Mongolia: Ulaanbaatar

We left from the Chicago O’Hare airport on Korean Air an hour late. Something on the plane really upset my stomach, so I did not get a lot of sleep on the first thirteen hour flight into Seoul, Korea. The flight attendants were amazingly attentive and proper; I could only wish American flight attendants were as friendly.

The brief amount of time we were in Korea was nice; Incheon Airport is very nice indeed. I did feel much better on the second flight from Seoul to Ulaanbaatar, and Sanchir was a great source of information about life in Ulaanbaatar. He only has one brother, but in honesty his many cousins he also considers his brothers. So before even entering Mongolia I met two Mongolians, both extremely friendly and able to speak English quite decently.

Seeing Ulaanbaatar from the air at night was great, I was able to form a rough idea of the city’s size, containing about 700,000 people. Very windy, but a sweet smell and warm, dust everywhere. Our van ride into the city was quite interesting, but strangely it does not feel too strange here.

We walked around the city, Ulaanbaatar, today. We quickly learned the taxis are the best mode of transportation, costing only 100 to 200 tugrik — the equivalent of about ten or twenty cents. Walking is plausible, however the sidewalks are cracked and cars would rather run pedestrians over than let them cross the street.

The people helping us while we are here are very lovely people; I hope I do not seem ungrateful for all they are doing for us. Bayaraa met with us as well as Ariunaa, who then took us to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. I am surprised by how much food Mongolians are able to eat, and they still are thin! It may have something to do with the thin air as Ulaanbaatar is 1500m above sea level.

We had a thorough history lesson at the National History Museum. On our walk back we did run into some hostility as a native started yelling at Briana, then threw a rock at us. We aren’t quite sure why he was so angry, but we became much more cautious afterwards.

We also met our student counterparts for dinner, mostly guys to our surprise. Very nice, one guy in particular kept putting food on my plate and spoke some English. I got a fast lesson in Mongol, that’s for sure! The Mongol students were very excited to receive gifts from us. I was able to give the four students I actually had an opportunity to speak with gifts, and they were all grateful putting the handkerchiefs around their necks. Wonderful experience with Mongol company enjoying Mongolian food at Modern Nomads.