Ulaanbatur and Mongolia wrap up

Ulaanbatur is an interesting city to visit, it is clearly still developing, with a lot of construction going on all over the place. Things are complicated by the fact that there is a construction season, thanks to the extreme winters with temperatures getting down to -40 degrees. The place we stayed had distinct post-communist vibes, reminding us a lot of accommodation we struck in Serbia in Novi Sad and Belgrade (for old time's sake - https://travelsalongthedanube.blogspot.com/2019/08/firstly-gillian-would-like-to-thank.html). Thankfully, no Soviet era lift to travel in, although carrying the backpack up 3 flights of stairs wasn't totally optimal. 

There are a bunch of interesting places to visit and see, in addition to the temples, we went to the Chinggis Khan Museum and the National Museum of Mongolia, both of which were excellent and provided a really nice picture of the role that Mongolia has played in world history across the ages. We still find it strange that essentially none of this is taught in history classes at school - there are real blind spots in Western education regarding Asian history. Although the same thoughts occurred to us after riding through Eastern Europe too, so the blind spots are widely spread around... The highlight of the institutions, though, was the National Art Gallery, which had a fantastic collection of Mongolian Art, most of it from the last 100 years or so. Really well worth visiting and took us a bit by surprise. Both of us had pieces we were struck by and spent quite some time staring at. 

The centre of the city has a huge square, dominated by the National Parliament Building on the northern side. Gillian, of course, was very excited to see it, and also disappointed that there were no tours. The square also functions as a social space late into the night, with families visiting, and kids (and bigger kids) riding around all over the place on a variety of electric and non-electric vehicles. The cityscape itself is clearly evolving, and it was fun to walk around and see the contrast between some of the newer and older areas. We were left with a clear sense that in 10 years time the city will look and feel very different. 

In addition to everything else, Ulaanbatur was our opportunity to properly sample a variety of traditional Mongolian dishes. As previously mentioned, food on the tour at the ger camps was definitely geared towards Western tourist tastes, which left us with only a few chances for sampling Mongolian food. We tried to make up for it back in Ulaanbatur, although we cracked slightly on the final night - see if you can spot the imposter...