Saying good-bye to Turkey, I headed for Mongolia and the next leg of my trip. I had signed up to volunteer with an Earthwatch conversation expedition on the Mongolian Steppes and was meeting the team in Ulaanbaatar but i had planned to arrive a few days early to explore the city before the team rendezvous. The flight to Ulaanbaatar from Istanbul was a red-eye so it was 7am or so when we landed. I arranged a car to pick me up and my Airbnb host allowed me to check in early so my arrival went seamlessly. After resting for a couple of hours, I ventured out to start my exploration.
I picked a place to stay that was near Sukhbataar Square, at the city center and where the Mongolia government buildings are located, as well as near the guesthouse where I will be meeting the Earthwatch team. The location turned out to be excellent for exploring all four quadrants of the city. Mongolia has a population of about 3.5 million and just under half live in Ulaanbaatar but after densely packed Istanbul, Ulaanbaatar seemed almost empty (except for the traffic— they do have traffic problems). The city is spread out and surrounded by tall, green rolling hills, but the tourist area is very walkable. The architecture is a mix of modern skyscrapers and the standard squat blocky Soviet style buildings that populate all of its former members. According to my driver it gets really cold in the winter (-20 to -30, and the scale does not matter at those temps!). Summer, June-August, is their tourist season.
Following the group of locals that lead me to the Ghengis Khan museum.
When I got to the square in the early afternoon, there were not that many people wandering around. Two wedding parties were there taking pictures and some students were pedaling carts around in what looked like a race. I snapped a picture of the Government Palace (featured image) and headed towards the fountain to watch the crowds. Before long I noticed a party of elderly people getting off of a bus, all in traditional costume (some putting it on in the bus before exiting). I watched them for a while and when they headed off across the square decided to follow them to see what was going on. They led me to the Ghengis Khan museum a block north of the square- apparently they were here to do a tour and dressed for the occasion. Since visiting this museum was on my “to do” list, I went inside with them.
A beautiful chess set in the Ghengis Khan museum. Chess is ubiquitous!
I spent the next few hours roaming around the museum. Luckily I have done a lot of reading about Ghengis Khan and his exploits (and those of his sons) so I had some of the history already, because the signage was all in Mongolian. I was able to use “Google translate” to read most of the placards, but it was painful. Even so, if you are ever in Ulaanbaatar, it is worth stopping by to check out the museum. Leaving the museum I headed south to find a place to eat an early dinner and found, of all things, an Irish Pub. Curious I stopped in and had a wonderful salad (I am avoiding meat until the Earthwatch expedition starts because I will then be inundated with it for two weeks!). As I continued my exploration it turns out that there are several Irish pubs and numerous other pubs scattered around the city. Many of them offer Karaoke, so apparently that is a “thing” here. Since I was still feeling tired, I called it a day after dinner and headed back to the room to chill for the rest of the evening.
Entrance to the Gandan monastery complex.
The next morning my goal was to find a grocery store to get some fruit and a few things to eat to have in the room. It turns out that finding a grocery store, at least in the center part of the city, was more challenging than one might think. I asked my map function for “grocery stores near me” and several popped up, but when I checked them out, they were more like convenience stores than a supermarket (no fresh fruit). I finally stumbled upon a mini-mart (not on my map) and found bananas and apples and something for dinner that evening. I also found a bakery and got some goodies from there, too.
Stocked up for the time being, my next goal was to check out the Gandantegchinlan Monastery, the only monastery that managed to continue functioning during the “repression” (ie. Soviet times when thousands of monks were arrested) and monetarists closed. Today it is the center of Mongolian Buddhist practice (Tibetan Buddhism was introduced to Mongolia in the 16th century). The complex is located in the northwest quadrant of the city so I walked along one of the main streets, Peace Ave, until I reached the street leading to the monastery gates. As I was walking along Peace Ave, I saw a building with a sign “Mongolian State Dept Store”, taking me back to my early years in Moscow and the famous “GUM” store where only party members could shop. Curious, I went inside to check it out. It was a modern department store, but most importantly I found a cross between a Wal-Mart and Costco on the first floor (though no fresh fruit) so I now knew where to find any odds and ends I might need. I took another detour to find the guesthouse where I needed to meet the Earthwatch team, then returned my focus to getting to the monastery.
The replacement Buddha, modeled after the original that got taken away during the Soviet era.
