UB has some vegan restaurants which do versions of Mongolian dishes and the portions are gigantic

UB is a mixture of Soviet architecture and half built Chinese apartments

Inauguration of the new Mongolian MPs outside the parliament building

Sukhbaatar, who led Mongolia to independence - they like him as well as Chingis Khaan.

UB gets to -40*C in winter and is heated by coal power stations in the city which belch smoke

And the city is full of these insane pipes that serve the power station

The city is one huge constant traffic jam which crowds out anything else that might be good about it

Ulaanbaatar

Jun 30–Jul 3, 2024 in Mongolia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

Onwards to the next big part of our trip: what we think will be our last flight for some time, we flew to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia. Our plan is to spend some time here, then head south through China and go west to Turkey.

Fair to say Mongolia is VERY different to Japan and we had a bit of culture shock getting stuck in UB traffic and then attempting to find any vegetarian food (a challenge). After a night's sleep we had a chance to explore a bit more, get our bearings, and make plans for the next few weeks. UB traffic is a marvel, competitive with Manila for the worst Chris has ever seen. Very impressed by the kindness and directness of everyone we've met, who are without obvious exception incredibly helpful in what is otherwise a very complicated and confusing country to navigate!

UB isn't a place of great beauty (Soviet architecture with pine trees and smog) so we are heading out into the country as soon as we can 😀Read more