@ Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (15-18 Jun 2011)
With a population of 2.6 million in Mongolia, and only 1.3 million in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city, I expected to see lots of land, and yet occupied by the few.
There are currently only 2 ways to get to Ulaanbaatar Mongolia:
via Korea (Korea Air)
via Beijing (Air China)
We got to try both ways and the transition timings at both Airports were fairly short for us (2 hours), though I was told that it could get even longer (overnight wait) to fly via Korea.
Nevertheless, I much prefer the Korea way.
You get an individual TV screen (but not on Air China), good food on board - they give out little tubes of Korean pepper sauce to go with your food, it was really nice! We took Asiana Airline from Guangzhou to Korea and although there wasn't any individual TV, the seat was comfortable and I have no qualms about them.
@ Bayangol Hotel
A relatively good hotel in Ulaanbaatar, complete amenities with HBO and AXN channels, the only downside is the rather small toilet!
I forgot to take pictures of the room, but there is a little balcony in most of the rooms, and I got a very good view...
Spot the mountain on the left, there is a huge picture of Genghis Khan!
A close up view of another mountain on the right of the Genghis mountain.
Bellagio Restaurant @Bayangol
We had our lunch on Level 3 of Bayangol. Very simple and Asian fare. In Mongolia, it is meat, meat and meat. Vegetables are expensive.
I had stir-fried beef, the soup had tomatoes, egg, meat; and a cup of Cranberry drink
The City
The roads in the city are narrow, mainly only 1-2 lane each for a 2 way traffic.
Be expected to hit the jam in the morning and evening.
Wrestling Stadium
Wrestling is one of the most important part of Mongolian culture and a popular national sport even till today.
You will find wrestling, archery, horse riding during the annual Naadam festival in July.
Mongolia uses the Cyrillic alphabet
Urban developments are beginning to become more conspicuous in the city, with modern apartments, office buildings and shopping malls.
This is an office building with luxury shops at the lower levels, we saw a huge LV... very Ion-like.
Public transport comprises mainly buses and cable buses.
Taxis are expensive in Mongolia, and what the locals do is to hitch a ride from any private cars, and pay a standard price per kilometres of travel. Convenient indeed. But I'm not so sure how safe I would want to try on my own. Apparently, most of my female foreign lecturers do that, and so far so good.
Children Amusement Center
Man in Del (Mongolian Traditional Costume)
Cars
We don't see any motorcycles here, most people own a car, it is cheap.
And not just a normal car, their cars are huge!
Land Rovers, Land Cruisers, Mercedes, BMW, Audi...
It is now Summer in Ulaanbaatar, temperature reaches 28°C in the day, and 18-20°C in the night. Nevertheless, the day starts at 4am and ended as late as 9pm!
Locals get a cup of beer from this very interesting push cart to cool off.
300Mongolian Tugrik(MNT) ~ SGD0.30!
State Department Store
It's like a normal Robinsons/ Isetan store.
Funny why they put the year established & to date on the top of the building.
What's interesting is that Level 6 sells all souvenirs, from Furs to nature paintings.
Morin Khuur (Horsehead fiddle)
Camels and Horse!
Ger (Mongolian Tents)
Bojangles Grill
Opened by a Singaporean, we tried 2 mongolian dishes:
Mutton Dumpling in milk and Mongolian noodles
The texture of the noodle was kind of tough. And the dumpling soup - milky.
And the mutton taste is too strong for some, but it was OK for me. I just didn't like that the skin was too thick.
Lamb Masala & Strawberry Lassi (milk)
I didn't mind the strong and heavy flavour of mutton.
The Lassi drink was however too much for me. Made me feel so full!
Beautiful view outside the restaurant, we spotted a Trans-siberian train passing along the railway tracks, it was super long! But kind of old.
I spoke about the Long daylight, look at the time, it was 8.49PM!
We walked on further into the night, although it was almost 9pm by then.
An interesting Ger souvenir shop, located just outside Bayangol Hotel.
National Library
Place for chill out after work.
The telecom office
Sükhbaatar Square during the day
Sükhbaatar Square @Night
The man himself, Genghis Khan (reign from 1206-1227)
We were brought to a Tibetan temple the following day during lunch hour.
Majority of the locals here are Buddhist, but there are influences of Christianity, Islam and Shamanism as well.
Locals turn this for good luck.
Gorkhi-Terelj National Park
37 km from Ulaanbaatar city center
We had our lunch on Level 3 of Bayangol. Very simple and Asian fare. In Mongolia, it is meat, meat and meat. Vegetables are expensive.
I had stir-fried beef, the soup had tomatoes, egg, meat; and a cup of Cranberry drink
The City
The roads in the city are narrow, mainly only 1-2 lane each for a 2 way traffic.
Be expected to hit the jam in the morning and evening.
Wrestling Stadium
Wrestling is one of the most important part of Mongolian culture and a popular national sport even till today.
You will find wrestling, archery, horse riding during the annual Naadam festival in July.
Mongolia uses the Cyrillic alphabet
Urban developments are beginning to become more conspicuous in the city, with modern apartments, office buildings and shopping malls.
This is an office building with luxury shops at the lower levels, we saw a huge LV... very Ion-like.
Public transport comprises mainly buses and cable buses.
Taxis are expensive in Mongolia, and what the locals do is to hitch a ride from any private cars, and pay a standard price per kilometres of travel. Convenient indeed. But I'm not so sure how safe I would want to try on my own. Apparently, most of my female foreign lecturers do that, and so far so good.
