The penultimate leg of the trans-sib was Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar. This time, we travelled second class, and shared the compartment with an Italian traveller. D had just completed his doctorate in philosophy, focusing on the evolution of government awareness in Europe, or something of that nature. The journey was comfortable – one of the bunks was empty, so it was still pretty roomy. Also, I got to share my disdain for ‘Zen and the Art of the Motorcycle Maintenance’ with an actual philosophy major, so that was nice. The overall journey was a little over 24 hours, with us getting in to UB at around 8 in the morning.
Bottom bunks of our cabin, with the top bunks folded away
Pretty comfy beds!
2nd class compartments can be locked (as opposed to 3rd class which is fully open)
Now the journey from Irkutsk to UB was really something – the train follows lake Baikal, and then enters the vast steppes of Mongolia. Very different from the forests and plains of the Moscow-Irkutsk leg.
train scenery…
more train scenery…
just so much scenery!
RECOMMENDATION: If you are short on time, but want to cover some of the trans-siberian, we would recommend doing Irkutsk-UB-Beijing. It’s only about 2 days in total, but, in our opinion, a much nicer journey than Moscow to Irkutsk.
Once again, we got off a train, and everyone looked different, dressed different, and spoke a different tongue. On the platform, we were immediately surrounded by a group of tour operators. Since they were all female, they surrounded N instead and were gently explaining their tours to her. Unlike other places, these were the nicest, gentlest set of brochure pushers we had encountered thus far. Generally, Mongolians are a very hospitable people, and didn’t seem big on hard-selling.
Pulling into UB after sunrise
UB Railway station
Morning rush
The population of Mongolia is c.3 Million people, and about half the country’s population lives in/around UB. Still, its quite a small, walkable city. A few main streets run East-West (Peace Avenue, Tourist Street, Seoul Street) with most eateries/cafes/museums within a small radius.
For our first few days, we stayed in a pretty affordable guesthouse/hostel. Met some really interesting folks who had been travelling for months, including a girl who had hitchhiked all the way from Netherlands to Ulaanbataar!!
On our first day there, we heard horror stories from the guests at breakfast, and 3 people claimed to have had been pick-pocketed in the buses by really skilled pickpockets. One girl had been watching her bags closely the whole time but somehow still managed to be pickpocketed. Fortunately, the thief was kind enough to take her passport out of the pouch and leave that behind. While the incidence of violent crime in UB is low, theft is pretty common, especially on buses (or so we were told). So we generally walked everywhere, didn’t carry much cash or valuables, and didn’t run into any issues at all.
And now, in usual fashion, pictures and captions of some of our time in UB.
a yellow house
One of the temples at Gandan Monastery, which is one of the few monasteries that escaped being destroyed by the communists in the 1930s. Still very much a working monastery with over a 100 monks residing here. We went there at around 8am and saw the young monks coming out with books in hand, presumably after some morning classes.
wandered into the morning prayer session. everyone was really welcoming and gave us an english version of the book that everyone was chanting from, and also gave us a large bowl of rice porridge that seemed to be everyone’s breakfast. monks are really nice people!
look out!
(outside the temple, people were feeding these pretty fattened pigeons)
finally some greens and tofu! and RICE!! we must be in asia!
so we also tried this tofu “cheese”cake.
N: how did you like the cheesecake?
V: hmm, the cake bit is a little dry, it could be a little more moist
N: anything else?
V: the base is a little too crumbly I think
N: anything else?
V: hmm, maybe it could be made of cheese instead??? That’d be yummy.
really grand parliament building at Sukhbaatar square, the main square in UB
It is was a special day for Buddhists so there were a lot of newlywed couples taking pictures in the square in their wedding finery. and also a lot of these really cool cars for the kids
so there’s a big statue of chinggis khan in the square (see picture above). but the ‘punks’ sitting on the chain under the statue were clearly more interesting.
So this little girl must have been a flower girl for one of the many weddings, and she had a great system going – every time she crashed her car into the pavement and couldn’t reverse, she just got out and took a car from one of her boys, GTA style. Here, she’s getting out of her green jeep only to jump into the white convertible behind. She switched cars a total of 3 times in the short time we were watching!
UB’s downtown
wandered into an art gallery’s launch, some really interesting art by mongolian artists
and of course, wine and canapes too! which the folks were really kind to offer to us as well
Just hangin’ in the mall
(State Department Store, an extremely expensive mall in the centre of UB)
UB also has some pretty expressive manholes
this one’s in love
so on the left, there’s some expert level graffiti. and on the right, someone’s clearly just starting out.
really random whirling dervish statue
we checked out the Tengis movie theatre one evening because we really wanted to watch the new mission impossible movie
the Economist has it’s Big Mac Index, we have the minion index!
showbiz themed restaurant at the movies
beer and coffee go really well together. trying the original Czech Budweiser at a pub very simply named Bud close to Sukhbaatar square
trying some vegetarian Khuushuur, which is a flat pastry stuffed with some vegetables/potatoes. It’s the mongolian version of fast food and sold ubiquitously at train stations etc.
so this is real mongolian food! MEAT! horse, lamb, pork!!
and finally, an ice cold pint of chinggis beer!
Careful when you order ice coffee though, you might be expected to assemble it yourself!!
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Travel facts
Cumulative cost of travel so far
GBP: 2,221 plus EUR: 1,308 plus RUB: 43,765 plus USD: 121
Travel: Irkutsk to Mongolia, 2nd class, for 2 pax: GBP 220
Booked via Real Russia.
Accommodation:
Gana’s Ger Guesthouse: 2 nights, GBP 29
Glamping @ Jalman Meadows (see next post): 3d, 2n, for 2pax: GBP 380 (booked via http://www.nomadicjourneys.com/)
Guide Hotel: 5 nights, GBP 165
Spending 3000 Rub, plus 121 USD, plus 213GBP
Nice pictures of UB. Glad that you visited Bud Pub.