Ulan Bator, Mongolia
October 22, 2013
I had a bit of a lay in this morning, thanks to staying up until after 3am chatting away with Julius. So I didn’t get myself out and about until around lunch time. Before I headed out I asked again about helping out at the school and orphanage but it doesn’t look as though they need any help now. It’s a shame as I wanted to help out, but I’ll see what happens, fingers crossed.
I’m not in any rush whilst here or feel the need to cram in as much as possible in a short time. In the European and Russian cities I only had a few days at a time to squeeze in everything and see as much as possible however here like I said is not massive and easy enough to get around on foot so I had planned a fairly easy one of walking around and taking things as I came across them.
Seeing how the locals go about their business, relaxing every now and then in a cafe and sitting people watching. The locals have such interesting and varied faces and great expressions at times and it’s nice not to feel rushed and to just disappear among it all, its all part of the experience for me.
What I did notice while ambling around the streets is that Ulan Bator most definitely seems like a city in growth. There are building works all around, especially on the outskirts. Sky scrapers seem to be popping up here and there and it’s an interesting contrast to the old buildings that are still dotted about throughout the city. I stumbled across the Choijin Lama Museum by accident and was disappointed to find it shut. It apparently started life as four temples and was completed in 1908. It’s a Buddhist temple that was originally occupied by Choijin Lama Luvsankhaidav the brother of ruler Bogd Khan before the Stalin Government turned it into a museum in 1938.
Apparently there is an 18th Century gilt Statue of Buddha inside which would have been good to see as well as paintings, books and a collection of masks that sound interesting. What struck me about this place is where it sits in town, it’s almost lost, nestling between the high rise buildings and the construction works that are going on. I’ll have to take a look and see if it’s permanently shut now or if I just caught it on a bad day as it looks to be worthwhile checking out.
From there it was only a few minutes walk up to Sukhbaatar Square and the Parliament buildings which have various statues around them. Chinggis Khaan, Uguudei Khaan and Kublai Khaan. All worth a stroll past for a few minutes. Another 50 yards of wandering and I stumbled upon the National Museum of Mongolian History. It would be rude not to pop my head in once there so in I trotted. Now given the history of Mongolia, which is colourful, diverse and at one point down right scary when they pretty much ruled the world with their Empire under Genghis I was expecting their National Museum to be something on an epic scale, especially given the scale of some of the statues to Genghis I have seen online and on television.
But no, it was small. Two floors and about the size of the biggest McDonald’s I saw in Moscow! But it was good and housed some interesting artifacts, clothing, weapons etc. Most of them from the Genghis reign in the 13th Century, and all very well preserved given their age. They really did look ahead of their time with their weaponry and amour so it’s no surprise they conquered most of Eurasia back then. There was an interesting collection of old photos downstairs taken in 1888 which are of Mongolians, a front portrait and a side profile, almost like anatomical studies of folk back then. So although the place was smaller than expected it was still interesting.
Another cafe later and a bit read of my book and it was time for some tea. Now someone here needs to explain to me how all this food in Mongolia works as fair enough I treated myself to a nice Japanese last night purely because I like Japanese and it was far cheaper than back home so tonight I thought I would downgrade and went for a cheap Korean as I’ve never tried it before. So I order one dish from the menu and a beer. A few minutes later I’m served a massive hotpot of beef, noodles, vegetables and egg, along with a bowl of some kind of soup and some assorted other cold vegetables and salad type ingredients. It was a massive table of food for one person, and I know it’s cold here so an extra layer of fat wont go a miss for keeping warm but at this rate I’m going to need rolling to the station in a couple of weeks to get my train to China.
Full of Korean and back at the hostel I have myself the early night that I had intended to have last night before the bags under my eyes get so low that they become cheek warmers. I was going to go the pictures but think I’ll save that till tomorrow night now.
