This morning we
awoke to a knock on the door at 5.45am from one of the train ladies.
Outside the window, there was quite a spectacular sunrise as we
approached Ulaanbataar (or UB, as it's known locally). We had a treat
in store for us today – we were being met at the station by the
lovely Anna (and a driver) from Panoramic Journeys, the tour company
about which I'm writing a feature and which will be looking after us
during our time in Mongolia.
After dropping us at
the Lotus Guest House – and presenting us all with some great felt
slippers – Anna took us (through a very light snowfall) for
breakfast at a little place called Soup Bar, on the way introducing
us to the perils of crossing the road in UB. Cars are a relatively
new innovation for many Mongolians, and the niceties of traffic rules
have yet to take hold, so when you attempt to cross a road, you take
your life in your hands – the green man holds little sway here,
cars zipping around corners as you're trying to cross and showing
little desire to give way to you.
After breakfast,
Anna left us to our own devices. We stopped to check out a local
playground (while a bit more snow fell), got some cash and then
visited the information centre, where we got a city map and had our
third lesson in how to say 'thank you' in Mongolian. It's a very odd
word. Apparently, it's spelled bayarlalaa, but that doesn't
come close to explaining how it's actually said – which involves
sending air down the sides of your tongue while it's stuck to the
roof of your mouth as you say the first l (and not saying the second
one at all). If I was trying to spell it phonetically, I reckon it
would look something like bya-xshla. Only Zoe ever really mastered
it.
We then went back to
the room for a little rest and to have a look on TripAdvisor for some
restaurant recommendations, which proved to be next to useless when
we headed back out again for lunch. In the end, we ate in a funny
little local place, where Kate asked the server, who spoke very
little English, to order for us. Our meal, when it came, was
perfectly edible, if not exactly haute cuisine.
We then wandered
down the road to the new dinosaur museum, stopping off first in a big
square, where there was some sort of market/fair on, complete with
people dressed up as a tube of mayonnaise. The Gobi desert region in
southeastern Mongolia is a bit of a hotspot for dinosaur fossils –
including some very impressive Tyrannosaur skeletons. For some time
there has been a lucrative smuggling racket going on, with some of
the best finds being secreted out of the country and sold to rich
American collectors. However, the Mongolian government has been
cracking down on the trade – and even repatriating some of the
better skeletons. Sadly, the museum was a pretty rudimentary affair –
just one big room with a few big skeletons - but one of them was a
huge pretty much complete Tyrannosaur that more than justified the
entrance fee.
Afterwards, we
walked down to the State Department Store, stopping to buy a cute and
very cheap dress for the girls, and then on to Sükhbaatar Square,
the very impressive main square in UB, which contains a huge marble
statue of Chinggis (Genghis) Khaan. While Kate and Zoe crossed the
road to check out the opera and ballet theatre to see if there was
anything on while we were in town, Sarah and I sat in the square,
where we were approached by two shy and giggly female Mongolian
students who wanted to interview me for an English project.
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