Days 1-2: Beijing Airport and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
I scored an $850 fare for RDU-Beijing-Shanghai-RDU on Air Canada, which meant that I had to fly through Toronto on Air Canada. Carol flew Delta from Detroit, and arrived in Beijing a couple of hours before I did. (For those of you wondering who Carol is and whether I've abandoned my wife, see my previous posting).
The Beijing airport is massive, but signs in English are everywhere, making it pretty easy to navigate. If you're headed that way, allow at least an hour to get through immigration and customs. After arriving, Carol and I overnighted at the Langham Place Hotel at the Beijing Airport, which was very nice, although the food was expensive.
The next afternoon, we flew from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on Air China. As is usually the case, the condition of the aircraft and the onboard service were better that what I've encountered on most American carriers.
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| In Terminal 3 at the Beijing Airport |
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| Part of Beijing, as seen on our flight out |
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| Somewhere over the Gobi Desert |
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| Approaching Ulaanbaatar |
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| Not an effective advertisement for Mongolian Airlines |
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| Everything in Mongolia is named for Chinggis (Genghis) Khan |
Upon arrival in Ulaanbaatar, we were met by our guide Baaska (who was terrific), and our driver, whose name was Ahghi (or something similar). It was about a 30 minute ride into the center of town, where our hotel was located.
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| Apartment buildings near the airport |
Our hotel was the Best Western Premier Tuushin Hotel, which was about a block from (you guessed it) Chinggis Khan Square. The hotel was excellent. In fact Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada was staying there along with a Canadian trade delegation, but he didn't drop by to say hello.
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| Best Western Tuushin Hotel (the tall building) |
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| My hotel room, not to be confused with the yurt I stayed in the following night |
At this point, a few words are in order about Ulaanbaatar and Mongolia. For a long time,
Mongolia was ruled by the Chinese, but in 1921 they broke away. In 1924, a Communist regime took over, and Mongolia was closely allied with the Soviet Union. In the early 1990's a peaceful revolution occurred, and since then Mongolia has been a democratic state.
Ulaanbaatar (formerly Ulan Bator) is the capital and largest city, with a population of about 1.3 million. It's much more modern and western than I anticipated, with a few Soviet style buildings sprinkled in.
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| View of central and eastern Ulaanbaatar from my hotel room |
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| Another view of the city |
At the center of the city is
Chinggis Square (they left the Khan out of the name for some reason. On the north side of the square is the Government Palace. It was originally named Sukhbaatar Square, after
Damdin Sükhbaatar, one of the leaders of the 1921 revolution, but was renamed in 2013.
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| View of Chinggis Square from the top of the hotel. Government Palace is on the right. |
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| The Government Palace (side view) |
After arriving at the hotel, we ate dinner (at the hotel) visited the hotel bar on the 25th floor.
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| Kaltenberg, my new favorite beer |
Day 3: Monastery tour, Chinggis Khan statue, and on to Steppe Nomads Camp
After breakfast we went to visit the
Gandan (or Gandantegchinlen) Monastery, in the northwest part of Ulaanbaatar. Most of the monastery was built in the 19th century, and was restored in the 1990's. Most of the monasteries in Mongolia were destroyed by the Communist regime, and this is one of the few that remain.
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| A store near the monastery |
Here are a few shots from the monastery compound:
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| Entry gate |
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| In front of the main temple |
Inside the main temple is Avalokiteśvara, the tallest indoor statue in the world.
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| In the main temple |
After visiting the temple compound, we headed to the Chinggis Khan statue, east of Ulaanbaatar.
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| In the eastern suburbs of Ulaanbaatar |
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| Suburban apartments |
On the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, there were lots of compounds consisting of houses and yurts ("ger" in Mongolian). Families live in a standard house in the summer and move to the yurt, which is presumably warmer, in the winter.
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| Family compound |
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| More family compounds |
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| There were a few American-style subdivisions |
Eventually, we arrived at the
Chinggis Khan statue, about 33 miles east of Ulaanbaatar. The statue is 131 feet tall, and was completed in 2008. You can climb inside the statue, which we did.
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| Carol and Baaska at the statue |
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| Inside the statue--the world's largest boot |
I climbed inside the statue and out onto the neck of the horse.
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| View of the area surrounding the statue |
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| A wedding party at the statue |
From the statue, we headed for the
Steppe Nomads Ger (Yurt) Camp in the
Gun Galuut Nature Reserve, about 80 miles southeast of Ulaanbaatar.
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| Some horse herders near the camp |
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| Steppe Nomads Ger Camp |
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| Arriving at the camp restaurant/bar building |
A ger (yurt) is a collapsible structure, made primarily of felt and canvass on a wooden frame. It can be easily disassembled and moved, making it useful for a nomadic population.
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| My accomodation for the night |
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| Inside my ger |
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| View of the rest of the camp from my ger |
Before dinner, we went on an expedition searching for mountain sheep. Unfortunately we didn't find any, but the scenery was nevertheless spectacular.
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| Baaska and our driver on the lookout for sheep |
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| No sheep, but lots of yaks |
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| The Kherlen river, near the camp |
Dinner was in the main building at the camp, and we headed to our gers for bed. There was a wood stove in each ger, which the camp staff lit before bed and came in at about 6:00 AM to refill. With the help of long underwear, I easily survived the night with temperatures in the 40's (Fahrenheit). The only negative was that we had to go to the main building to use the bathroom (about a 20 yard walk from my ger). However, I was rewarded by a spectacular night sky and a great view of the Milky Way.
