Mongolia - Ulan Bator

Ulan Bator 21.10.2014

We have been in Mongolia for a little bit more than a week now. First we planned that we would have left to Beijing Sunday the 19th but the Russian train was sold out. So our stay in Mongolia became longer and good that it did.

Mostly we have been living in the city and walking a lot as every city holiday make people do. The first impression of Ulan Bator / Ulaanbaatar was that the city was kind of small. The more we've spent time here the more we understand that this city is huge.

For locals the city is just something they have to deal with but the majority would like to live in the countryside near their tribes. Most of the city is just apartment blocks where people live during the working week. The traffic is shocking because there is no infrastructure. The city grows quickly but the infra can't follow the development. Also as a pedestrian you have to be alert. I don't know which one is more secure, passing with the green light or red.

People in the city seems well-being and good looking. You don't see extreme poverty in the streets. There are not so many tourists / people from western countries either. Of course now we are here during the low season. High season is in summertime during July-August. Many people have told us to visit Mongolia again in summer.

We have visited the National Museum of Mongolia which was nice and covering well also the history of the last two decades. It seems that democracy and the 1990 are an important base for building Mongolian national identity. People are really proud of their democratic system. The national identity seems to be built on the time of Chinggis Khan and religion has a big role. Especially now after the ateistic socialist time.

The Museum of Political Prosecution was very interesting but shocking. This museum is not so advertised but well worth visiting. We walked also to the Russia-Mongolia friendship monument which is a nice place to look over the city. It is built after the second world war when The Soviet Union and Mongolia fought together.

The monument was massive but the view even more. From there we saw how huge was the city but also all the suburbs that here are gers. A lot of construction is made but at the same time there are not enough apartments for normal working people. But a lot fancy office buildings.

Food in Mongolia is very good and cheap. People eat a lot of meat. We've eaten also in local fast food kiosks but we didn't get any stomach problems. Menus have usually pictures or English help phrases so ordering is easy. A meal costs about 2-4 euros and beer 1 euro. There are also much more expensive places but we've skipped those. And a few western restaurant. I would like to visit an Italian restaurant but just for curiousity!

The weather is sunny but not as inquinated as many guide books let understand. After few days you notice that dust gives a little cough. Temperature vary a lot between day and night. During the day it has been from 4 to 15 degrees. In the night from 0 to -15 degrees. Houses are warm inside.

Ulan Bator surprised positively especially after checking the pictures on Google streetviewer.. Easy living :)