A day in medieval Mongolia

I always hoped that I’d never have to hear Baccara’s Sorry I’m a Lady again. The song is pure 1970’s Eurotrash.
But here it was again, like a bad memory. It was playing in the beat up car that was taking us out of Ulan Bator and into the Mongolian countryside.
What an absurd scene, to be [...]

My yurt is my castle

For the last thee days, a number of yurts have been on display on Ulan Bator’s central Sükhbaatar Square.
They stand in stark contrast to the imposing glass-brass-and-marble State Palace on the north end of the square.

Since I don’t speak Mongolian, I can only guess that the yurts are for sale.

I suppose [...]

Breakfast in the hall of mirrors

Two walls in the breakfast room in our hotel in Ulan Bator are completely covered with mirrors.
The effect is that these walls of mirrors multiply the meagre offerings on the breakfast buffet to something that actually looks pretty impressive.
In addition, the mirrors also reflect your sleepy and crumpled early morning face back at you [...]

German is good in Ulan Bator

Believe it or not, but you can see a lot of German influence in Mongolia’s capital Ulan Bator.
Everywhere you go, you’ll come across advertisements for Khan Bräu, for instance. The Khan Bräu brewery has been around since 1996. It’s run jointly by a German and a Mongolian.
Khan Bräu makes its beers in Mongolia, but they’re [...]

Anywhere but Ulan Bator

Ulan Bator is a city that’s hard to love. The Mongolian capital has no charm, no elegance, no refined cuisine and hardly any sights that are worth visiting.

Most tourists just use Ulan Bator as a point of departure to see the magnificent Mongolian countryside: untouched steppe, beautiful mountains, rivers and lakes.

But how do the [...]