The monastery complex sits on top of a small hill and from it I could see some of the surrounding countryside (beautiful!). There were several buildings and reading the literature it seemed that they had a university (Buddhist) on the grounds too. The main temple was busy with monks reading sutras, people praying, and tourists snapping pictures. Another temple housed a very large statue (85ft) of the Buddha Avalokitesvara, that was installed in 1996 to replace the original one which was believed to have been shipped to Moscow and melted down. What was fascinating to me was the library. I had noticed that the monks who were reading sutras, were doing so from books formed of unbound leaves- stacks of long rectangular tiles. When finished with a page, the monk turned it over, placed it on the stack of previously read leaves, placed a cloth on it and picked up the next one. I had not seen books formatted this way, but in the library were bookshelves of them. I had no idea how old some of them were. I also wondered about the organization scheme- how things were indexed. So cool!
Looking south from the monastery gates across the city.
Finished exploring the monastery complex I decided to head to the National Museum, which was back near the square. I took a meandering route, going through neighborhoods and back streets to get a feel for the non-tourist parts of the city. I found a basketball court, some playgrounds, car parks maximally packed with cars (what happens if someone in the middle wants to leave??) and lots of apartment buildings. As I was walking I also noticed that the majority of cars on the road were Priuses. My driver (from the airport) had told me that hybrid cars were preferred in Ulaanbaatar and he was not kidding! I bet 80% of the cars are hybrid and of those, 90% were Prius. Unfortunately, the air still felt polluted to me and I am not sure I can explain why. The walk took an hour and by the time I got to the museum I did not have enough time to visit before closing so I decided to wait until the following day.
Every pigeon in Ulaanbaatar has to be hanging out in the plaza opposite the monastery gates.
The next morning my prime goal was to visit the Naranuul Market, also known as the “Black Market” and the largest outdoor market in the country. It is located in the southwest quadrant of the city and my walk there, also about an hour, would give me an opportunity to explore another part of the city. When I set out at 10am on Saturday morning, there was not a lot of activity. I did not really see substantial activity on the roads (or in the market, for that matter) until noon or so. I arrived at the market around 11am and it is huge. It is a mixture of retail and wholesale, food and every other kind of good, including a flea market. According to Wikipedia there are over 8000 vendors operating in the market.
I entered the main gates and started wandering around. Like other markets I had been in similar types of objects were located near each other. Thus, right as I entered I was in the “shoe” area and saw row upon row of shoes and boots of every kind. I soon found the fabric area, the women’s clothing area (where I started to finally see other tourists), the kitchen supply area and so forth. Interestingly I also found a section that was focused on saddles and bridles and horse related objects. I overheard a tour guide telling some English speaking tourists that the nomadic people come to this market for their supplies. It really was a one stop shop. I even passed one vendor who had a snorkel mask for some reason (Mongolia is a land-locked country….).
One row, of many, of traditional women’s clothing. Several tourists were trying on some of the styles.
I crossed the parking lot to the other side of the market to find the food section. Unlike other markets I had experienced, where the food was under one roof, all located together, many of the different food vendors had their own small buildings making it hard to spot items unless you poked your head in the doors. I remained at the market until 12:30pm watching it come alive as vendors arrived to display their items, pulling them out of the railroad car looking lockers that ran along the inner side of the exterior fence. Customers really started arriving around noon as well and the market began to get more crowded.
No matter where I go, I run into NASA shirts. Mongolia was no exception.
Having aborted my visit to the National Museum the day before, that was my next destination. I decided to walk back via a different route, essentially circling the southwest quadrant of the city. I noticed as I approached the area south of the square, that I was in the ritzy section of town. I had just come from an old, thrown together outdoor market and now was facing a modern, US style mall complete with expensive brands from Europe and China. What a juxtaposition! They also had an IMAX theater and when I checked out the movies that were playing, they were all from the US. Wild!
Saddle and bridle (and all things horse) vendor. The saddles were wooden with padding (or not).
I got to the National Museum with plenty of time before closing to explore at my leisure. Unlike the Ghengis Khan museum, the National Museum had English placards in most places so I was able to peruse most of the exhibits without a translation app. The museum told the story of habitation in the area from the Stone Age through the recent Mongolian declaration of independence when the Soviet Union dissolved. It also presented customs, lifestyles and clothing of Mongolia. Like the Ghengis Khan museum, it is worth a visit if you are ever in Ulaanbaatar. After dinner at an Indian restaurant (veggies!), I called it a day to do some laundry— tomorrow I meet the Earthwatch group and start the next part of my Mongolian adventure. NOTE: We are going to be out on the steppes somewhere and I have no idea if there will be connectivity so stay tuned for that report.