Out and About in UB

We had a good meal last night at the small restaurant attached to the hotel, although the messed up the rice order. I ordered a small bowl of white rice and they came out with a large bowl of fried rice. When the waitress saw the mistake she quickly came over and whisked it away and had it replaced.
Our first night in the hotel we slept pretty well. Waking at around 7 AM we had our morning coffee and then tried to find an English speaking channel  out of the 100 or so on the TV so we could see what is happening in the world. We found a channel with an Australian program listed as the title only to find it was about some guy in the Us who owns a fleet of Hummers and 9 Blackhawk helicopters.  Very Australian!

After breakfast my mission was to find a local sim card so I can maintain some form of contact with the world when we are in the lakes region. There was supposed to be one in the Gobi Store 2 doors down. Unfortunately they were no longer there, which turned out to be a right royal pain in the a$$. 
The girls had a good look around the Gobi store which is renowned for its cashmere products. This is one of the major exports of Mongolia.
I didn't look at the prices but most things in Mongolia are affordable by western standards.
One dollar Australian will buy you 2,300 Tugrik. So $427 AUD will make you a millionaire. 

Traffic in downtown UB

The hotel coffee is pretty average, so we found the first of many coffee shops. I think they used the same scoop of coffee for all 3 cups. We continued our wander around the city and stopped at the Chinggis Khan Museum. We know him as Ghengis Khan, and he was the greatest ruler of the Mongolian empire. The museum has 9 floors of amazing artifacts. Photography is allowed if you pay for it but we didn't find that out till later. So there were not many pics other than the front doors. Next to the Museum is another coffee shop, and yet another dismal attempt at a coffee. I am sure it will get better eventually.
Wooly Rhinoceros and Sabre Tooth Tiger

We made our way to the Museum of Natural History. This has a very extensive display of dinosaur bones and exhibits. Mongolia, and the Gobi Desert in particular are noted for their extensive areas where dinosaur fossils have been found. The first fossilised dinosaur eggs and full Velocoraptor skeletons were found there as well as a few other dinosaurs I never heard of, let alone see pictures of. It reminded us of the museum we saw in Kyrgyzstan, complete with the dusty smell you find in extremely old buildings. Nevertheless it was a worthwhile display.

Ladies in some type of traditional uniform

After the museum we slowly made our way back through the traffic. There must have been some big event happening in town. we came across a few military looking uniforms wearing full medals walking past us as well as a lot of people in traditional dress in groups. There is also a Red   Bull 3X3 Basketball Championship happening in the square, which is probably attributing to the traffic chaos. 

I still haven't found a shop to buy a sim card and things are starting to look bleak for access. I guess there is no guarantee I will get service near the lake region anyway. Mongolia is home to 3.5 million people with half of them living in UB. It has the lowest population density and is the largest landlocked country in the world. It is bordered by Russia to the North and China to the South. China has tried to claim it a few times but the Mongolians have always managed to get their independence back.

I am also doing a Vlog this time round so the link below is to the first Vlog of Mongolia. Hope you enjoy
 




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