Day 1 Mongolia

27 July 2017

Trip day 9

Days 2 Mongolia

I slept fantastically!  I was in a nice simple room at the Khuvsgul Lake Hotel (https://au.hotels.com/ho603714720/khuvsgul-lake-hotel-ulaanbaatar-mongolia/?rffrid=sem.hcom.AS.google.003.00.04.s.kwrd%3Dt.197922301099.14912549799.183493599.1t4.aud-125833227443%3Adsa-87391128309.1010217..0.Cj0KCQjwwevLBRCGARIsAKnAJvdUbiLVP27hc2CqCs19GcGQIPGxHW3ufTSrFTdlPa9qJupbTGJWzO0aAiy2EALw_wcB.aw.ds&semid=14912549799.183493599.1t4.aud-125833227443%3Adsa-87391128309.1010217..0&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwevLBRCGARIsAKnAJvdUbiLVP27hc2CqCs19GcGQIPGxHW3ufTSrFTdlPa9qJupbTGJWzO0aAiy2EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds) right near Sukhbaatar Square.  Did a bunch of laundry in the sink and used my portable clothesline for the first time!

First thing I did when I woke up was book some accommodation for South Korea after Mongolia.  I also made sure to write down and send myself some directions to the hotel.

One of the German girls from the train told me about this cool offline maps app for my phone ... maps.me.  Very good!  Can download maps offline and use GPS to navigate without being connected to the inter webs.

One of the amazing things I did in China was to lock one of my new travel cards by entering the incorrect pin too many times.  Whoops!  So after my Korean booking exercise I headed down to the post office and sorted out an international call to the bank to get that shit unlocked.  I like this card ... does not have a cash advance fee so it's my best card for getting money out of ATMs.

I also organised some mobile data for Mongolia (although I don't expect to get any reception in the boonies) so I was able to play Ingress for the first time since I left!  Ulanbaator is a dead town when it comes to Ingress so I was able to take most of it without any opposition.  I am amazing.

So ... Ulanbaator.  Interesting city.  It's about 1million people and there is definite Russian influence in a lot of the architecture here.  A lot of the town is really run-down (footpaths in disrepair, buildings falling apart or badly in need of a paint job) but there is heaps of construction of new high rise buildings underway.  They are definitely in a transition phase as they begin to westernise with all the resources money coming to them.

This place certainly does not have the hustle and bustle of Beijing ... in fact I'm not sure I've seen a particularly busy street yet.  It's nice but it does seem really quiet.

Very easy to get around though.  Really flat, fantastic weather at this time of year (like Adelaide ... warm but not humid) and generally laid out in a pattern that makes sense.

So after doing my business in the morning and packing again I headed to the hotel I'm staying in for a couple of nights as part of the tour.  The Zaluuchuud Hotel (https://www.booking.com/hotel/mn/zaluuchuud-ulaanbaatar-mongolia.en-gb.html?aid=356987;label=gog235jc-hotel-XX-mn-zaluuchuudNulaanbaatarNmongolia-unspec-mn-tab-L%3Aen-O%3AosSx-B%3Asafari-N%3AXX-S%3Abo-U%3AXX-H%3As;sid=ec9999529ec69fd3bd8303903b80fb4f;dist=0&sb_price_type=total&type=total&) is OK but I definitely prefer the one I stayed in last night.  I'm on the 4th floor and there are no elevators :(. Have a big room though ... 2 bedroom place I'm sharing with another guy from the tour.

Apparently they only have 1 guest key for the rooms here and the previous occupants did not return the key early enough so we couldn't get into the room for a while.  Whatever - dumped my pack at the hotel and went for a big walk around the city revelling in my Ingress playing time.

Basically just walked the city having a look around.  Went to a Buddhist temple I stumbled across, ate some food, captured most of the portals in town.  Was a nice chilled out day.

Got back to the hotel in time for our Tour Group Meeting.  There are 22 people on this tour ... I feel like this is tooooooo many.  The bus is going to be absolutely packed.  Ah well. Everyone seems OK so far.  A mix of Australians, Americans, British and Germans with a wide age range and about a 75/25 split female to male.

After the standard briefing and round-the-room (I'm doing better than I thought at remembering 22 people's names) we went out for a group dinner at a "Mongolian BBQ" restaurant.  It's still called "Mongolian BBQ" in Mongolia surprisingly.  There are a lot of Korean BBQ restaurants here as well so it's probably worth being specific.

Not a big night but it was fun.