Day 4: Ghorki-Terelj National Park
After breakfast, we left the ger camp and headed northeast to
Ghorki-Terelj National Park, about 30 miles east of Ulaanbaatar.
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| Baaska and Carol enjoying breakfast |
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| A fond farewell from the camp staff |
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| Sheep herder along the way |
Along the way, and throughout the entire trip we saw displays of Buddhist prayer flags and mounds of offerings.
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| More scenery along the way |
Before we got to the park, Baaska had the driver pull over. She then walked up to a ger and asked the people in it if we could visit. A lot of tours give you the opportunity to visit locals in their home, but they are usually pre-arranged. This one wasn't.
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| Baaska asking if we could visit. Note the solar panel and satellite dish |
In this case we were visiting a nomad family of horse herders. The family consisted of a husband and wife, three children, and a grandmother.
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| Two of the children |
It wasn't exactly luxurious, but they were pretty successful with the horses and seemed to have everything they needed.
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| Panoramic shot inside the ger |
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| Note the TV on the left |
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| Mother and daughter |
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| Our driver making butter from mare's milk |
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| The horse herd |
We got to see members of the family milk the mares.
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| Mom and dad getting ready for milking |
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| With milking in progress, the son (who was wearing a Yankees cap) helps out |
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| Fresh mare's milk, which we declined to sample |
After our visit, we headed for the national park.
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| Village at the entrance to the Gorkhi-Terelj National Park |
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| Our ger camp |
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| Another view of the camp |
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| Inside my ger |
After checking in to the camp, we visited some sites in the park.
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| Me standing in front of the aptly-named Turtle Rock |
There was a small Buddhist monastery complex in the park, which we walked through. Along the trails were signs with various Buddhist teachings
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| Entrance to the monastery complex |
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| Signs along the pathways |
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| A larger sign with Buddhist teachings |
We then returned to the camp for dinner and overnight.
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| Yak crossing near the camp |
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| Cows invading our camp |
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| Another view of the camp |
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| Buffet in the main bulding |
There was also a "demonstration ger" at the camp. It was a little more luxurious than the family her we had visited.
Day 5: Back to Ulaanbaatar
Today we headed back to Ulaanbaatar, and did some more touring there.
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| Shopping for souvenirs on the way back to Ulaanbaatar |
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| A local resident |
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| A housing development (Happy Valley) on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar |
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| A supermarket just outside of Ulaanbaatar |
By the way, you might notice that the Mongolian language uses Cyrillic characters.
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| At a checkpoint entering Ulaanbaatar |
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| Some family compounds on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar |
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| Apartment complexes in Ulaanbaatar |
On arriving back in Ulaanbaatar, we went to Zaisan Hill in the southern part, which had some great views over the city. You can see from here that large parts of the city are quite modern.
At the top of the hill is a monument
memorializing Soviet soldiers who died in World War II.
There is also a large circular painting representing the friendship between the Soviet Union and Mongolia.
We then drove across town to the
National Museum of Mongolia.
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| Entrance to the museum |
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| Ger exhibit inside the museum |
From there, we went to the
Winter Palace of the Boghd Khan, which was where the last king of Mongolia lived until 1923. The palace, which includes several temples, was built in the late 1800s. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed in the palace.
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| Courtyard outside the palace |
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| Entrance to the palace compound |
While we were in the palace, we ran across a crew filming a commercial for a Mongolian telecommunications commercial. They lifted a ban on photography so we could take a picture with the cast.
From the palace we headed to the northern part of Ulaanbaatar for lunch.
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| Central Ulaanbaatar |
We ate at a place called Modern Nomads, which was in fact modern and served (presumably) nomadic food. This consisted mostly of grilled meats and vegetables.
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| Modern Nomads |
After lunch, we headed to Chinggis Khan square, in the middle of the city.
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| An interesting building on the way to Chingghis Khan Square |
Below are some views of Chingghis Khan Square.
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| Looking southeast: The pink building on the left is the National Ballet and Opera Theater. The statue on the right is Damdin Sükhbaatar |
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| Looking east: Mongolian Theater Museum, with our hotel on the left |
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| South side of the square: Blue Sky Hotel |
From the square, we went a few blocks west to the State Department Store for some souvenir shopping. The store was the main government store until the 1990's, but now it is privately owned.
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| State Department Store |
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| Inside the State Department Store |
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| Panoramic view of the street in front of the State Department Store |
A couple of blocks from the store was a Beatles monument, which was a little strange, because as far as I know, the Beatles never set foot in Mongolia.
Our next stop was performance by the Mongolian National Song and Dance Theatre.
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| The theatre building was rather nondescript |
We weren't expecting much, but were very pleasantly surprised by the performance. The concert included Mongolian throat singing, which is interesting and perhaps an acquired taste, but the rest of the music was excellent. If the group comes to your town, I highly recommend seeing them.
After the show, we went to BD's Mongolian Grill for dinner. Those of you in the midwest may notice that this is the same BD's Mongolian Grill that has restaurants there. They also have two restaurants in Ulaanbaatar. The food was pretty much the same as at BD's (or any Mongolian grill in the United States).
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, to get ready for the next day's departure to Beijing.
Next --
Days 6-9: Beijing
