chopstick goes for a sail
01-16-2015
, 05:23 AM
02-11-2015
, 12:46 AM
Because there's not much in the way of food options on the train, despite having a restaurant car:
(in Russian, P is pronounced like the English R, and C like the English S - you can sound out that word - PECTOPAH becomes RESTORAH, very close to restaurant, which is what it means)
all of the major stations have little kiosks set up on the platforms where you can buy food:
Those two little red/blue trays in the window are holding some kind of meat filled pastries. I went with the one on the red tray as that one seemed a lot more popular. It was pretty terrible, kind of like an undercooked hotdog baked into an overly doughy burned croissant.
Made it easy to appreciate the various cup of soups I had brought:
Never got sick of those. The good ones had freeze dried meat and veggies in them in addition to the noodles and sauce packets. Definitely worth paying a little more for them rather than just plain noodles.
Here's another view of what it looks like inside the train car, looking down the hallway:
As you can see, the hallway is very narrow and you are constantly squeezing by people going in the opposite direction or looking out the windows. There are windows in the cabins as well, but you get a much better view standing in the hallway, as almost the entire upper wall is windowed.
I liked that the Trans Siberian Railroad is marked on mapping apps as well:
(in Russian, P is pronounced like the English R, and C like the English S - you can sound out that word - PECTOPAH becomes RESTORAH, very close to restaurant, which is what it means)
all of the major stations have little kiosks set up on the platforms where you can buy food:
Those two little red/blue trays in the window are holding some kind of meat filled pastries. I went with the one on the red tray as that one seemed a lot more popular. It was pretty terrible, kind of like an undercooked hotdog baked into an overly doughy burned croissant.
Made it easy to appreciate the various cup of soups I had brought:
Never got sick of those. The good ones had freeze dried meat and veggies in them in addition to the noodles and sauce packets. Definitely worth paying a little more for them rather than just plain noodles.
Here's another view of what it looks like inside the train car, looking down the hallway:
As you can see, the hallway is very narrow and you are constantly squeezing by people going in the opposite direction or looking out the windows. There are windows in the cabins as well, but you get a much better view standing in the hallway, as almost the entire upper wall is windowed.
I liked that the Trans Siberian Railroad is marked on mapping apps as well:
02-11-2015
, 12:55 AM
The train does have a bunch of snacks and things you can buy, here is the menu:
They were really pushing people to buy those little cat train conductor dolls. Those little glasses in the metal cup holders to the left of the cat conductors were pretty popular, lots of people were drinking tea out of them. I bought a soda and some candy bars, but didn't want to lug around any kind of souvenir stuff.
Old Russian had a deck of playing cards that he would break out for solitaire every so often. That's when I learned that Russian cards don't use an A for the Ace, they use this:
Yes, it's the T of spades.
Eventually we pulled into Irkutsk early one evening:
(can you sound it out? The reversed N makes an "eh" sound)
and it was time to spend a few days off the train.
They were really pushing people to buy those little cat train conductor dolls. Those little glasses in the metal cup holders to the left of the cat conductors were pretty popular, lots of people were drinking tea out of them. I bought a soda and some candy bars, but didn't want to lug around any kind of souvenir stuff.
Old Russian had a deck of playing cards that he would break out for solitaire every so often. That's when I learned that Russian cards don't use an A for the Ace, they use this:
Yes, it's the T of spades.
Eventually we pulled into Irkutsk early one evening:
(can you sound it out? The reversed N makes an "eh" sound)
and it was time to spend a few days off the train.
02-11-2015
, 01:39 AM
The primary reason I wanted to stop in Irkutsk (besides the Risk reason) was to visit Lake Baikal, which is the largest (volume) and deepest freshwater lake in the world. It holds 20% of the surface fresh water in the world. Other than that, I didn't really have a plan. I met up with a local Irkutsk guy who wanted to practice his English and was willing to act as a tour guide in exchange. He picked me up at the train station upon arrival and dropped me off at a hostel in the city. Here's what the room looked like:
Lots of nationalities there. Australians (they are everywhere), English, Germans, Koreans, Norwegian, a couple of Swedes. Yet again, I was the only American.
There was another bunkbed off the the left that you can't see, for a total of 6 beds in that room. I think the hostel had about a dozen or so beds total. First thing I did was take a shower, as I hadn't done so since Moscow and definitely needed one. I also knew from prior hostel experience that it is far better to take a shower at night as everyone competes to do so first thing in the morning.
Met an English and a Norwegian that night and we went out for a drink. Now that I had made it to Siberia, I was determined to drink some Russian vodka while there. It was a weeknight and Irkutsk shuts down pretty early, but we managed to find a German beerhouse that had all kinds of vodka in addition to what you'd normally find in a place like that.
The guy who offered to play tour guide asked me if I wanted to meet for coffee in the morning, and I was a little surprised when we went here:
but when we went inside, all of the tables were full of people as if it was just another cafe. I never would have guessed that Papa John's would double as a cafe during the morning. Travel does broaden our horizons.
