Ulaan Baatar

Tuesday, 10th July 2012

View of Ulaan Baatar from my hotel room.

After a shower, change and breakfast, I decided to see some of the city. Our guide Baggi, who had met me at the airport, said we'd be visiting various places later in the tour so I decided to head for the Railway Museum (surprise!). I located the 'Train Museum' next to the railway on the tourist map I'd picked up on my way through the airport and explained to the hotel reception staff what I wanted to do, showing them the map. They phoned to check that the museum would be open because of the holiday surrounding the Mongolian National Day on 11th July 2012. "It's open 8 'till 5 today" they assured me so I asked them to book a taxi to take me there. I afterwards wondered who they could have spoken to.

In the taxi, I followed the route on my map as best I could but I thought the driver was heading too far west and was probably heading for the Railway Station itself. However, he pulled up at a building that could have been a museum and it certainly had a model of a steam locomotive outside so I paid the agreed fare and the taxi sped off. Well, it was a museum but it was locked and a cleaner working around the outside of the building assured me it was closed for the Naadam holiday.

On re-inspection of my tourist map, I found I'd been delivered to the Museum of Railway History (which I didn't even know about). Since the railway station was only a few hundred yards away, I thought I'd have a look there before deciding what to do next.

Heavy road traffic outside Ulaan Baatar railway station.

I was amazed at just how busy the roads around the station were. With the National Day and Naadam the next day, it seemed that everyone wanted to be somewhere else. I took pictures around the impressive station and photographed a passenger train arriving from Russia. As it approached, I realised it was the Eastbound 'Golden Eagle' - the train I was to board in a couple of days. I went through the subway to Platform 3 to have a look at the train and watch some of the passengers alighting.

After watching a couple of freight trains and a diesel-electric 'switcher' shunting around the station, I decided to return to the road and walk to the Open Air Railway Museum I'd been aiming for. The railway side of the road was lined with warehouses and lots of people were coming and going, transferring eggs, bottled water and all kinds of fresh vegetables and fruit between the warehouses and various vehicles parked at the kerbside. Further along, a dirt road on my right led to more warehouses and vehicles were gridlocked either trying to enter or leave the limited space. There was a lot of horn blowing, manoevring in odd directions and numerous near-misses which I eventually realised is the normal way of driving in Mongolia. A stream of pedestrians, some loaded down with purchases, were making their way to a footbridge over the railway so I decided to take some photographs from the vantage point. The bridge also carried a couple of massive steam mains across the railway. Ulaan Baatar, like much of Russia, uses District Heating schemes to distribute steam for heating from the network of generally elderly coal-fired power stations.

I continued along the road in the hot sun until I came to what looked like a locomotive depot. A line of rusting diesel locomotives stood outside. Not being sure what to expect, I wandered up to a small gatehouse thinking that an abandoned depot had been appropriated for the museum. After a few seconds of mutual incomprehension with the young security guard, I realised that the rather beat-up premises were, in fact, the diesel depot still in use and that my destination must lie further along the road.

Tramping further, I was rewarded with the sight of a narrow gauge steam locomotive out in the open. This time, I was in the right place. A fenced compound held a number of locomotives but it looked rather neglected and there was nobody around. I walked past the exhibits to where some roadworks looked similarly abandoned. There were piles of sandy soil and a section of steel pipe. To facilitate whatever work had been in progress, they'd taken down the museum fence at that end of the site. By climbing over the spoil, there was unrestricted access to the locomotives.

Ulaan Baatar Train Museum.

I spent a happy half hour photographing the exhibits and then started to wonder how I'd get back to the hotel. I'd harboured ideas of getting a taxi but, as I'd walked from the railway station to the museum, I'd passed people about every 50 yards, standing in the gutter with their arm raised, trying to hail a taxi. They didn't seem very successful so I didn't rate my chances. It seemed that on the day before Naadam, everybody wanted taxis. I didn't know how far I was from my hotel - I guessed three miles - and I was rather hot and bothered. However, you see so much more on foot so I thought I'd give it a shot and see how far I got.

A missing manhole cover in Ulaan Baatar.

Walking in Ulaan Baatar is not for the timid. Every step provides some sort of trap for the unwary, changes in level, unseen steps, potholes. I found a manhole near the middle of the city with a missing cover. Oddly, the two bolts and washers intended to secure the cover had been carefully replaced. I think it took me about 90 minutes to get back to the hotel, pleased that I'd seen so much of the city.

The day concluded with dinner at the Khar Khorum Restaurant in the hotel an an opportunity to meet Tatiana, the Tour Manager, and my fellow-travellers.

