Global Wanderer

30/11/23 – 3/12/23

After polishing off the food I had left in the apartment, I packed up and ordered a Yandex to the airport. I was going to be a bit early, but I wasn’t hugely fussed, as I knew I could just sit somewhere quiet, read my book, and wait! Almaty Airport, unlike Tashkent, hasn’t had any big overhauls, and still retains its Soviet stylings. I bought a sandwich and a coffee, and then tucked myself into a seat in a corner for the remaining hour before my flight.

I was taking a Hunnu Air Embraer 190 to Ulaanbaatar, which was completely full (and with a lot of space taken up by large coats, which were completely necessary given the temperatures in the Mongol capital!). 4 hours later, we were landing at the brand new Chinggis Khan International Airport, about 52km south of Ulaanbaatar. After landing and passing through immigration, I bought a seat on the city shuttle bus, and before long we were heading on our hour-long drive into the city. I’d had to rebook my accommodation, as I was originally staying in a guesthouse, and I figured that with my lungs still wanting to be coughed up constantly, and other flu-ey symptoms requiring use of a bathroom nearby, it would be much more appropriate to book a hotel room for myself – I ended up at J Hotel, located in a nice building in the embassy district, which like a lot of buildings in Ulaanbaatar (including the airport) was built with funding from Japan and South Korea. I should also note that the temperature when I landed was a frosty -25ºC! By the time I had checked in, it was 11pm, and so I headed to bed for some sleep.

The view from my window!

I woke up at about 10am, too late for breakfast, but feeling like I had finally thrown off the worst of the flu – all that was left was a runny nose and a cough, which I could deal with!

Given I was feeling better, I wanted to make the most of it, and so I got myself ready to face the cold (thermals, pants, thermal socks, t-shirt, jumper, big coat, gloves, and a beanie). -20º is something else entirely – snow hadn’t fallen in quite a while, as I’d been tracking the forecast, and yet it was piled up on the sidewalks and on the streets throughout the city, having stayed frozen. The sidewalks themselves, I realised, weren’t naturally an off-white colour, which was actually a product of ice and compacted snow from underfoot. I personally love snow, the cold, and winter in general, and so I very much enjoyed myself! That being said though, you could only stay out for so long – I could feel the cold biting at my nose whenever I walked outside, but after 20 minutes or so I could no longer feel it (I’m guessing if I was out for too long, it might fall off and I’d never feel it again!).

I headed to Millie’s Espresso, a café located in the city centre, next to the Choijin Lama monastic complex. I loaded up on some breakfast (and proper coffee!), before putting my gloves and coat back on, and heading north into the cold! At this point, my moustache hairs were getting frozen, and you could quite literally see my breath hanging in the air afterwards, deciding whether or not to freeze, probably!

I headed north, towards the Gandentegchinlen monastery complex – a beautiful group of monasteries and old buildings surrounded by one of Ulaanbaatar’s many ger districts (gers are Mongolian yurts, and surrounding the capital are a great number of districts where the main housing are gers). It was only a 45-minute walk, but the cold really takes its toll on you! The buildings at the complex, however, were well worth the walk, with colourful Buddhist flags strung across the street, fluttering in the wind, and monks somehow wearing just their robes strolling through the courtyards. I was glad I’d managed to get there!

The walk back into Ulaanbaatar’s centre was accompanied by a few near-miss slips (thanks to the ice on the pathways), but I ultimately made it back in one piece. The sunlight was already beginning to fade away, and so after some frosty wandering, I dove into a local shop that appeared to be serving some kind of hot stew – which I washed down with Chinggis Khaan beer! Once my stomach was full and my body was warm, I put my jacket back on, and walked through the cold back to my accommodation. Despite the fact that -20 looks and sounds utterly freezing, it was definitely growing on me – as someone who lives in a predominantly hot country, below freezing is just not something I get to experience often, and I always find I enjoy it!

Chinggis Khaan beer!

The temperature had improved slightly after dropping to a feels-like of -30 overnight, which meant I was able to explore Ulaanbaatar at totally-not-cold -14. After a quick breakfast and coffee at the accommodation, I headed out back into the city centre, where my first stop was the Mongolian Parliament and the gigantic statue of Chinggis Khaan who sits out the front. Back in 1990, this square was the location of some big protests which ultimately forced the Soviet-backed government to hold free and fair elections, which were promptly won by… the same party as before. Nevertheless, Mongolia dropped its socialist credentials (and the red star on its flag), and began experimenting with market economy reforms.

Chinggis Khaan, the study of whom was apparently outlawed during the Communist regime, is a national icon here in Mongolia, and you’ll find references to him everywhere (the airport, the national beer, in front of Parliament, to name a few). His statue at the front of the Parliament building is utterly massive, and reminds me a bit of the Abraham Lincoln statue in D.C. I then headed towards the State Department Store, a large building which in Communist times had been, you guessed it, the state department store, and which now housed a variety of shops and cafes, along with a large supermarket that seemed to be, well, the continuation of the state department store. It was good to get a quick reprieve from the cold, and I took full advantage by acquiring a coffee too!

By the time I headed out of the department store, it was starting to get dark. I decided to walk along the bank of the river/canal/stream that flows through Ulaanbaatar (I am still unsure as to what it is, although sections of it were still flowing somehow despite the temperature now hovering around -23. I actually spent a little bit of time on a pedestrian bridge taking photos of the water and the snow surrounding it, before heading to the supermarket for some supplies, and then returning to my accommodation for the night.