Most of that day was spent walking around Irkutsk and exchanging English lessons for knowledge of the city and area. This was a great deal for me as he was fluent in English and just looking to iron out a few things like pronunciation of specific words and phrases.
There is a large river there which is fed from Lake Baikal that people walk along and fish in:
all of those little things attached to the fence are locks. It's a tradition to attach a lock to the fence after you get married. These are not generic locks you get from the store, most of them are ornate custom pieces engraved with the names and dates of the marriage:
I spent another day just walking around the city on my own, exploring and checking out things like monuments and grocery stores. The day after that, my new friend offered to drive me to Lake Baikal where I had scheduled a night in a hostel, so we took a road trip. I have a bunch of photos of the lake, but it's impossible to really capture due to its size. The best one is from up on a nearby hill:
We took what is basically a ski lift to the top of the hill for this shot. Those pieces of fabric have something to do with making a wish and family. I didn't really understand it, but people go up there and tie the fabric strips onto that piece of wood. I've read that they are prayer cloths or Buddhist flags.
Lots of nationalities there. Australians (they are everywhere), English, Germans, Koreans, Norwegian, a couple of Swedes. Yet again, I was the only American.
There was another bunkbed off the the left that you can't see, for a total of 6 beds in that room. I think the hostel had about a dozen or so beds total. First thing I did was take a shower, as I hadn't done so since Moscow and definitely needed one. I also knew from prior hostel experience that it is far better to take a shower at night as everyone competes to do so first thing in the morning.
Met an English and a Norwegian that night and we went out for a drink. Now that I had made it to Siberia, I was determined to drink some Russian vodka while there. It was a weeknight and Irkutsk shuts down pretty early, but we managed to find a German beerhouse that had all kinds of vodka in addition to what you'd normally find in a place like that.
The guy who offered to play tour guide asked me if I wanted to meet for coffee in the morning, and I was a little surprised when we went here:
but when we went inside, all of the tables were full of people as if it was just another cafe. I never would have guessed that Papa John's would double as a cafe during the morning. Travel does broaden our horizons.
Most of that day was spent walking around Irkutsk and exchanging English lessons for knowledge of the city and area. This was a great deal for me as he was fluent in English and just looking to iron out a few things like pronunciation of specific words and phrases.
There is a large river there which is fed from Lake Baikal that people walk along and fish in:
all of those little things attached to the fence are locks. It's a tradition to attach a lock to the fence after you get married. These are not generic locks you get from the store, most of them are ornate custom pieces engraved with the names and dates of the marriage:
I spent another day just walking around the city on my own, exploring and checking out things like monuments and grocery stores. The day after that, my new friend offered to drive me to Lake Baikal where I had scheduled a night in a hostel, so we took a road trip. I have a bunch of photos of the lake, but it's impossible to really capture due to its size. The best one is from up on a nearby hill:
We took what is basically a ski lift to the top of the hill for this shot. Those pieces of fabric have something to do with making a wish and family. I didn't really understand it, but people go up there and tie the fabric strips onto that piece of wood. I've read that they are prayer cloths or Buddhist flags.
02-11-2015
, 03:34 AM
02-11-2015
, 09:31 PM
He wasn't an actual tour guide, just a guy that acted like one in exchange for English lessons/practice. Found him on Couchsurfing while looking to see if there were any locals who wanted to show someone around.
The Lake Baikal hostel was cool. It was a modern style log cabin thing. Not an actual log cabin, but everything was made out of wood, and it was up in the hills about a mile or so from the actual lake. Here's the room:
Four beds, no bunkbeds. I think there were two other rooms like this.
The standard rules applied:
before I made it up to the hostel, we went to the fish market near the shore for some omul. This is a type of fish endemic to Lake Baikal and popular throughout Russia. It's usually sold/served smoked and salted.
Here's a row of the market:
and here's what the omul look like:
What it's like to eat them:
That one wasn't completely dried, so it was tender. Tasted like most whitefish do. There were infinite bones, but it was pretty easy to avoid them.
The Lake Baikal hostel was cool. It was a modern style log cabin thing. Not an actual log cabin, but everything was made out of wood, and it was up in the hills about a mile or so from the actual lake. Here's the room:
Four beds, no bunkbeds. I think there were two other rooms like this.
The standard rules applied:
before I made it up to the hostel, we went to the fish market near the shore for some omul. This is a type of fish endemic to Lake Baikal and popular throughout Russia. It's usually sold/served smoked and salted.
Here's a row of the market:
and here's what the omul look like:
What it's like to eat them:
That one wasn't completely dried, so it was tender. Tasted like most whitefish do. There were infinite bones, but it was pretty easy to avoid them.
02-11-2015
, 10:00 PM
My favorite thing about the hostel at Baikal was that it had a banya, which is the Russian version of a sauna. I've been to saunas in other countries like Hungary, Finland, and Japan, and enjoyed them, so I was happy to have the chance to try the Russian version.