Pictures:

Ulaan Baatar.
Railways around Ulaan Baatar.
Ulaan Baatar Train Museum.

Additions made 24-Jul-2012.

Arriving in Mongolia

Tuesday, 10th July 2012

''Land Side' view of Chinggis Khaan International Airport Terminal.

We landed at Chinggis Khaan International Airport about right time. As soon as we'd turned off the runway we stopped on the taxiway, which revealed signs of extensive cracks that had been repaired. This reminded me that Mongolia is not a rich country. A high-wing two-engine turbo-prop was cleared onto the runway we'd vacated and he took off, in the opposite direction from our landing (the black and white windsocks indicated no surface wind). But we remained halted until a small 4-engine jet (a BAe 146, I think) followed the turbo-prop onto the runway. Then we were allowed to taxi to the terminal, passing an 'elephant's graveyard' of stored aircraft. I spotted two elderly-looking single-engine biplanes and at least three Russian-looking helicopters in their typical "sit up and beg" attitude when parked.

The airbridge was attached and we all piled off the aircraft. It was hot! Ulaan Baatar enjoys the distinction of being the capital city with the lowest average temperature in the world. There is a summer when it can be hot but the season is quite short. It didn't take long to pass through Immigration, manned exclusively by young ladies, but at Customs, the Green Lane was barriered-off. All the passengers were being directed through the Red Channel, which was being ignored by the group of Customs officials standing around.

In the Arrivals Hall, there was the usual group of 'Meeters and Greeters', most with signs. I quickly spotted my name and met Mr. Baggi, our guide, and the car driver. We waited for one other arrival for the 'Golden Eagle' tour who'd travelled on my flight (an Israeli gentleman who's a Civil Engineer) and then went out to the car for the journey of around 18 km into the city and our hotel - the Kempinski Khan Palace.

As we'd flown into Mongolia, I'd seen tall, inhospitable mountains and much of the plains where we landed looked barren with little cultivation. The view from the car was of a rather bleak, industrial landscape. Although hot, it was overcast. I could see what looked like the headworks of small mining operations dotted around. With the mountains forming a backdrop, I was reminded of Longyearbyen which I'd visited on my Arctic Adventure.

Mongolia is rich in a number of minerals, including copper and gold but this doesn't seem to have translated into prosperity as yet. The roads were badly maintained and, since our car seemed to lack effective shock absorbers, the journey wasn't too comfortable. We passed three or four small power stations, apparently coal-fired. Mr. Baggi confirmed my guess that they were Russian design. Mongolia is the second-largest landlocked country in the world but its population is only around 2.8 million. Almost half of that population lives in Ulaan Baatur. There were plenty of the characteristic round tents called 'ger' visible ('yurt' is the Russian term) in evidence but we also passed massive building projects producing long apartment blocks a few stories high, rather reminiscent of the Russian style. I'm told they're currently building around 100,000 new homes!

As we made our way through the city, various building styles could be seen, mainly modern, with a lot of tower blocks up to about ten stories in height and construction cranes everywhere towering over new projects. We passed a few buildings struggling to be 'iconic' - the 'Blue Sky Tower' clad in blue-tinted glass was probably the most successful, but not really to my taste.

My room at the Kempinski Khan Palace Hotel.

The Kempinski Khan Palace is housed in a fairly undistinguished modern block but, even though it was not yet 7 a.m. we were made welcome and I was given the credit-card sized electronic key to a spacious 9th floor room and an invitation to take breakfast. The room had both Wi-Fi and a physical network connection so I was quite content. After a shower and putting on fresh clothes, I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Then, I had to decide whether to catch up on my sleep or explore the city. Regular readers will have no trouble guessing my decision.

My room commanded a good view of an important intersection controlled by traffic lights. Cars, diesel buses and trolley buses streamed past. The, as I was getting ready, I noticed that the traffic had come to a standstill and numerous police cars had appeared. Footpolic lined up on both sides of the street opposite, spaced about every twenty yards. Silence reigned for about 15 minutes (punctuated only by the horns sounded by increasingly impatient motorists). Then, a convoy of about twenty vehicles swept by along the closed street, including a number of police cars with blue and red lights flashing. After this interruption, the traffic started to flow again. I afterwards learned that the convoy was for Hillary Clinton, paying a very brief visit to Mongolia on her way to Laos.

Miscellaneous aircraft pictures (like the one of the terminal building above) are in the set Up, Up and Away.

Pictures of the Kempinski Khan Palace are here.

Pictures around Ulaan Batuur are here.