Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
She gave me a look up and down and said, “You are a brave girl, good luck.” I chuckled to myself and wondered what that even meant.
Ulaanbaatar | Part I
From a trip that started in Vietnam, with having more than enough time, my schedule gradually started to compress and time began to fall short by the time I was in Ulaanbaatar. On my way there, I spent 26 hours at the Hong Kong airport, 14 of which I was stuck on the arrivals secured section, unable to leave. This wasn’t completely bad, I must say I got the best 12 hours of sleep I’ve had in a long, long time.
When I awoke, I learned that my flight was delayed another 6 hours. It had been a day of 6 hours here, 4 hours there, another 6 hours there. Time was dragging. Finally, I was able to check into my flight. I met a nice lady and her 2 year old son in the line. I met the son first because he and another little boy in line were growling at each other and flexing their muscles. One of the moms commented “Ah, they're acting like grown men already.” I spoke with one of the moms in line. She was from Mongolia and has been living in Singapore for the last 5 years. Her first questions to me where 1. Are you alone? And 2. Why are you going to Mongolia? I answered both causally, I'm used to these types of questions. She gave me a look up and down and said, “You are a brave girl, good luck.” I chuckled to myself and wondered what that even meant.
I arrived in Ulaanbaatar around 00.30 or later. Once I got my bag I stepped out into the arrival area and all the lights were off, nobody was there except for a handful of Mongolian taxi drivers hassling people for a ride. All of the other passengers dispersed and went on their way home. Since my flight was so delayed, I couldn't take the bus that I had planned for. I needed a taxi but I didn't have the address or a phone or money for that matter. I went upstairs to find an ATM and to get some space away from all of the big Mongolian men harassing me. Upstairs at the ATM there was nobody, just dim lighting. I was so shocked how empty and dark the airport was, it didn’t feel very safe.
One of the taxi drivers followed me upstairs. Kept saying “Girl, girl, ride”. I’m not going to lie, all of this was very intimidating. But I knew this, it’s very common for the first moment of arrival to be overwhelmed by confusion and trying to sort out what is happening, currency, directions, etc. all in a different language and culture. This guy seemed nice enough, so I entertained the conversation. I asked if he had a phone I could use and he ended up running downstairs and borrowing a friends phone that had credit. This bought me some time to myself at the ATM.
I was planning to stay with another Couchsurfing host, Otgoo. I called her and she spoke to the driver and coordinated the address. Then hung up, gave the phone back to his friend and we went outside. Instantly, I was blasted by the cold air. Wow, it really IS cold here. At this point it was after 1:00am. We approached his car, which wasn’t an official taxi. I had read about this before, in Mongolia EVERYONE is a taxi. You can stop any car on the street and hire them for a ride.
It was confusing when approaching the car. The driver’s seat was on the right side. I actually learned later that they drive on the right side of the road but the driver seat is either on the left or the right. It depends on where they get the cars. Mongolia lives between two worlds and has many Russian and Asian influences and the cars are a complete mix. After awhile, I got used to it but it was strange seeing the driver's shift in position from car to car.
In the car, I just chuckled. One of my favorite things is to jump into transportation in a new country. It’s always such an experience and full of personality. Traditional Mongolian music was playing on the radio, carpeted textiles on the back seat and colorful Buddhist tassels hanging from the rear view mirror. I then look again at my driver, this 6’-3” man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with images of 100 USD bills embroidered in gold thread on the back.
We drove for awhile, I was checking my GPS to make sure we were going in the right direction. After being in the car for awhile, I was starting to feel a bit vulnerable. It was almost 2:00 am by the time we reached the area that my host lived. He couldn’t find her house. I just sat there thinking, “What am I going to do.” Everything was pitch black and this was not like any place I had been before. All I could see were wood fences and dirt roads. I was hoping Otgoo would call us back very soon because the driver was getting impatient and I didn’t want him to leave me there without any way of communicating with anyone. After sitting in the car for 20 minutes or so, she called his phone and we were guided to her gate.
Otgoo was such a sweet girl. I was so thankful that she stayed up that late to greet me. The driver ended up trying to charge me 6 TIMES the price, because I was American. The classic switching USD with Tugriks. Otgoo and him were arguing back and forth for awhile and I ended up throwing him some Tugriks and hopped out of the cab.
