Arrived at Ulaanbaatar at 06:40 said good bye to Rob Judge Rinder they are staying only 1 night moving on to Beijing tomorrow. Found the lady who was to pick us up and take us to our apartment. She told me there was an issue as the apartment is still occupied so she has us booked into another hotel and the same price as the apartment. Took us to the hotel and she got us checked in and we have been upgraded to a Business Suite which has 2 bedrooms but no washing machine as the apartment had as we have a bit of washing to do, so I will have to hand wash it. Ulaanbaatar is the most polluted city in the world especially in the winter time with all the fires they have for heating the houses, she advised us to by masks from the chemist shop.
I contacted my man here in Ulaanbaatar who booked our rail tickets from UB to Beijing 1st class. I had to pay him 1.1 million Mongolian Togrog. We went to the hole in the wall down the road and I with drew 1.5 million Togrog. This is the first time I have withdrawn over a million in any currency.
Penny had a sleep and we settled into our room and then decided to go and explore the city. A 5 minute walk we were at the Parliament Building, there were police stopping traffic and you could see a military band and soldiers all dressed up smartly standing to attention. Right behind us the President, Prime Minister and others walked into the building. The military band were playing music, this looked spectacular. I asked a TV announcer what was the occasion and she said it was Independence Day, 1921 was the revolution. Then another TV announcer and crew came up to us and interviewed us , we had only been in the country 7 hours so we could be on TV tonight? LOL
Found the State Department store 7 levels high and had a few high street clothing brands, the sales were on so it was busy. The ladies would enjoy it lots of 100% Cashmere and any fur lovers coats, jackets and hats. We explored some more of the center of town and found an area with lots of restaurants, even the first Irish Pub in Ulaanbaatar. We decided on Mongolian cuisine, but they seem to have the same issue as the Russians, we ordered a salad and then a main course and they both come out at the same time, we just laughed.
Got a good feel for this city a lot of people speak English and they are friendly there is a mixture of old and new buildings quite different from Russia. Chilling tonight need a good sleep after not much in the past 48 hours.
Maurice's Travel 