We ate breakfast at the hotel where they put out a nice spread of bread, meats, cheeses, yogurts, and fruit with tea and coffee. Our first stop of the day was at Sukhbaatar Square where we snapped a few pictures of Chingiss and his warriors. Standing in the square, Ashlee and I realized how bad of tour guides we were going to be to Scott over the next 10 days. He kept pointing at important-looking buildings and monuments and asking what they were and we would just shake our heads and say we didn’t know. “Oh yeah, Sukhbaatar! He was this guy that helped Mongolia win independence from the Chinese or something. Or was it the Russians? Nope, definitely the Chinese. Yeah, it was in the 1920s. Hmm, maybe it was the 1940s. Anyways, he’s an important guy.”
We had to explain to Scott that to us, UB is purely a resupply point where we frequent American-style eateries and load up on Western foodstuffs. We have the same issue whenever we meet travelers in the local guesthouses who get excited and want to pump us for information after they hear that we have been living in Mongolia for an extended period of time. Pretty much all we can help them do, however, is show them where they can get the best pizza, club sandwich, and iced latte – which is not exactly what they are looking for.
The weather our first day was surprisingly warm. It was comfortable in the shade with a nice breeze, but actually a little overwhelming in the direct sunlight. Walking through downtown UB in this heat made it difficult to remember that Mongolian winters bring -50F winters. All the locals seemed to be absolutely melting in the heat.
We spent the day exploring a large Buddhist monastery, showing Scott PC HQ, and walking through the national museum. The monastery was great. We got to walk all over the grounds spinning prayer wheels and hearing the monks chant. I was also really impressed with the museum. It’s multiple floors covered Mongolian history from the Stone Age to the overthrow of communism in the 1990s. In fact, the last thing you saw before exiting the museum was a large quotation from George W. Bush who visited the country a few years ago. He was welcoming Mongolia to the free world. Hmm, no comment.
Anyways, it was really great getting to see these sites and to feel like a tourist in a country that we have been living in for a year. I imagine that if Scott had not come, we wouldn’t have visited these places. We realized that we would finally get to see the side of Mongolia that we always hear tourists raving about.
We ate lunch at Luna Blanca, a vegetarian restaurant serving traditional Mongolian dishes veggie-style. Scott got his first taste of buuz (steamed dumplings), huushuur (breaded and fried dumplings), and tsuivan (flour noodles). It’s funny, we realized that on this trip Scott would probably never experience the side of Mongolia that really gives us trouble: the winter (obviously), meat plates, vodka shots, and the work environment. I worried that he would go home thinking that we were babies for complaining about living and working here.
After an afternoon nap (we had some trouble shaking our jet lag) and a hectic trip to our friend’s apartment where we stashed our excess luggage, we set out for dinner. On the way we met a very international Mongolian taxi driver. Realizing that we were Americans, he spoke English to us in an incredibly thick Russian accent. He told us all about how his father was a diplomat and that he was born in Czechoslovakia, educated in Russia, and that he lived for several years in both southern California (Carlsbad) and Ireland. You just have to love these completely random chance encounters we always seem to have in Mongolia.
We met our eagle-hunting friend, Lauren, for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, an “Irish” pub called Granville’s where you can get a decent pizza, pasta dish, or spinach salad. We hadn’t seen her since the early spring when she left Olgii to work on vulture conservation in the Gobi (I know, right?) and it was great catching up. She is planning on heading back to America in August and she is still hoping to bring her eagle with her – although it sounds like there is a mess of red tape to cut through. She also gave us some sad news: apparently a mutual friend of ours (Agii, a coworker of mine) is going through a family crisis. According to Lauren, Agii’s sister was diagnosed with some sort of brain tumor that is totally inoperable here in Mongolia, even in UB, and Agii is going crazy trying to save money to send her to a hospital in Korea. It sounds like Agii is pretty much selling everything he owns and he is still coming up short. Hopefully when Ashlee and I get back to Olgii we can do whatever we can to help him.
On a lighter note, Lauren was anxious to hear all about our time in America, especially the food. She’s been in Mongolia for just about a year and she has had to put up with the cuisine far more than we have. We were also happy that Scott got to meet her since he has heard numerous stories about her adventures.
After dinner we caught a really unexpected treat: a 50-member U.S. Marine Corps marching band was in town and they were holding a free concert in Sukhbaatar Square. It was funny walking through the heart of UB and hearing “When the Saints Go Marching In.” We watched the show for about an hour. The Marines were joined by what must have been their Mongolian equivalents. Quite a few Mongolians in the crowd seemed confused by the show, especially when the Marines started marching around the square. From what we gathered, the Marines were based out of Hawaii – hmm, playing shows all over the world in a band based out of Hawaii doesn’t seem like a bad way to serve your country, huh?
As the show started winding down, we found ourselves a bit knackered so we said goodbye to Lauren and made out way back to the hotel to make our final preparations for our trip to Hovsgol the following day.
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