Children Amusement Center
Man in Del (Mongolian Traditional Costume)
Cars
We don't see any motorcycles here, most people own a car, it is cheap.
And not just a normal car, their cars are huge!
Land Rovers, Land Cruisers, Mercedes, BMW, Audi...
It is now Summer in Ulaanbaatar, temperature reaches 28°C in the day, and 18-20°C in the night. Nevertheless, the day starts at 4am and ended as late as 9pm!
Locals get a cup of beer from this very interesting push cart to cool off.
300Mongolian Tugrik(MNT) ~ SGD0.30!
State Department Store
It's like a normal Robinsons/ Isetan store.
Funny why they put the year established & to date on the top of the building.
What's interesting is that Level 6 sells all souvenirs, from Furs to nature paintings.
Morin Khuur (Horsehead fiddle)
Camels and Horse!
Ger (Mongolian Tents)
Bojangles Grill
Opened by a Singaporean, we tried 2 mongolian dishes:
Mutton Dumpling in milk and Mongolian noodles
The texture of the noodle was kind of tough. And the dumpling soup - milky.
And the mutton taste is too strong for some, but it was OK for me. I just didn't like that the skin was too thick.
Lamb Masala & Strawberry Lassi (milk)
I didn't mind the strong and heavy flavour of mutton.
The Lassi drink was however too much for me. Made me feel so full!
Beautiful view outside the restaurant, we spotted a Trans-siberian train passing along the railway tracks, it was super long! But kind of old.
I spoke about the Long daylight, look at the time, it was 8.49PM!
We walked on further into the night, although it was almost 9pm by then.
An interesting Ger souvenir shop, located just outside Bayangol Hotel.
National Library
Place for chill out after work.
The telecom office
Sükhbaatar Square during the day
Sükhbaatar Square @Night
The man himself, Genghis Khan (reign from 1206-1227)
We were brought to a Tibetan temple the following day during lunch hour.
Majority of the locals here are Buddhist, but there are influences of Christianity, Islam and Shamanism as well.
Locals turn this for good luck.
Gorkhi-Terelj National Park
37 km from Ulaanbaatar city center
Free-ranging horses!
And horses who are tied to a pole for tourist purpose... :(
Camels, this one looks so thin!!
The park has many rock formations for rock climbers, and includes the famous formations Turtle Rock (Mongolian: Melkhii Khad)
And the rock from afar looks like a Monk Praying/Reading a book.
Also another is the 100 Monks Cave. Story goes that monks hid in the cave during a period of suppression by the Soviets.
The National Park also houses several Ger Camp sites.
It costs approx SGD35/night for a 2 bedder!
The family room comprises 4 beds.
The basic furniture is beds, a stove, a basin and a switch to a ceiling lamp.
There is a shared toilet closeby to the Gers.
It would be nice to stay here in winter.
Terelj Hotel (5 star European style hotel)
I was pleasantly surprised that our colleague actually brought us here for dinner.
I was pleasantly surprised that our colleague actually brought us here for dinner.
Before heading to the restaurant, we were greeted by the front desk officer, who was kind enough to give us a simple tour around the hotel.
Beautiful scenery of Terejl.
An indoor pool, fabulous treat for the -40 winter!
There were beautiful paintings of Mongolia traditional costumes and horses.
And then we were led to the restaurant - Morin Khuur
(named after the horsehead fiddle/ guitar)
Cigar room
Restaurant area
Price doesn't come cheap here, approx. SGD80-100 for the 2-3 course meal. It's a French cuisine and although we had chosen a main and a dessert, we were served all sorts of bread during the dinner, and we had an interesting appetiser too!
This plate comprises salad with caviar, savoury tart and mushroom soup in a miniature cup.
My main was angus beef topped with foie gras, served with french fries and (strange to find this on my plate) Choy Sum - chinese leafy vegetable!!
This plate comprises salad with caviar, savoury tart and mushroom soup in a miniature cup.
My main was angus beef topped with foie gras, served with french fries and (strange to find this on my plate) Choy Sum - chinese leafy vegetable!!
And next came desserts!
I had the sorbet crepes and my friend had the chocolate mudpie.
It was almost 11 by the time we finished our dinner! Our competent driver brought us out of the National Park (high beam in total darkness!). We reached Ulaanbaatar city over midnight, and it was all worth it.
Zaisan Memorial
We spent our last day visiting the Zaisan Memorial before heading to the Chinggis Khan Airport.
There was a marathon event at the memorial and our driver could not bring us up any further to the Memorial. According to our mongolian colleague, Mongolians are generally fit.
The Zaisan Memorial commemorates the Soviet soldiers killed during World War II.
And then we saw the stairs, that will lead us to the actual memorial
Located on the top of a hill, overseeing the Ulaanbaatar City, Zaisan features a circular memorial depicting the support of Russia to Mongolia's independence in 1921, the defeat of the Japanese by the Soviets at the Khalhkin Gol on the Mongolian border in 1931, and victory over the Germans.
We made our way to the Chinggis Khan International Airport around noon and I was happy we took a day flight.
The flight via Air China to Beijing brought us over the Gobi Desert!!
We were flying so low that I couldn't stop snapping the whole time on the plane!
It was quite bright and I had to edit the brightness, otherwise you will not be able to see this.
Know what the dark patches are?
They are shadows of the clouds!
It was simply beautiful.
I would love to visit Gobi one day, I was told by a female colleague who had been there, a must-pack to Gobi is an umbrella! There is nowhere you can hide to do your business there!
