“It’s not the destination that matters, it is the journey”, but in my case it turned out that it is both the journey and the destination which mattered.
I wanted to blog about each stage and on the go but then 90% laziness and 10% lack of time took over me during the journey phase as it was a welcome break from the regular office routine and there went the idea of “live-blogging” in the dustbin.
The journey in itself was pretty amusing. There is no direct connection to reach Mongolia from India. As it’s a land locked country, so the only options remaining are: -
1) For Conventional Travelers: Fly into the only international airport at Ulaanbaatar or UB (as its fondly called by locals) city from limited places on earth such as Seoul, Beijing, Osaka, Tokyo and surprisingly Munich and Moscow!
2) For the Adventurous Fellows: try taking the trans Siberian railway from Moscow and spend a week in the train or take the train from Beijing to UB.
3) For the Nutjobs: Walk across the mountains either through russia or china (likely to be shot dead at the border for being a nutjob running away), amidst barren landscape wrapped in n-layers of polar climate woolen clothing
I would have tried the last option but for being on a business trip, we were made to take option 1 above.
This option was also a very circuitous one owing to something called a Revenue Management System (which all B-schools teach the students but very few students claim to have mastered the art). We were routed through Chennai – dubai – Beijing – UB and the same way return. It was almost 30K cheaper than flying from Mumbai to seoul and onwards to UB and returning the same way. Another plus was to be able to stretch my legs in the spacious economy class of the A380 between Dubai and Beijing both ways ;).
Travel is mostly the same across the world, except if it is options 2 and 3 above so cutting the chase and coming to the more interesting part about Mongolia hereonwards.
Mongolia is most famous for Chinggis Khan. We are all taught about the barbaric nature and his immense empire. The present day Mongols are not even a shadow of the same. They are all extremely friendly and simple people who prefer minding their own business. Crime rate is very low, a major factor being that it is world’s 3rd least populated country. The entire population is only about 3 million of which 1.5 million are in UB. The moment you move out of the city, homosapiens are the rarest commodity available.
The country has a very different landscape. When I was there recently, it was the onset of winter which led to snowfall and temperatures in the range of 1 to -23C. For the locals, it was not yet cold but I had to keep buying more layers of clothing just to survive. The country had a very barren countryside and there are hardly any trees to be seen. The situation may be different in summers but who knows. The point is that this type of natural beauty is rarely come across anywhere else. I am not aware if the nation promotes its tourism but if it does, I see an immense potential there.
The currency is called Tugruk and as of today 1$ = approx 1280 MNT so when we converted 300$, we were loaded with cash :D. ofcourse, it went away equally fast, but the feeling of carrying lakhs/crores in your wallet is awesome !!
The food has beef as a major component. Ok, almost everything is non-veg, owing to the climate and the protein needs for the winter and yes on the same lines, alcohol is quite cheap with Chinggis Vodka and Chinggis Beer ruling the streets as the most (ab)used poison of choice.
Another interesting fact was that there are no taxis on the road. The tourist guides list out some call taxi numbers but they were also far and few. The fact is , just stick your hand out at a passing vehicle and if you are lucky they would stop and offer you a ride. Negotiate the price and you are on your way.simple!
While we were there, we also met an Indian chef running an Indian restaurant for the last 8 years. Indian food is quite popular and reasonable priced. Some of the major restaurants are Delhi Darbar, Taj Mahal and Hazara. The chef told us that including us, the number of Indians in the country was 73. Also, we were not able to locate a sardar/gujju bhai (though most certainly at least one of each should be there).
Even though I was told that there is an active nightlife in UB city, our nightlife was confined to the office and coming back to the hotel for all the week that we were there. Got a chance to go out to Terelj National Park on the northern outskirts of the city, and it was a magnificent sight. This is not a national park for the animals but for the vegetation primarily. At this time of the year, everything was covered in snow so it was a different kind of beauty but would love to visit the place in summertime and maybe have an overnight stay at the numerous tourist camps offering “authentic nomadic experience”.
In short, (and yes, I’d like to finish) it’s a beautiful, bustling modern city having pristine countryside natural beauty. Try to visit.
For more Pics: please refer my FB profile
And yes…do not forget to drink Ayrag – its fermented mare’s milk. Truly Awesome!!
