We pick up where we left off on the last part of my trip back to the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar.

This time the hotel I stayed at was a lovely boutique hotel (Urgoo Boutique Hotel; check it out if you are even in town). There still wasn’t any A/C, but at least the temperature cooled down at night and I could open the window. It also had a nice restaurant below, and further along the short street, there were also plenty of other restaurants and coffee shops. The location was great because it was located diagonally from the national history museum and right near the central square (Sukhbaatar Square and the Parliament Building). It was also a simple 10-15 minute walk to the theater where they have their traditional culture show.

I may have mentioned this before, but it seems like most of the time there are a lot of local tourists visiting Mongolia’s sites. Perhaps it’s because many people here aren’t particularly wealthy and can only afford to travel domestically, and/or perhaps it’s because Mongolians are interested in their country’s sites and history. I’m sure both are true. In any case, I like seeing this rather than seeing swaths of foreigners clogging up everything. It makes you feel more like you are witnessing local culture rather than feeling like you are at a huge international tourist site (or tourist trap, as some places tend to be).

I didn’t plan on doing much here; rather, this was just a chance to rest after two weeks of adventure. That evening, I decided to support the hotel restaurant, and I ordered a plate of tsuivan (fried noodles with mutton). Now, I’m from the USA, and I grew up eating out and having enormous portions served to you. However, even I was taken aback by the size of this portion. It might be difficult to tell from the photo, but the serving was massive. This was literally enough for at least two, if not three, people. The difference, though, with big portions in the USA is that we Americans also have a big “doggy bag” (taking home the rest of our meal) culture. This is not the case in most other countries.

Some of the other dishes I tried here were these…

I only ate a bit of the noodle soup. I think by this point I was getting worn out from eating grizzly, greasy mutton (though some pieces were OK). The restaurant serves local and European cuisine, so I ended up ordering a steak after this.

The other big plan I had here was to see the cultural show (“Tumen Ekh”). In this hour-long show, the performers showcase singing (including throat singing), playing instruments, and dancing wearing traditional costumes (as is typical in many cultural shows). There was even a contortionist at the end. In order to take photos, I had to pay an extra fee and be given a lanyard denoting my special status. I think I was the only one who paid extra for that.

I was also happy to find out that not too far from my hotel was an ethical fair-trade gift shop that helps support low-income women. I ended up spending much more than I intended to, including getting something for myself. Oh well, at least my money went to a good cause.

Something else I noticed was the use of both Cyrillic and traditional Mongolian script. I was told that by 2025, the country had planned on incorporating learning traditional script into the national curriculum. I think this is great.

Well, this concludes my trip to Mongolia. It was certainly interesting to get to see up close what daily life is like for the nomadic families, as well as get to see and experience the beautiful sites. Perhaps I’ll visit again sometime to explore more of the west. I would love to see the Gobi desert, although when I looked it up on Google Maps, it said that it was a fifteen-hour drive from where I stayed in Kharkhorin! Maybe this is why there aren’t as many tours going on there.

It would have been a nice ending had the twin typhoons that went through the Pacific, one of which was headed toward Shanghai and the east coast, not cancelled my flight twice out of Beijing. Oh well, at least the hotel I stayed at in Beijing was decent.

Anyway, it was a lot of adventure packed into two weeks. Stay tuned for my next adventure.