Tuesday in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Tuesday, I had a nice breakfast at the hotel, which appears to be included in the room rate. 

Butter and jam was from Germany

  

I took a taxi to the LEI (Language Education Institute) at MIU (Mongolia International University).  The taxi driver did not speak English, so I showed him on the map where to go.  We confirmed this with the hotel staff.  I made sure that he started the meter when we were in the cab.  It was a short ten minute ride and I am glad not to be driving or to have tried to walk there.  It was just under 7,000 MNT or just a little over $4.00.   

The LEI Director is Richard Porowski; he is from California and is home visiting family.  He put me in touch with Chimgee, one of the teachers, and Maagii, one of the staff.  I did not know what to expect.  What they have is three classes with different levels of English ability.  Chimgee brought me into the classroom and let me have the class.  Each class is 45 minutes long and is very informal during the summer.  That informality meant I was free to do what I wanted with each class, with some suggestions from Chimgee.  Most of the time, I was alone in the classroom with the students.  Each class had 6-8 students of varying ages - 13 to 30, although most were traditional college age students 17 - 22.

After classes, Chimgee had Orgil, one of their work study students, ride with me on the bus back to the hotel.  Regular buses were 400 MNT ($0.30) and electric buses were 200 MNT ($0.15) - much better deal than nearly 7,000 MNT for a taxi.  Orgil and I got off the bus, and I assured him I could get back to the hotel on my own.  That was not a problem.  I took a quick shower and then headed out for lunch.  I explored the city center; Peace Avenue is the main east-west street through the city center.  Our hotel is one block south of Peace Avenue.

Luis Vuitton store is bottom left on this building on Peace Avenue

Another view of the Blue Sky Hotel

 

The main square is called Sukhbaatar Square.  I approached from Peace Avenue coming in from the southeast corner.  There were some gers on the square and the Parliament building is on the north side.

Four gers

Parliament Building

A large statue of Chinggis Khaan sits in front of the Parliament Building

For lunch, I went to the same building where the Silk Road Cafe is, but went upstairs to the Veranda restaurant and had a nice spinach salad with tomatoes, walnuts and feta cheese.

After lunch, I again wandered around the city center.  Using information from my Lonely Planet Mongolia Guide, I went to the Memorial Museum of Victims of Political Persecution.  Unfortunately, it was closed.

So I headed to the Choijin Lama Temple Museum.  Some of my Monday photos were taken from outside the museum and show how it is surrounded by modern high rise buildings.  These were all built in the late 1800s.  It stopped being active when Mongolia was under Soviet control, but fortunately not destroyed.  Although it is not an active Buddhist monastery now, it is open as a museum.

I mistakenly interpreted the signs to be no flash photography, but after taking the above photos, it was made clear that it was no photography.  I ended up buying a nice book in English that has many great photos and explanations of the six temples and other things still present in the museum.

I then found a grocery store and bought a 1.5 liter bottle of water for 600 MNT - as opposed to the 0.5 liter bottles of water available in the room mini-fridge for 1,800 MNT.  I also got some instant coffee so I can have coffee in my room when I get up at 5:00 (the hotel restaurant does not open until 7:30).  Once back at the hotel, I crashed.  I was not even hungry enough to go out for dinner.  Must be the jet lag catching up with me.