Since we got in so late the night before, Ashlee and I took the opportunity to sleep in a bit. Even so, were still out of bed and down to breakfast by 8:30am. At the breakfast table we all put our heads together to decide how to make Scott’s last day worthwhile. We decided to make the Zaisan memorial our first stop of the day. The Zaisan memorial sits atop a small hill on the outskirts of town. Constructed by the Soviets, it is a monument commemorating the special relationship between the Mongolian and Russian peoples as well as honoring "unknown soldiers and heroes" from various wars. It also a great place to see the entire city, from the downtown area to the ger districts that radiate out as far as you can see. It was another beautiful morning.
From the memorial, we took a bus back into the city, on which Scott had his first (and only) run-in with a small group of drunk Mongolians. One of them shook Scott’s hand and told him how cool his hair was. After a quick stop at one of our favorite UB markets to show Scott the wide range of Western food products we can get in the city, we decided it was lunch time. We settled on Altai Barbecue, the original Mongolian BBQ “since 1206.” Completely Americanized and quite popular with the locals, it is the same type of Mongolian barbecue that we like to eat back home. In addition to the regular line of meat and veggies that you can pack into a bowl to be cooked on the large round grill, there was also a small nook with truly authentic Mongolian dishes. Scott finally got to taste a bit of meat plate, pieces of a goat roast, and he got to see a boiled sheep’s head. I think he preferred the American type of Mongolian BBQ.
We spent most of the afternoon walking around various souvenir shops on the hunt for a cashmere scarf for Edie and a souvenir plate for Scott to take back home to hang on their kitchen wall. This second task proved to be quite difficult as the only plates we could find were uber-cheesey. In the end we had to get a little inventive and Scott decided to pretty much assemble his own plate by combining two different souvenir pieces. It's truly one-of-a-kind now.
Our last tourist stop we made was at the Choijin Lama temple museum. Smack in the center of downtown UB it's a little gem of Buddhist architecture surrounded by shoddily constructed modern buildings -- it pretty much sits in the shadow of the huge unfinished "shark fin" / "taco" building that is a UB landmark and eyesore. The small complex contains 5 temples stuffed with tapestries, buddhas, masks, and burning incense. Outside of the main temple was a man playing a "morin khuur," or Mongolian horse-head fiddle. He seemed quite talented and a nice-enough guy so I bought one of his CDs.
So yeah, this last tourist attraction pretty much wrapped up our Mongolian vacation. We headed back to the hotel to escape the UB heat, packed our bags, grabbed our last dinner together as a threesome at one of our favorite Indian restaurants in town (the place where we consistently blow our meager PCV budgets) and Scott said goodbye to the city.
On the morning of Wednesday, July 7th we said our goodbyes to Scott and stuffed him in a taxi to the airport. Ashlee and I then had to put our heads together to decide how we would spend the next few days until our flight back to Olgii on the 13th.
All in all, it was an amazing vacation. I know I've said it before, but we finally got to discover the side of Mongolia that we always hear tourists raving about. Mongolia is a beautiful country with a unique history -- it's just that there is a big difference between visiting it and living and working in it. It was also really great being able to share this experience with Scott. Our trip back to America made me realize how difficult it will be in the future to bridge our American and Mongolian lives. It feels like it is impossible to explain Mongolia -- you just have to experience for yourself...which is what Scott did.
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