Ulaanbaatar is ugly.
With nearly half of Mongolians living there, it is noisy, busy,
dirty and experiencing fast growth also very messy. Roads are good, but very
busy with specific rules like constant use of horns. Pavements are in terrible
condition.
With nothing to see outside, we started museum tour. First was Choijin Lama Temple Museum. Squashed between skyscrapers growing around Sukhbaatar
Square, it will be of more interest for those interested in religions, and
Buddhism especially.
The layout of the old temple, decorations and exhibits
have deep roots in symbols and traditions, so as such could not be appreciated
by us. Anyway, the conclusion was that regardless a religion, there is going to
be and institution built around it, with specific rules and rituals based
mostly on scaring people and promising miracles.
Next stop was Tumen Ekh. It was very impressive, with clothes,
singing (especially throat singing), music and dance leaving unforgettable
memories - must be seen!
Useful hints:
We used trolleybuses to get to Sukhbaatar Square: they are not
as crowded as buses (coming from suburbs), and cheaper at 300T a ride. There is
no timetable, and the only place one can see the routes is on a posters on the
trolleybuses themselves. The same applies to the buses (500T single trip) on top of that there seem to be several transport companies and they show only their
routes. Tickets are sold by the
conductors on board.
All the institutions in Ulaanbaatar charge extra for taking
photographs/video, and the charges can be hefty. It is of course hard to judge in advance if there is a
point to get a permission, and that is very subjective as well. I would recommend to
get one for Tumen Ekh (20000T for photography, equal to the ticket price but that guarantees fantastic memories, light
is pretty good), maybe also for Bogd Khan palace (photos for 50000T, 10 times
entry price), especially once details of the building will be better visible
after restoration.
Tumen Ekh - the top Google pick (at Wordpress) must be abandoned now and
is a bit misleading (ticket price in August 2014 was 20000T), the one on the poster doesn't even exist...
Our guide called to book us tickets, but the lady at the ticket
office did not seem to care, so consider the tickets to be sold on first come,
first served base, they run out fast - the venue was fully packed.
Next: Ulaanbaatar day 2: Zaisan Memorial, Bogd Khaan Palace museum, Sükhbaatar Square
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