Back in UB

More details to come later...

After our 10 day trip in the minivan, I headed back to Ulanbaatar for another day and a half before heading back on the 24 hour train ride to Datong (6 hours West of Beijing). The first night, we just took it easy, and I went out for pizza with Erwin and Aafke, a nice change of pace after numerous plates of mutton and noodles. I also took the second day to explore the city. Mostly a fairly unpleasant looking city, I managed to find the square with the theater and government buildings, a much nicer part than much of the city populated with former Russian style apartment buildings with entrances through convoluted back alleys and busy, pot-holed streets. On the final evening, I met up with my friend Saruul, who I had met on the train up to Mongolia, and she showed me around a bit more of the city, including a war memorial on a hill overlooking the city for a nice view of the sunset. Overall, Mongolia was an incredible, wide open country, and I was really happy to have the chance to see some of the wonderful countryside before getting back to the hectic cities of China.

(Group shot, L to R: Driver Muha, Frauke, Guide Mochee, Ingo, Jenny, Erwin, Aafke and me. Ingo and Frauke are a German couple travelling for one year, Aafke and Erwin are a Dutch couple who came all the way across on the train from Moscow, Jenny is a Malaysian just on a month trip, making her way back down through China after this. Mochee/Mogee is the daughter of a diplomat, so she has lived in Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia, China, Mongolia and the US. Not bad.)

(Peace Ave, one of the main streets through UB. Nothing too spectacular, but that's the point.)


(An unfinished high rise that looks a bit like that massive hotel in Dubai. Trust me, this one is not that nice.)

(I believe this building is the Mongolian stock market, on the edge of the big city square.)

(And I think that's the national theater, though I could be wrong. Maybe I should consult Saruul on this one.)

(The government house, fronted by a statue of Chinggis himself.)

(There's the ode to the imperial conqueror, protected by a solitary soldier, looking rather bored.)

(Same place, topped by the Mongolian flag.)

(One of the Buddhist temples on the edge of town. Although it looks like fun, chasing around and annoying all of those pigeons would probably not be a very Buddhist-friendly activity.)