Today was a day of transit from Elstai back to Ulaanbataar. They tell me that Ulaanbataar means “Red Heroes”, but thats just propaganda. During Soviet times the city was the world centre for the cruel production of “Oil of Ulan”, that saw the small fury Ulans wiped out from the steppe and the name changed to “Oil of Olay” once communism fell and western scientists were able to figure out a way to chemically synthesise the formula.
During the drive back we had another quick stop at the Ghengis statue so that Tans didn’t miss out. There were about 10 – 15 cars, that I suppose are in the SUV category that were on a test drive from Irkutsk to Ulaanbataar all parked in the Ghengis statue car park. Having saw that, we then bounced along the East Highway arriving into Ulaanbataar at around lunchtime, the highway is one of the countries main thoroughfares and feels no different to offroad. We saw a couple of Yaks grazing in a field
We went for a look around the city, we saw the main square where a monument to Ghengis was erected in 2006, the 800 year anniversary of the Mongol Empire. We then drove up to a hill overlooking the city, where the grimness of Soviet urban planning is in full view. Atop the hill there is a monument to Soviet and Mongolian Heroes of the revolution, including Mongolia’s first cosmonaut, who blasted into space in 1981. There was also another eagle in the carpark that could be held. The money shot when holding eagles is to get them to expand their wings, to do this you need to roll your arm and put them off balance, unfortunately this saw said eagle fall off of a persons arm and onto the ground below, when a big gust of wind picked it up. We have some great photos of Tans holding it, we figure that the money goes to the birds care and feeding.
Eager to finally sample some Mongolian food we were directed to the Silk Road cafe, but were met with crushing disappointing. Tans had a nice lamb fillet, I had a huge pork steak, the only thing even close to Mongolian were the people working in the restaurant. However, if you are after a good feed, friendly and efficient service, then Silk Road fits the bill nicely, but if you are after an experience and would like to be the only foreigner lost in a menu of incomprehensible cyrilic, experiencing the anticipation of what may arrive after a bout of menu lottery, then this is not the place.
After lunch we had a bit of a rest and then went to the Gandan Temple for a bit of a look. Mongolians follow Tibetan Buddhism, inside the temple is a 10 metre high Buddha and many other high Lamas, the temple was built in 1911 and managed to survive Mongolia’s brief time as a kingdom and then over 70 years of brutal Soviet repression, where the inside of the temple was used as a stable.
We moved to another temple next door where around 20 – 30 Buddhist monks were chanting. This was a general blessing of people and horses who were tethered out the front. this blessing happens 3 times per year and we were very privileged to see it
After this we dropped our smalls into the Metro Laundry, I do hope they can get the horse sweat out of my pants and I also hope that we can find it again tomorrow morning and retrieve our clothes.
After a brief rest we ventured out to dinner and ended up at the Altai Mongolian Grill on the recommendation of locals. This turned out to be the culinary equivalent of a frontal lobotomy, there we sat, next to a ger under garishly bright lights as we ate a Mongolian BBQ, that I could get in Sydney or Melbourne. We both had mutton, mutton fat, noodles, onions, garlic and Khan sauce. Food wise it was pretty good, but it was more like a Mongolian food Disneyland, and again not what we were looking for.
Walking to and from the Altai grill we saw the Grand Khan Irish Pub, it is a bloody nice looking establishment, I may pop in there for a Budweiser and a cheeseburger for lunch. The joys of Globalisation.
