Old Cars and Autumn Days

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The Citroën Traction Avant outside the apartment building"][/caption]

I believe that the delightful car is an old German car. It looks like it is straight from a 30s or 40s movie, a black car with doors that open the opposite way to cars today. It could have been in a scene from the movie Casablanca maybe. But there is was, parked outside the apartment building today.I was strolling out to buy some music, have a strawberry milkshake with a slice of rare cheesecake and generally just stretch the legs in the autumn sunshine. It was, after all, a pleasant 19 degrees today. So, as I strolled out of the building this beautiful old machine was sitting there. It had driven in. I shall see if I can get some more pictures later as well as find out exactly what it is - but I have never seen one like this in Australia.

Update Note: Jim, a friend from the US, sent me an email today (30 September 2005) letting me know that one of his friends thought he identified the car as a Citroën Traction Avant, although he was not sure of the year.

Which City Am I In Again?

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The back end of an Ulaanbaatar bus"][/caption]

I was travelling into the Business District of Ulaanbaatar in an unofficial taxi the other day when we pulled up behind a bus. As you can see in the picture attached to this, my immediate thought was "where the heck am I?"

There are a great number of second hand buses purchased from Korea and shipped to Mongolia for use in Ulaanbaatar. This is one of them. Many of the buses bear their original liveries as well as their original signage. In this case I am following a Seoul bus, route 211, stopping Sinwol 7-dong, Yeongdeunpo Market, Hannam-dong and finally Sangwangsimni (basically from one side of Seoul and the Han River to the other.

And lest you think that is is a photo taken in Seoul, the billboard to the right of the bus is definitely in Mongolian. :-)

We All Like Snooker

Indeed, the Monglians enjoy a nice game of snooker or pool. Trouble is that renting a building to put the tables in is an expensive business, so much so that the players would be priced out of their games. The result is that over the residential areas of Ulaanbaatar, Snooker tables can be seen out on the street with the locals happily playing away. A plastic sheet provides protection against the elements when the table is not in use.

I have seen the snooker tables out and about since I first arrived here in April (gee, that's over five months ago now) but I cannot say whether they remain out over winter. I will update this blog entry in December with that information.

An Egg, an Egg, my Kingdom for an Egg

Seems that eggs have become as scarce as hen's teeth around here (well, I could not resist that one). A great percentage of Mongolia's eggs are imported. Yep, you guessed it. Imported from those countries constantly eliminating their chicken populations due to Avian Flu. The result is that bacon and eggs for Sunday morning breakfast here has become a bacon buttee only. :-(

Bye Bye Summer/Autumn

It snowed in Ulaanbaatar today. Temperature was around 0 celsius with wind chill of -7. Sigh - winter can only be days away. :-(

Working in an Art Gallery

I work at Khan Bank in Ulaanbaatar. Khan Bank is a big supporter of modern art in Mongolia. As such, the office is like an art gallery. It is really quite pleasant walking up to the office and walking past various works of art. Indeed, it provides a good break sometimes, standing and looking at a painting. Have a look at the Khan Bank website for some more information and pictures.

Talking about Best Cheeseburger in Ulaanbaatar

Since I wrote the blog shown as the track back for this, a number of people in Ulaanbaatar (or those who have visited Ulaanbaatar) have come back to me and said, "Yes, but what about the cheeseburgers at [insert favourite restaurant name here]"? I never realised that cheeseburgers created more interest around the world then say the Mongolian style of cooking with hot river stones.OK, I am a fair-minded kind of guy and my ever-faithful translator and aide confidante, Baggy (Baagi) likes a challenge so the result is, after much discussion around lunch today, the two of us will survey ALL the cheeseburgers we can find in Ulaanbaatar and will rate them accordingly. We do this for two reasons:

1. As a public service to those who may visit Ulaanbaatar and wonder where to get the best cheeseburger


2. Because whilst we like the restaurant critic from the UB Post (Hi Mark), he assesses restaurants. We want more granularity so are going for a single dish (and thus at the stroke of a pen ruling out all the Korean, Indian and Chinese Restaurants in town


3. We, both of us, have our more fulsome figure to think of and will therefore be happy to sacrifice for the betterment of visitors to Ulaanbaatar

And yes, I can't count.

We will publish the results of our survey on an ongoing basis to a separate web page (I am sure that Jeffro, Number One Son and family technical genius can give me a sub-domain to http://cheeseburger.coldie.net/) to record the results of our survey.

Baggy and I, at great personal expense, will attempt at least one cheeseburger a week and try to have the results published each weekend. We see this as a wonderful winter project. There will be a two to three week hiatus to this in October whilst I return to Australia to visit family, but folks, for the winter, it is cheeseburger "game on".

Quote

Best Cheeseburger in Ulaanbaatar
Being a gentleman of, shall we say, more fulsome figure, eating seems to have been a prominent part of my life. Travelling a lot has meant many meals in hotels. Business has resulted in even more restaurant meals. After a while, though, what Thomo really craves is simple food, the sort of stuff you'd cook at home. Be that a humble chicken sandwich or just a bowl of soup and fresh bread. Travelling can get tiring food-wise after a time. By the time you've got to your third Duck l'Orange or Pheasant Under Glass it is all starting to taste the same.

• California - A US style restaurant and bar on Seoul Street. The cheeseburgers here have a combination of quality (good meet, cheese and supplementary items) as well as quantity (recommendation is to start eating the cheeseburger first then come back to the chips).


• Dave's Place - Where the beer is, of course, X-cellent. Dave does a quite reasonable cheeseburger too.


• Millies - Smaller that California's (and also a little cheaper too for that matter), Millies' cheeseburgers are a good lunch from time to time.

Mongolia does not have any McDonald's, Burger Kings or the like, so there is no problem defining a good cheeseburger here.

Border Post - or Thomo Gets Arrested

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="The Secret History of the Mongols ... er, rather the secret photo of the border area taken from inside the car - you can just swee the church in the middle of the windscreen"][/caption]

In Altanbulag soum in Selenge Aimag, up on the border between Mongolia and Russia, is the Sukhbaatar Museum. It is not a large museum but is significant as this part of Mongolia is where Sukhbaatar fought and defeated Chinese forces back in the 1920s, during the war that won Mongolia its independence. Just on the other side of the border is the Russian town of Kyakhta and between there and Altanbulag is a border crossing. The Mongolian government has also set aside an area here as a free trade zone to try and improve and expedite trade with Russia.

Kyakhta and Altanbulag are also significant as the location of talks in 1915 between the Russian, Chinese and Mongolian governments resulting is a treaty giving Mongolia a degree of Autonomy. This lasted until 1919 when the Chinese revoked the agreement which in turn led to the Chinese invasion of Mongolia and the later struggles for independence by the Mongolians.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Thomo in Mongolia away from the border crossing. You can see the church over my right shoulder"][/caption]

We went there.

In Kyakhta there is a beautiful old Russian Orthodox Cathedral which is now used as a customs post. Indeed, in the area between the Mongolian and Russian border points is a Khan Bank branch, used by the traders and what have you. Of course, I am the Chief Information Officer of the Bank. I mention this so that when I say, "I took a photo across the border of the church" you will understand that I do this out of a love of old buildings. There were many other people around (Mongolians and the odd Russian) some taking photos as well.

Thomo was detained by an over-zealous member of the Customs department. As I was a "third-country national", therefore I may have been a spy or a terrorist and photographing there was plainly a breach of national security. Tseye then spoke with him and was also detained.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Memorial to Sukhbaatar in the Museum - secure Russian border behind"][/caption]

Needless to say, even after showing him identification indicating that I was an executive of a Bank, that I had every right to be there as one on my branches was "just over there", and after Puujee had spoken to him gently (Puujee is a very patient and gentle man), this guy was not going to let us go until his boss arrived. Eventually he was prevailed upon to let us go after deleting the offending photos from the digital cameras (I think the fact that someone mentioned to him that he had no authority to do what he was doing, that there was no legislation preventing us from doing what we were doing along with being told that most of the people working around him relied on Khan Bank salary loans each month also persuaded him to release us).

In any case, for your amusement, a photo of the border area, another of the cathedral and one of the hero Sukhbaatar (behind Sukhbaatar is the Russian border, by the way).

Seasonal Change

I noted it before when winter passed through into Spring, and then into Summer. These were overnight changes in Mongolia. Well, they seemed overnight at least. Here we are, sitting at the end of summer. Last weekend I wore shorts, this weekend I am wearing jeans and a flannelette shirt. Summer disappeared sometime in the last 15 days or so. Leaves will fall from trees soon (again, they will be there one day, gone the next).

Today is the 10th of September, it is overcast, very light rain from time to time. Temperature at night now is about 3 or 4 degrees Celsius. Daytime temperature between 10 and 18 Celsius. In 5 days time the central heating goes back on in Ulaanbaatar.

Hmm, grey days, short days, long nights and cold cold cold to come. I am looking forward to this first winter in Mongolia. I have some books on order and hopefully they will arrive this week as well as some more hobby stuff so I should be fine on the weekends and in the evenings. Then, if course, there is the internet -- when surfing international sites it is slightly faster than snail mail - but just slightly.

Another Water Spot of Chinggis'

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Baggy adds some stones and a prayer to the ovoo at the Chinggis Monument in Dadal"][/caption]

I did not mention it earlier but when we were doing our four Aimag, 2,500 kilometre, 4 1/2 day off road jaunt around the Khan Bank branches earlier this year, one of the places we stopped at was in Khentii Aimag and it was the soum of Dadal. Dadal is famous for being the area that Chinggis Khaan was supposed to have been born in. It is a really beautiful area full of trees, mountains, valleys and fresh mountain streams.Near the soum of Dadal is a spring that issues forth from the side of a hill. The water from this spring is clear and cold and really quite refreshing. The spring is famous in the area for being the spring that Chinggis drank at. Local legend has it that the water now has a curative effect, being particularly good for your stomach. I must admit to having felt worse for wear before drinking the water and feeling a lot better later that day.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Baggy gets me some water from the stream that appears from the mountain at this point"][/caption]

I must also report that Baggy, my ever faithful translator and aide confidante, found the opposite to be the case, and his condition deteriorated during the day. Mind you, Baggy always maintains that whatever bad happens to me happens to him two days later.

Confluence of the Selenge and Orkhon Rivers

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="The Selenge and Orkhon rivers join in northern Mongolia"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="A view of the joined river, on the edge of Russia with a local train passing through"][/caption]

Selenge murun and Orkhon gol (the Selenge and Orkhon rivers).The rivers join up a few kilometres from the border then flow into Russia, into Siberia. The countryside around this area is quite superb - mountains, rolling hills, forests and open areas all combine to form a spectacular piece of countryside.

We were fortunate to be able to get so close to the border, thank you for organising that Puujee.

Chinggis Khaan's Water Spot and Camp

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="The monument to Chinggis - the blue scarves are a Buddhist sign of good fortune and general blessing"][/caption]

In Selenge Aimag, between Sukhbaatar and the soum Altanbulag is a monument to Chinggis Khaan. It is near a spring that issues from the ground. It was in this area that Chinggis along with 60,000 troops camped whilst he searched for his favourite wiife. She had apparently been kidnapped by a rival.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Whisting over the spring to generate ripples"][/caption]

The monument, along with most of the others through the country to Chinggis, is revered by the Mongolians. The spring nearby issues forth from the ground with clear, cool water. It is said that whistling over the spring causes the water to ripple on the surface. You can see Tseye trying this. As to whether the water rippled from the whistling or not, well, Tseye whistled, I watched but if you want to know, then travel to Selenge, visit the spring and whistle over the water and watch what happens.

Sukhbaatar Museum

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="The Sukhbaatar Museum, Altanbulag soum, Selenge aimag, Mongolia"][/caption]

In Altanbulag soum in Selenge Aimag, up on the border between Mongolia and Russia, is the Sukhbaatar Museum. It is not a large museum but is significant as this part of Mongolia is where Sukhbaatar fought and defeated Chinese forces back in the 1920s, during the war that won Mongolia its independence. Just on the other side of the border is the Russian town of Kyakhta and between there and Altanbulag is a border crossing. The Mongolian government has also set aside an area here as a free trade zone to try and improve and expidite trade with Russia. Kyakhta and Altanbulag are also significant as the location of talks in 1915 between the Russian, Chinese and Mongolian governments resulting is a treaty giving Mongolia a degree of Autonomy. This lasted until 1919 when the Chinese revoked the agreement which in turn led to the Chinese invasion of Mongolia and the later struggles for independence by the Mongolians.

So, back to the museum. It is a museum devoted to Sukhbaatar and the 1921 Independence War although it does contain other exhibits. The day my favourite Mongolian family took me there was the day the tour guide was on holiday so the young lady that sold the tickets escorted us around the museum and explained the exhibits.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Cannon makers mark and Thomo's Toes, Sukhbaatar Museum"][/caption]

The exhibits include a diorama of the area showing Sukhbaatar's struggles with the Chinese. There are some old weapons of the time, including a couple of wonderful old machine guns. Unfortunately I was not permitted to photograph inside the museum. Also on display are some uniforms worn by the Mongolian troops of the time as well as a number of paintings and the furniture from Sukhbaatar's office.

Upstairs is an heroic statue with Sukhbaatar and Lenin meeting. Also upstairs are some paleantological exhibits (old bones, including part of the front tooth of a Sabre-Toothed Cat (Sabre Tooth Tiger)), archeological finds from the area and some anthropological exhibits showing how Mongolians lived 100 years ago or so.

The museum is inexpensive to visit and worth the look. If you have made the effort to go to Selenge Aimag, Sukhbaatar Aimag Centre, then you may as well travel the few extra kilometres to the border and visit the museum.

Oh, the cannon picture included on this blog was the barrel from one of the cannons used during the 1921 War of Independence (and yes, they are Thomo's toes in the picture as well).

Lamingtons

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="The Mongolian Lamington"][/caption]

"Let's try the new fast food joint next to the State Department Store" Thomo said. "OK" came the reply.

Peak was the name of the establishment. Through the front door, turn left for the pub, turn right for the fast food. Thomo orders the cheeseburger (note, they do not rate on the top 3 list). Chicken nuggets is the the other order. We finished the food. On a scale of one to ten, about 2.

It was then we noticed the stand that contained various cream cakes and other sweets. Tucked away in there was something looking very familiar to a Lost Aussie.

"Let's try that one" Thomo says to his companion. It looks a little like a type of cake from Australia. We tried it. It was. Slightly heavier than a sponge cake inside but the same flavour never-the-less. Then there was the chocolate icing and a sprinkling of desiccated coconut on the outside. Yes folks, it was a lamington. Here, in Ulaanbaatar.

For those of you not familiar with the lamington, there is a recipe at http://www.aussie-info.com/identity/food/lamington.php along with a brief history. Lamingtons are part of Australian culture now and are used in Australia as simple cakes, served at government functions in Queensland where they are said to have been invented, used for fund raising (the Australian Lamington Drive) or just make a nice cake to have with a cuppa (cup of tea)! For those interested in the etymology of the word, then the Australian National University maintains a history of most Australian terms, see http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/ozwords/May_99/6._lamington.htm

Even better if you can, find a lamington, make a nice hot cup of tea and enjoy this piece of Australian culture. If you are in Ulaanbaatar, get one from Peak, next to the State Department Store - a picture is attached :-)