Ulan Bator, Mongolia
October 25, 2013
What a crazy but amazing day today has ended up being.
It started off pretty uneventful. I took a bus along to the wrestling palace as myself and Julius were going to pop along and watch the wrestling however there isn’t any on today and the next one isn’t until Sunday so that’s that plan out of the window. I grab a bus back along to the town square and have to spend several hours trying to find the place where the guys who are arranging my Ger camp are based. I’m supposed to do an orientation around the Nomads, just to make sure that you understand the customs and culture and don’t offend anyone. Eventually I find the place but it gets postponed until tomorrow as there are three other people who are also coming along with me on the trip and we are all doing the orientation together tomorrow. So what to do with myself?……off to the pub it is and to grab some tea!
I get back to the hostel and a few new faces are there as some people have returned back from a trip. They are really nice. Mathew another English lad, Roman from Switzerland, Micha from Germany who is Julius friend and his Dutch girlfriend Aisha. They are heading out for some food and drinks so I tag along to see where the night takes me.
We are joined by Mathew’s girl who is a local guide and after they have their food we go off in search of a Jazz bar. It’s too full, absolutely crammed with locals which is a shame as the music is pretty decent in there, but we trundle off and settle on an Irish bar. It’s a bit too pricey, up market and touristy but the band on are pretty decent and we meet a few other people to join us. A girl from Canada and her mate from New York and then we are joined by Larrs from Norway and his New Zealand mate.
It gets to last orders and we move off in search of somewhere else to drink. In Mongolia everywhere shuts up at 12am. The bars, the shops that sell alcohol, all of it. Curfew time. However Larrs says he knows an underground place that he managed to get into the night before so we follow him to a random wooden door on the side of a construction site. I must mention at this point that Larrs is an absolute nutter, a crazy guy who simply doesn’t care. The door is guarded by two local lads who seem adamant the place is an internet cafe….an internet cafe? I can’t remember the last time I went to an internet cafe at 1am that’s guarded by two lads who don’t want to let you pop in and send a quick email! Larrs is persistent but it’s pretty obvious they aren’t going to let us in so the search for a watering hole continues. We ask a local taxi driver we pass, if anyone knows where we can get an after hours drink in this city it’s got to be a taxi driver. He knows where to take us and after agreeing a pricey fare by Mongolian standards we all pile into two taxis and are driven all of 30 yards round the next corner and into a small square area surrounded by buildings. In the centre is a tiny stall looking thing and the taxi driver points us towards it. Here? As we get near a door on the stall opens and we are ushered inside. We pay our entrance, hand our coats over for the cloak room and we descend the tight dark spiral staircase and into the club.
Once in the club its a great laugh. We are the only Westerners in there and the place is jumping with locals and after fighting the persistent demands of the bus boys in there who seem to want a lot of money just for us to sit somewhere we settle in and grab a few beers and generally start dancing about and having a great time. What strikes me the most in here is how very friendly all the locals are with us, unbelievably friendly in fact. Compared to home it’s such a refreshing change. Lads will bump into you and instead of any aggression they simply shake your hand or hug you and want to be your best friend! It’s such a good night. Larrs bouncing around and cutting his shapes, locals coming over to greet us and share a drink, its brilliant. I don’t think I bought another single drink after my first one as some local or other was always popping a bottle in my hand with a cheery smile and hug.
There is a room at the back of the club where you can pop for a cigarette and I’d been popping in and out of there all night no problem. I’m stood talking with a local girl when all of a sudden she grabs the cigarette out of my mouth and throws it on the ground. This was a bit of a surprise as everyone had been amazingly friendly so far and I wondered what she was doing until she pointed at the far end of the smoking room. There was a second entrance to the place and there stood in a doorway was huge policeman. Ah ok, now I get what she was doing. It’s illegal to smoke indoors in Mongolia and she just did me a favour. Sure enough a few seconds later the music stops and the lights come up…..the police have arrived in numbers to shut it down. And to be fair that shut down was relatively chilled. No aggression from the police just a gentle nudge to head upstairs and off home.
Merry and very happy we make our way back and share a few more drinks before crashing around 5am. It’s been a great night and certainly one to remember thanks to Larrs crazy persistence!