We entered through the gate, the air so cold. At this point, I don’t even have a jacket or proper shoes. We hurried into the house where we sat in the outer room and briefly got to know each other. She lived with her family and had just started hosting people through Couchsurfing. She pulled out her notebook with names of all the people that she hosted, I was number 46 and the first person from the United States! She was in such awe of my “American” accent. She kept telling me how much she loved listening to me speak.
She had taught herself English one year prior. It’s really amazing, teaching yourself a language independently is so hard! She asked if I was okay to sleep on the floor, I said of course. Whatever is fine. Just thanks for having me and staying up this late. Then we opened the other door to go into the house and to my surprise it was just one big room. Her entire family sleeping on the floor. She showed me where I could lay down to sleep, in between her older brother and her mother. I was trying to not act too surprised but this wasn't what I was expecting. But grateful, I laid down. It was her brother, me, her mom, her little sister, her, and then her father all laying on the floor. I buried my head in my scarf and fell asleep to the sounds of everyone breathing and the men snoring.
The next morning came suddenly. We took her little sister to the elementary school down the road. All I could think was before I did anything else in the day, I needed to buy a jacket and boots. I was dying, it was so cold. Anything not covered was getting burned from the cold. Otgoo kept saying how much warmer it was in these days. I was thinking, wow … When they say it gets cold here… It must get really, really cold.
We hopped on the bus into the center, it was nothing like I was expecting. It’s extremely industrial, ran down, and heavily influenced by Soviet architecture. The architectural style in juxtaposition with the landscape and smoke stacks in the distance, make an interesting feel for the city. Ulaanbaatar is heavily polluted as well. Not as bad as Hanoi, but the air smells of chemicals from adjacent mining.
She took me on an errand in the morning, where she was meeting her aunt who was in this apartment sleeping in a bed. I was so confused. We went into this ran-down apartment building. Walked in the hallway and she went into a room while I waited outside. She later explained it, in one of those rooms there is this special bed that people rent to sleep. She was telling me she has a thyroid problem and it helps for her to come here a couple of times a week to sleep for an hour each time. She was saying how special the bed was and that it costs 4 million Tugriks (which is about $2,000usd). I am still confused by this.
Ulaanbaatar | Round II
I came back to Ulaanbaatar after Dashinchilen and spent several days exploring the city. This time around, I decided to stay in a hostel that was recommended to me by Sophie and Guillaume, the French couple I met in Hatgal. I was really glad I did. It was a small eight-bed hostel with only 4 guests, running water and a kitchen, such luxury!
We were an interesting mix of guests. There was one guy from China, who had been living at the hostel for the last 10 years. He kept to himself, was very quiet and would usually sit on his bed reading stacks of papers. Nobody fully understood his story.
Dave, was another man that I enjoyed chatting with. He's lived in Mongolia for the last 15 years. One day, he packed up his life in London and made the journey west and has been here since. He's had many jobs here, most recently teaching English to a successful business man. Dave had many stories and insights to the life in Mongolia. He even owned a bar in Ulaanbaatar for 5 years. He seemed to be pretty integrated in the local community and spoke Mongolian fairly well.
The last guest that arrived was a backpacker from Austria. He came in one night after hitchhiking his way back north from the Gobi desert. There, he met Sophie and Guillaume. Such a small world! He laughed as he asked, “are you the one who was just traveling through Turkey and Vietnam?” He had already heard about me. There are not many travelers in Mongolia at this time and somehow we all managed to find each other. He also met Tomas, the man from Czech Republic randomly in another little town.
I spent these days walking all around Ulaanbaatar. I visited the Gandantegchinlen Monastery, different art museums and the International Intellectual Museum (my favorite). I was also introduced to a friend of a friend who was living there on a mission, that was fun to meet a fellow San Franciscan! We met for coffee a couple of times and explored the Black Market.
Ulaanbaatar | Round III
Katie and spent the last days in Mongolia enjoying the local life in the city and preparing for our trip to Russia! It's always nice to find yourself a favorite coffee shop and settle down.
