Mongolia Monitor

Mongolia Monitor

It’s an adventurous trip: by train we go from Beijing to Ulan Bator – the capital of Mongolia. We check in at the Beijing Railway Station. Relatively easy we find our train.

My wife and I reserved the train in advance via a nice lady from our Beijing hotel. From our own country, emailing in English. Well, the lady did a good job. We have a compartment of our own although it’s meant for four persons. That allows us some space. The train trip takes two days, that means we also sleep on the train.

At 07:45 exactly the trip starts. Sightseeing China by train. We pass by a lot of different landscapes. A woman servant sells hot drinks. Probably because it’s very cold! There’s a special restaurant compartment. Just when we finish dinner in the evening we are summoned to our own place. We reached the Chinese/Mongolian border!

Customs officers come to collect all passports. The train is moved to a sidetrack. Here the chassis is changed because the train track in Mongolia is wider. This takes a few hours. Then the train moves forward and a little later backwards. And again. This also takes some time. Perhaps to test if the chassis was installed correctly?

We get our passports back, the train moves on. After 5 minutes we stop again. Now it’s the Mongolian customs officers looking into our passports. Well after midnight the train moves on.

We try to sleep. The coaches are hard, temperature very low and sand from the desert just blows in. Not much sleep that night… In the morning light we see the Gobi desert. Impressive. Endless plains, hills and small mountains of sand.

Breakfast is served in the newly coupled Mongolian restaurant compartment. A stop in Chur. Lots of people trying to sell things. We buy some desert stones. I try to make a few pictures of the kids selling these stones but they won’t let me. We dare not strolling around because the train may leave any moment.

In the early afternoon we finally reach Ulan Bator. When Mongolia was declared a people’s republic in 1924, the capital city of Urga was renamed Ulan Bator, which means ‘Red Hero’. At the train station driver Segmet awaits us. He doesn’t speak any Western language, nor do we speak his language. We communicate with smiles and thumb-ups.

Check-in at Hotel Continental. It looks a little like the Washington White House. Nice place to stay. During lunch a lady from our travel agency – called ‘Happy Camel’ – jumps in to say hello.

We walk to the city center. Streets are messy. Potholes in the streets and on the sidewalk. Pay attention when you walk here at night; these holes are not marked. Car drivers drive like madmen.

We see a big square in front of the Parliament building. On the other hand a large road with shops and restaurants. We dine at a place called ‘Red Horse Dinner’. We try some special Mongolian dishes. After some noodle soup and dumplings we take Khorkhog, a traditional meat dish, barbeque prepared.

In the hotel no one speaks any foreign language. If we ask for our room key they don’t understand. I walk behind the counter, grab the key, point at us. Most of the time that’s enough to satisfy them (and us).

Next day driver Segmet and guide Mogi are there. Ready for the trip! The hotel people don’t agree. Arrive yesterday, leave today? Pay first! We try to explain we return after a few days. Hopefully they understand. Because we cannot take all of our luggage, we have to leave some here.

Off we go! Leaving Ulan Bator for a long drive through the desert. A stop at a Ger. A Ger is kind of a tent. A lot of layers to keep the wind out. Sturdy buttons of horse hair connect the canvases. A stove where wood pieces are burnt in the middle to keep the warmth.

We visit Hustai National Park. We see wild marmots. But the greatest attraction here are the Przewalski horses. Beautiful horses. They are well adjusted to the cold climate. Over at a special Ger men and boys are shaving sheep – a male activity obviously. Nice to observe. We taste Airag. This is fermented mare milk. The drink that symbolizes best Mongolia. The taste is very acid-like. We were not that enthusiastic about it.

On our way to the place where we will spend the night we spot several herds of Przewalski horses. The accommodation consists of a few Gers. In the biggest we are served a nice dinner. Then the guide shows us our Ger. In the middle a great fire to keep us warm. We go to sleep.

After a few hours we wake up. The fire is finished. Probably we were expected to put some firewood to the fire now and then – but we slept. It has turned immense cold. Only little sleeping the rest of the night.

