my second full day in ulan bataar started when i woke up at 0720 after a full night of sleep after going to bed at (what i call) a reasonable hour...yay!! it took me long enough to get over jet lag from the ireland trip...
not surprisingly, i was slower getting started than i wanted...whoops...i had an orientation scheduled for 1600, so i figured i'd walk to a couple sights before then...
since i'd finished a letter while waiting in the airport in seoul, i stopped at the post office to mail it...after living in korea, it's always shock to come to countries that charge so much more for postage...in korea, mailing a letter to the US costs 650won (about 60cents US, currently) to send a 20gm letter internationally...by comparison, in the US, sending a letter or a postcard internationally costs 98cents US...and here in mongolia, it costs 1000MNT (mongolian turkrik) to send a letter internationally, which is currently about 83cents US...that's not a whole lot, but when you send postcards and letters like i do, it adds up...i figure i'll buy plenty of postcards here, then mail them from korea...sorry guys if you really wanted the mongolian stamp...i save money where i can:)
lonely planet said it was too far to walk, but according to the map both sights were straight down a majour street...i figured i could just walk until i got somewhere...it only took me 40 minutes to get to the farthest place, so i have no idea how it could possibly be "too far"...granted, i like to walk more than most people...lol...the walk was super easy, but it was really really really windy...i walked past the bus stops along the way, and there seem to be plenty of buses in the city...of course, all the route maps are completely in mongolian, meaning i can't read at all...
again, the day was super sunny...granted, it wasn't at the right angle for many good photos, but oh well...
the first place i visited had a really tall buddha...17m tall, or something like that? covered in gold...the next place was really close to the buddha, but involved going up a bunch of steps...a memorial to soviet soldiers...according to the guidebook, the memorial is to honour fallen heroes...there is a tank there that saw action against the nazis in world war two...the memorial itself isn't anything flash, but the views of the city from up there are great...and so is the wind...i thought i was going to be blown off a few times when strong gusts blew through...
walking back up the street toward the center of town, my next stop was at the winter palace of the bogd kahn...kahn means king, or leader...the full name of this guy is rather long, and to an english speaker does NOT roll off the tongue...he was the 8th living buddha of mongolia, and the last king of mongolia...this palace is where he lived for 20 years...it's heavily inspired by the chinese, so it seemed totally familiar to me, since korean palaces are much the same...the best part of this guy's palace was the front entrance gate which was totally flash...conveniently there was something there on which i could balance my camera and take a photo of me:)...(i love photos with me!)...the sign said thursday was a day off, but i saw an open door, and who am i to walk away from an open door...as i mentioned, the palace is chinese in style, not at all european...so there are a bunch of buildings that make up the palace, not just one building...it was basically set up as two courtyards, with pathways going across...i don't think people spent much time outside while living in this palace, but i could be totally wrong...since it's only the beginning of spring, the trees were still yucky looking, and there wasn't a lot of colour in the entire complex...
from there i walked back into town...when "planning" my day, i thought lonely planet was somewhat accurate in saying it was too far to walk to these places, so i figured it would take me a lot longer to walk than it actually did...i gave myself an hour and a half each way...obviously, it didn't take that long, and neither of the sights took long either...so i ended up back at my hostel with a few hours to kill...i could've gone out and seen something else, or just continued walking, but i didn't...i played on the internet instead:)
at 1600 i went to an orientation meeting at the office of the ger to ger project...they gave me a small guidebook listing where i would be going during my tour, and what i would be doing...they told me a bit about nomadic culture...the proper ways of doing things, behaviours that are considered impolite, etc...i also got some language information, and a small dictionary...some basic words and phrases i could use to communicate with my host families...i also paid for the trip, and they gave me the logistical details i needed, like what time to get to the bus station, etc..i learned how to play a couple games as well...
on the way home from that office, i stopped in the supermarket again, and made sure to get a few vegetables...from the orientation and reading my guidebook, i knew it was unlikely i'd be eating many, if any vegetables during my tour...after dinner i forced myself to go to sleep early, since i needed to wake up at 0600...
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