Ulaanbaatar/Ulan-Bator: Adapt or die!

Now that I’ve been in town for almost two weeks, I ask myself whether I actually like or dislike it. I really don’t think I can tell. What I do can tell though, is that UB is different and…it’s a MESS. If you have had the opportunity to gain travel experiences in Russia and Belarus like me, UB won’t be a cultural shock to you. Adaption is key here. Adapt or die!

Traffic:
The most terrifying thing about UB is the traffic. You’ll come across this the moment you’re leaving the airport. Streets are full as fuck. People don’t care about traffic lights, crosswalks, driving lanes and the least about pedestrians. It pays paying attention at ANYTIME at ANY PLACE. It’s simply lifesaving. 

Air pollution:
Talking about the traffic situation, it is obvious referring to the air quality next. Smokey air is accompanying you almost throughout the day, but first and far most at peak times along main roads. However, deterioration is yet to come. People like telling you horror stories about winter and the coal smog polluted air. I’m sure I can tell you about this in further detail at another point. :)

Being “different”:
It can take you quite a while to arrange yourself with being different from the rest. It’s not that people stare at you, since indeed Mongolia is somewhat a touristic spot. But they notice you’re different. I don’t feel like a stranger, but sometimes I feel observed, and it makes me wanna know what they think while they observe me.

Food
UB offers everything you need: Italian, Chinese, Korean (tons), Japanese, French, American, German, Indian and of course Mongolian cuisine. It’s cheap. It’s good. It’s plenty. Finding your food in grocery stores is actually easy as well. Although, it’ll save you pennies, if you take the time trying and comparing different places. You’ll find a lot of German and Russian products next to the Mongolian ones. Mind the best before date, though. You may find milk and yoghurt that’s been far beyond expiry date. Prices vary, such as quality.

Language
Another question that I’ve been asked frequently was: “What language do they speak there?” The answer is Mongolian! You can put Russian, English or sometimes even German in brackets. But usually it’s just Mongolian. Cyrillic script skills help you a lot here but they won’t help you getting the sense out of words in case your skills come from Russian lessons (like in my case). 

Leaving the city: Terelj National Park

Honestly, the Mongolian country sight is what you should come here for, not the cities. The nature is what makes this country special and unique. Farness, emptiness, silence. Precious goods in Europe. Widely offered in Mongolia.

A good, soft and affordable entry to explore the Mongolian nature is the Terelj National Park, very nearby UB. My roomie and I jumped on the bus at Peace Ave for Nilaikh. Getting there took us around an hour. From there you can choose various options to continue to Terelj. Everyone would take you anywhere for 20,000 MNT (8 EUR, 9 USD). But if you wanna go like locals, take the bus for 1,500 MNT (0.60 EUR) and it’ll drop you off anywhere along the road.

We decided to get off at Terelj village. It didn’t take a sec until a local woman appeared, offering us her ger for 10,000 MNT (4 EUR, 4.50 USD) per night per person, which we thankfully accepted. So…how does a ger tent actually look like inside? Check here…

Everything’s kept rather plain and simple. Beds are hard, for washing bring your own water, toilet is a small, little, dark, wooden outhouse shared with 10 to 20 others. Absolutely fine for a one night stay. :) 

We then hiked around the area for quite a while. View was stunning. Air was clean. Sky was blue. Altogether this was really calming our city rushed souls. It took me a while, but I got into my meditation mode and could really just be there in present. Terelj is a good place for getting far away from city life and problems mentally without actually driving far away from city life geographically.

Temperatures drop significantly at dusk. There’s no way without heating the oven even in August. Also, always good to have a thick sleeping bag or extra blankets with you.

Since the nightly rain was flooding the non-paved roads, we decided to leave after getting up and slowly went to the bus stop to see where we can go from there. We were amazingly lucky to catch the bus waiting right there right when we got there. If you go by public transport in Mongolia, be patient and take it easy. Don’t expect timetables or signs to guide you through. It’s part of the Mongolian experience. The bus got us back to UB within almost 3 hours (for 45 km).  

Ulaanbaatar/Ulan-Bator: Touch down and first steps

I'm living in the 5^th micro district, quite central and surrounded by tons of grocery stores. If you wanna crash at our place during your Mongolia trip, here’s the link to do so:

https://www.couchsurfing.com/people/stevebu (works only for members I think)

The city center is more than doable on foot. I won’t list the sights (check Tripadvisor, they’re good at that), but I want to show them to you.

My folks know I’m more that underground kind of guy. I tend to be more interested in things that are actually not meant to be interesting. Those pictures may help you understand what I mean by that.

UB is a city that aggressively tried to comply with this modern business city image, building skyscrapers, deluxe apartment houses and so on. But economic turnaround came right when commodity prices fell and eventually led to a deep economic crisis. So as of now, nobody knows when all those skyscrapers are going to be completed or if they ever will. It’s fascinating me. I really got used to people looking at me with confusion what the hell is he taking pictures of?

Why there?

Even though, I’ve mostly encountered curious and positive reactions when telling people I’d go to Mongolia, there is one questions they all have been asking me: Why there? Decent question. I always felt kind of unprepared for this question. “Well, I’m interested in development politics. I’m very interested in Eastern transformation countries and the rest I think is coincidence, isn’t it?” You just don’t and can’t plan life ahead. You can prioritize and you can work on your karma, and fortune eventually decides whether you’ll be given or not given a chance. So this time…Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia was my chance, and I decided to take it.

Now that I’ve been in the business of traveling for almost exactly 10 years (since I left home for exciting, open and nasty Berlin) I certainly know traveling is about receiving AND giving. Meaning I know I’ll have to expand energy to place myself in a new environment, a new culture. I’m more than willing to do so. This is my time. This is my place.

Asia. Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar. Six months.