And when you are cold you have to go to the toilet. Put on clothes, a long walk, go back in bed. Still shivery! Here we truly experienced the meaning of feeling cold to the bone!

In the vast area we drive there are no roads. So driver Segmet gives in the latitude and longitude GPS coordinates of our end point and then finds his way through the desert. From the top of a steep hill I photograph what roads look like in this manner.

We walk around in the small town of Lün. Not much activity here. In the middle of Lün there’s a Mini-market that serves the place plus people from miles away. Another stop at a Ger. This one is close to some sand dunes. We spot a cashmere goat here. We pay respect to the grave of the only female Emperor who ruled Mongolia long ago: Empress Mandôgh.

The monastery Hugenh is impressive. Pictures of the Dalai Lama on display everywhere. Mongolia may be a people’s republic but Buddhism faith is professed by a lot of inhabitants of the country.

A monk who speaks a little English leads us around. He tells about the meaning of colors in the Buddhism religion. Blue refers to love and peace. Red stands for achievement and virtue, white for purity, yellow signifies the Middle Path. The most important color is orange. It symbolizes the essence of Buddhism which is full of wisdom, strength and dignity.

After a long ride we return to our Hotel Continental. The hotel people are surprised. They didn’t expect us to come back! Our luggage was stowed in a big bed sheet. They kept that behind the reception. I ask for the same room. The stuff I put in the safety box is still there!

A drink on the terrace of the State Department Store. Dinner in a Czech specialty restaurant. We finish the evening with a night cap in the hotel bar. We have a little chat with Sunil, a guy from India. The conversation stops abruptly when a lady arrives for a massage in his room (?).

One of the highlights of Ulan Bator is Gandan Tegchenling, a set of Buddhist monasteries and schools. This is a quite impressive place. Big temples, beautiful painted prayer houses, lots of monks of all ages.

Tasgany Ovoo is a view point. But it’s also a holy place. Out of respect you add a stone to the ones already assembled there. People appreciate this gesture.

After lunch – dumplings first, then a fried meat pie – in the best restaurant in town called ‘ Modern Nomads’ we pay a visit to the National History Museum. The most interesting here are the fossils of two small dinosaurs fighting. Imagine when the comet hit the earth 65 million years ago they were preserved forever in this attitude!

In the museum there are lots of illustrations referring to the life and times of Genghis Khan. Outside we pass a big statue of him. Genghis Khan is still honored – after all he literally put Mongolia on the map! During his days (13th century) the Mongol Empire included much of the then known world.

Today we take a taxi. Communication is difficult but we show him pictures of the places we like to visit. After some price negotiations we take off to the Zaisan Memorial. This is a memorial for those killed in the Second World War.

Our driver doesn’t know the exact location. He asks several people for direction, but nobody answers! They are not interested to help. Unlike in other countries the people behave unfriendly, even rude. Somehow we find the memorial. There are a lot of stairs to climb, resulting in a not that spectacular view over Ulan Bator because of all the construction going on!

Royal families built all kind of palaces in the capital. During revolutionary times most were destroyed. People forgot one: the winter palace of Bogd Khan. You enter through the peace gate. It’s a beautiful palace, built in a time when money was not a problem. Nice decorations everywhere. The guards want to make sure we paid the entrance fee. ‘ See tickets, see tickets’, they ask.

We visit a Foot Reflexology Massage Parlor. We reckon to ‘fresh up’ here, requesting a body massage. Well the ladies sure gripped our muscles quite hard! We feel the intense way our bodies were worked on. This really is a physical experience!

Before we head to the airport we lunch in restaurant ‘Dolce Vita’. At another table a photographer and some lady fashion models are discussing a photo shoot they will do in the Gobi desert. They talk at length about keeping warm in the windy and cold desert while not showing this on the pictures. Everyone has their own problems in life…

This trip was made in 2008.

If you have any thoughts or questions feel free to leave a comment!

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