but the experience was marred by a bunch of teenagers on a school excursion. VERY annoying.

Rob spent most of the day sleeping, after an exhausting 2hour search for SOS Medica, the international hospital.
His eye is healing, but not fully recovered, so he wanted to get it checked before we set out for the Gobi trip with Lena and Tomasz.
Went with him early in the morning, walked all the bloody way to the other side of town, only to NOT find the damn place.

01 Sleep in the living room!

Armed with our LonelyPlanet + a brochure of the hospital, we were damn sure we were in the right place.
But somehow... it just wasn't there.

Flagged a cab, and all the cabbie did was to drive us back into the heart of town, godammit!
I was soooooo pissed and so hungry.
Rob was nice and bought me lunch at a rather fancy place called the Red Horse Pub and Restaurant.

They had such a fancy menu, and we took a long time picking what we wanted...
.... only to be told there was either:
1) Hungarian goulash
or
2) French sausages

He took the goulash, I went with the sausages -- which were a tad too greasy and salty.

02 Kitchen with only hot water

But I was starving, so what the heck!

And again, it was served with a side of fries, YAAAAY!!!!!

I was so happy, I even ate the SALAD.
Yes, you read correct: I. ate. the. salad.

And I didn't throw up.
Cos there weren't lettuce in there -- just cucumbers, carrots and tomatoes in balsamic vinegar. YUMMMM.

Speaking of which, I am starving right now. Tried to find the Michele French Bakery earlier, but it was gone too... *sulk*
Would like to check out the French Bistro behind Parliament House, but Rob spotted a packed place en route to the internet cafe, and he wants to eat there instead. hope it's good.

Oh, after we bought groceries and hauled the 2 huge bags back to the dorm, we realised that Rob's bag was slashed.
Bag-slashers are common in UB, as are petty thefts like pickpocketing.

Thankfully his iPod was in a separate compartment.
And he spun around fast enough when he felt the tug, only to see the kid running off.
So... the only damage is a damn ugly battle scar, cos Rob's sewing sucks :P
(Not like mine's any better).

Having prepared for freezing weather - woolly sweater / woolly hat / puffy jacket / fleece jacket / windstopper / woolly scarf -
i am totally not prepared for the sweltering heat of the Gobi.

Bought a fisherman's hat and a men's singlet at the department store.
Spent more money again, urrrgghhhhhh,

Alrite, gonna see if Rob's done with the comp, cos i'm bloody hungry.

- Feli "I'm gonna be SO broke" Wong

Slideshow Print this entry Share Ulan Bator hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry