Thomo Notes: Scott arrived in Ulaanbaatar in the Summer and it was a warm summer. In the past five years though there has been a lot of development in Ulaanbaatar, new buildings, new roads, other infrastructure improvement so that whilst Mongolia is still a developing country, it is a developing country moving forward - perhaps not fast enough for some but in the right direction at least. And yes Scott, beer is still freely available here.
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="The Circus from my Apartment in Ulaanbaatar"]
[/caption]As for five-star hotels, Shangri-la Hotels are building a hotel in Ulaanbaatar in partnership with MCS, a local firm.
Scott in 2000 Notes: The buildings in UB reminds me very much of the country cities in Russia during the mid seventies. The only difference being that they are even more run down. It would appear that very little has been spent on infrastructure maintenance since the Russians left 10 years ago as the country itself is broke. This is also reflected in the state of the roads, the vehicles used and the energy supply. For example the roads are in a terrible state, so much so that vehicles cannot travel faster than 30 km/h due to the large cracks & pot holes. Mind you, in 99% of cases it would be very dangerous driving any of the vehicles here faster than 30kmh due to their age & condition. In Australia most would have been banned from the roads years ago as death bombs. The energy supply here is apparently improving but is still subject to frequent breakdowns. Most buildings are only 3 floors high at most & very few of them have lifts. None of the residential apartments have lifts and the stairwells do not have lights. Given that the stairs themselves are uneven and in some cases broken, one has to be careful when coming home & climbing stairs in the dark.
Thomo Notes: Yep, many of the roads are still as bad as described, whilst others are a lot better, the South Road next to the railway line for example is in pretty good condition. Road crews get around more frequently now and fix many of the problems. There is a fair mix as well of old vehicles, vehicles that are sort of falling apart and new vehicles. I must admit that Ulaanbaatar is one city where I would suggest a 4WD vehicle is necessary in town.Mind you, I have seen cars driving around with one nut missing from each wheel, as well as seeing a number of cars and trucks that have lost their wheel. And there are a lot of breakdowns. Also it is rare to see a car with a full fuel tank. Most are driven on quarter full or less. I guess this prevents loss of petrol if stolen at night when the car is parked. My favourite Mongolian family had the wing mirrors stolen from their car the other evening (and it was not even the depth of night, rather about 8:00 or so). I mean, who bothers to steal wing mirrors? Cracked windscreens are seen a lot as well, although I cannot make out if that is the result of stones or just extremely cold weather. As far as energy supply goes, it is getting better. There were a few blackouts around the office in the summer although these appear to have gone in the autumn and power has been very stable around Ulaanbaatar at least over recent weeks. As for the buildings, yes, there are a lot of 3 to 5 storey old Russian style apartment buildings around with uneven stairs and floors. There is now a lot of new buidling going on with many newer apartment buildings being built. These have elevators, security and are very modern - and they are also earthquake resistant, I believe to Richter 8.0 ... but I will happily be corrected on that point. I live on the 11th floor and the elevator here runs 24x7. And if Asiel is reading this, yes, [in best Russian accent] "soviet apartment is like soviet woman ... big, strong, ugly ... but not Russian woman!" :-)
I should note that the 5 star hotel I mentioned in the post above never appeared - rather it seems it was used as a ploy so the population would not complain too much about the taking over of a park on the edge of Sukhbaatar Square. The park had been built by the poeple back in the Communist times. It seems that the development happening there now is, in fact, an office building instead of the originally published hotel.
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