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This entry is appearing a week late due to an error on our website. Not being very savvy with these types of problems, it took me awhile to figure out how to resolve the error. Back up and going now.

We are back in Ulaanbaatar for about a week before we head to a different part of the country. After the adventure to the East, it was nice to have a chill day on Thursday.  It was a little rainy and we stayed in for the most part.  I did need to update my Mobicom esim card and I could not do it online because I don’t have a Mongolian credit card.  I walked to a store but they had closed early.  I got lucky and found a gentleman outside of the Mobicom data center who helped.  He could not find an open store, so he offered to use his credit card and I just gave him the cash. We went to the gym in the evening for our workout and then grabbed dinner at Loving Hut – I had green dumplings, Sandy had minestrone soup, and we both had blueberry kombucha.

Friday was more adventure, but nothing like traveling on our own to the east.  We walked over to the Ulaanbaatar Hotel to meet our tour guide, Diigii.  He was great – a 16-year-old who is working this job for the summer and it is giving him a chance to practice his English, which is already excellent. In our car, we also had a couple from Estonia, two friends from Boston (Livy) and Phoenix (Angel), and a woman from Oklahoma (Sarah).  It was a great group of people and we had a lot of fun all day.

First stop for the day was the Chinggis Khan Statue Complex.  The statue is the largest equestrian statue in the world. When you first see it from the highway, it is quite impressive. 

We met up with another small group at the statue and our full group took a tour of the museum at the bottom of the statue.  The museum covered the history of the Mongolian empire and our guide was excellent.  He had such enthusiasm for sharing the history and information of various artifacts in the museum (Sandy loved his laugh).  We then had some time on our own to explore.  I went up to the top of the statue – well, to the horse’s mane, which was where you could go.  It was crazy crowded and Sandy’s decision to stay down wasn’t a bad one given how crowded it was.  We both had some hot chocolate.  While we were at the museum, we had the chance to interact with eagles and camels (two-humped as opposed to the one hump from Morocco) and give archery a try.  We even saw a boy with a reindeer on a leash walk by.  Other than trying to avoid the flying ants everywhere, it was a lot of fun.

Next, we drove a few minutes up the road to spend some time with a nomad family.  We had the chance to ride one of their horses.  It happened to be a horse that won the horse racing competition at the National Naadam Festival eight years ago.  That was pretty cool.

Inside their ger, we all circled around and shared dried curds, bread and homemade butter, and a little airag (fermented mare’s milk).  I can’t say that we enjoyed it anymore here than at the Naadam festival a couple of weeks ago. The father passed snuff around – this is a very traditional way to welcome guests into the home.  The snuff box has usually been in the family for generations and you take a little and put it right up to your nose.  It has a significant peppermint smell to it.

From the family’s camp, we headed up to a location filled with restaurants.  There must have been 20 of them – all in gers and seemingly offering the same menus.  Our tour had a pre-arranged spot and this was fantastic. They brought out so much food and it was all delicious.  All kinds of traditional dishes.

After lunch, we drove into Terelj National Park and made our way to Turtle Rock.  This is a rock formation that resembles a turtle.

We walked up the trail to get toward the neck of the turtle.  It got pretty steep at one point, so some stayed behind.  Sandy stayed and enjoyed a conversation with Livy from Boston.  I carried on and squeezed through a very tiny passageway to see great views from the turtle’s neck.

Once we finished at the turtle, we made our way to the monastery inside the park.  It is also a meditation center.  The path was filled with signs reflecting Buddhist philosophy and the area offered great views across the landscape.  Back down from the monastery, we all enjoyed an ice cream cone and then made our way back to Ulaanbaatar.

We were back to our apartment a little after 7pm and we had arranged to meet Indra for dinner.  Indra is a person I have wanted to meet for several years.  At age 22, she was featured in the Depeche concert film called Spirits in the Forest that was released after the Global Spirit Tour in 2018.  She is currently going to school in New York, but she happened to be home in Mongolia at the same time we are here.  She picked a spot right by our apartment called Route 22, which we had been wanting to try.  We both had salmon and a bottle of wine and Indra had soup and tea.  It was so cool to meet her and hear more about her story – related to the film and also her life and plans in Mongolia.  She is such an impressive young woman and we both really hope to stay in touch with her and meet her again.

We made Saturday a chill day, too. We went over to the Muse Coffee Shop for “Starbucks time.” After chai tea latte and hot chocolate, we walked to the barber shop, and I had my first haircut in Mongolia – long overdue – and the price was similar to Morocco at $3.  We watched the Olympics Opening Ceremonies.  For dinner, we went to Revolution Garden but they didn’t have wings, so we decided to try another place on our list – Black Burger Factory.  The burgers were good – and large.

Sandy woke up not feeling 100% on Sunday – something with her stomach. We both ate the same thing so we’re not sure what it might have been.  We had arranged to go see another monastery outside of town and she decided she still wanted to go.  Our guide from Friday, Diigii, had offered that his mom could drive us out to Aglag Buteelin Monastery, show us around, and bring us back.  The cost was around $75.  It’s around two hours one way so it was a good deal. We met mom near our apartment at 10am and headed west.  We stopped before we were outside Ulaanbaatar to switch cars and meet Bolar – he ended up driving and the four of us headed to the monastery.

The monastery is in a gorgeous mountain setting with lots of uphill (and downhill) trails.  There are many, many Buddhist rock carvings along the trails. As with most other places we’ve been in Mongolia, it is a gorgeous setting.

We finished at the monastery around 2:15 and drove back down to the main road to get lunch at a restaurant that is in a brand new building.  Construction is not even finished.  Lunch was good.  We both had potato salads.  I also had some chicken and a piece of pizza.  On our drive back to Ulaanbaatar, we stopped at a river where many families had been camping for the weekend and we were home by 6pm.

One of the highlights of the day with Bolar and Mom was sharing Google Translate – she had not used the app before and she was so excited to be able to break the language barrier with it. We had Greek salads for dinner and watched some of the Olympics before heading to bed.

Monday – back to chilling.  Just hanging around the apartment.  Getting laundry done.  Sandy still didn’t feel 100% so it was nice to just take it easy for the day. Salad for lunch, spaghetti for dinner. Watching the Olympics.  Working on our journal. Nice day.