You can spot them a while away
Trip Start
Jul 17, 2008
1
6
26
Trip End
Aug 16, 2008
Ulaanbaatar,
Mongolia
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Matt didn't have his bags. Due to an error in Canada, his bag wasn't fully checked through to Mongolia. It was waiting, beyond the immigration checkpoint, beyond his reach for him to claim. After some discussions with security and airline staff they informed him his bag would arrive tomorrow in Mongolia. Better than never!
Alex and I get the exit row seats. Score!
The scenery during the flight was amazing. There were mountains and hills everywhere. Everything was so lush and green. It would be an amazing place to hike and wander given the time. Maybe another trip ...
We land collect our bags (those of us with bags) and get some cash. The pnahandlers are pretty aggressive here. One kept showing us a piece of cardboard with his "story" in English. When we didn't read it he got pretty angry at the whole situation. Eventually he wandered off.
We grabbed a taxi and headed to our hotel. Ulanbaataar is the capital city. It also houses 1 million of the entire 2.8 million population in the country. As we drove we could see houses mixed with yurts. Yurts, in some cases, have transitioned from nomadic housing to permanent housing. The city itself seems to have grown in a nomadic unorganized fashion. Houses have sprung up around the four coal plants. Each region seems to be unplanned.
This is consistent with the drivers. Road rules seem to be optional. Red lights? Sometimes they stop. If the car in front is driving too slow. No problem. Pass them. Traffic jam? Drive through a field. Cars have both left and right steering wheels. They seem to drive whatever cars can be found.
We arrive at the hotel, pay our fare and head in. Now this is where some alarms should have gone off. Our bill was 68,900 of the local currency. This translates into about $50. Alarm bells did not go off. And we have the record for the largest airport-hotel cab fare in our group. The taxi driver spotted us a mile away. Hopefully that's the only time we're taken like that.
Our hotel is in the university area. It's about 5 minutes walk from the main square (and where the riots were). Upon first inspection of the area, I would guess that this is a terrible area. Rubble litters the streets around it. There is a huge pile of trash in the street leading to it. Unfinished and demolished buildings surround it. But according to everything, this is a good area. And this has been proven by some of the other participants who have been staying there for the last week.
Alex and I score again and get a suite. It's a simple room, with a bathroom, a small fridge, a dining table, sofa tv and in a separate room two single beds. The fridge is the biggest score. Our room might become the communal party room.
Mike, Alex and I settle in as best we can and then head out to explore the area. We head toward the main square. The city itself appears to be unfinished. This perhaps is a soft description. If I had to picture a war zone, this would be it. There are no sidewalks. There are huge holes in the streets. There is dust everywhere. And many, many buildings are decrepid and nearly falling over. One has to remember that this is a third world country and won't be up to Western standards.
After our walk we meet up with Debbie who has been in the city for a week. She is fully acclimatized to the area and is heading to a river where locals go to swim. We go with her and enjoy a dip in the river. There is a nice fast moving current so hopefully no nasties are around. It's like a beach there. Mongolians are swimming, camping, eating and drinking.
We have a fun encounter with the latter on our way back to the road we walk to get back to the hotel. We pass a group of two Mongolians and Debbie says hi. One says hi to each of the group in turn. When he reaches me, he looks at me closely and then starts saying something. He rubs his belly and I thought he was making a statement about food or my big gut. I rub it too. In Mongolia, their national sport (or in the top two anyway) is wrestling. Bellies play some unknown but important role in this as I discovered later. At any rate, he starts to grapple with me in a playful manner. I have my camera in one hand and try to push him off and indicate I'm not really in the mood to wrestle. He lets go but then starts again. This goes on for 5 minutes before we can finally unentangle and head up a hill towards the road. He follows! We climb up onto the bridge and head across it. Thankfully he was too drunk to get up and follow us further. This has been known as the wrestling incident in the group and shall be an ongoing theme for the rest of the trip.
We meet up with some other participants for dinner (arriving an hour late having overslept the meeting time!) and enjoy some Indian food at the local Mexican/Indian restaurant. I can picture how this concept restaurant was created:
Owner 1: We should open a restaurant.
Owner 2: Good idea. What kind of food.
Owner 1: hmmm.
Owner 2: Well there's no Mexican food in Ulanbaataar.
Owner 1: Yes! And there's no Indian food either!
Owner 2: Indian/Mexican, I love it!