The sauna had to be reserved in advance so they could heat things up and get the water ready. One of the other people in the hostel was a Japanese who wanted to give it a try, so we were able to split the cost between us which was nice.
The banya was a standalone building that looked like a miniature version of the hostel from the outside. The inside had three areas. The first was just a foyer area. The second was this:
which is kind of a recovery / resting area. The stuff that you see in there:
are two mugs for drinking water, a faucet to fill the big blue bucket with cold water, a ladle, and a smaller brass bucket. What you are supposed to do is come out of the sauna every so often, then dip either the ladle or the brass bucket in the big blue bucket to fill it with cold water, then pour the cold water over yourself. The first time you do this, you will let out a blood curdling scream, as the cold water is very cold, and you are very hot. This is supposed to be therapeutic. I can think of other adjectives to describe it.
There is also a little basket full of hot water and a bundle of small branches:
which you are supposed to hit yourself and others with, to improve circulation. I was skeptical of this but gave it a try. I remained skeptical.
Here's a view into the steam area:
it was tough to get a decent photo and I decided not to bring my phone inside because it was super hot and steamy in there. It's basically a few tiers of wooden benches built all along the walls. You can fit about a dozen people in there. There's also a big stove looking thing heating up the water and creating the steam. It gets very hot in there, as you'd imagine.
So what you do is go into the building, undress and get a towel to wrap around yourself, then alternate going between the steam area and the recovery/water area. I was able to take about 15 minutes of the steam area each time before needing to get out. Dousing yourself with cold water the first time is more shocking than anything else, but after you do it a few times it's refreshing. Better than jumping into an ice filled river in the middle of February which is what we did to cool off from the sauna in Finland.
After a couple of hours in the sauna, I slept very, very well that night.
The next morning it was time to head back to Irkutsk to catch the train to Mongolia that evening. While I had been lucky to have someone give me a lift to Baikal, I needed to use public transportation to get back to Irkutsk. The primary form of this is via minibuses that run between the two. These buses stop down near the shore, put up a little sign in the window stating their destination, and then depart whenever the driver feels like leaving. Here's the one I found:
That little yellow sign says Irkutsk on it.
Lucky for me, I was the second person on, so I was able to secure a decent seat in the back with my backpacks. The bus loaded up about 20 minutes later with 11 people counting the driver, and off we headed back to Irkutsk. There were 3 Germans and everyone else was Russian. One thing I hadn't checked into was where in Irkutsk we'd be getting dropped off, but I knew the city is fairly small, so I'd figure it out when we arrived.
The sauna had to be reserved in advance so they could heat things up and get the water ready. One of the other people in the hostel was a Japanese who wanted to give it a try, so we were able to split the cost between us which was nice.
The banya was a standalone building that looked like a miniature version of the hostel from the outside. The inside had three areas. The first was just a foyer area. The second was this:
which is kind of a recovery / resting area. The stuff that you see in there:
are two mugs for drinking water, a faucet to fill the big blue bucket with cold water, a ladle, and a smaller brass bucket. What you are supposed to do is come out of the sauna every so often, then dip either the ladle or the brass bucket in the big blue bucket to fill it with cold water, then pour the cold water over yourself. The first time you do this, you will let out a blood curdling scream, as the cold water is very cold, and you are very hot. This is supposed to be therapeutic. I can think of other adjectives to describe it.
There is also a little basket full of hot water and a bundle of small branches:
which you are supposed to hit yourself and others with, to improve circulation. I was skeptical of this but gave it a try. I remained skeptical.
Here's a view into the steam area:
it was tough to get a decent photo and I decided not to bring my phone inside because it was super hot and steamy in there. It's basically a few tiers of wooden benches built all along the walls. You can fit about a dozen people in there. There's also a big stove looking thing heating up the water and creating the steam. It gets very hot in there, as you'd imagine.
So what you do is go into the building, undress and get a towel to wrap around yourself, then alternate going between the steam area and the recovery/water area. I was able to take about 15 minutes of the steam area each time before needing to get out. Dousing yourself with cold water the first time is more shocking than anything else, but after you do it a few times it's refreshing. Better than jumping into an ice filled river in the middle of February which is what we did to cool off from the sauna in Finland.
After a couple of hours in the sauna, I slept very, very well that night.
The next morning it was time to head back to Irkutsk to catch the train to Mongolia that evening. While I had been lucky to have someone give me a lift to Baikal, I needed to use public transportation to get back to Irkutsk. The primary form of this is via minibuses that run between the two. These buses stop down near the shore, put up a little sign in the window stating their destination, and then depart whenever the driver feels like leaving. Here's the one I found:
That little yellow sign says Irkutsk on it.
Lucky for me, I was the second person on, so I was able to secure a decent seat in the back with my backpacks. The bus loaded up about 20 minutes later with 11 people counting the driver, and off we headed back to Irkutsk. There were 3 Germans and everyone else was Russian. One thing I hadn't checked into was where in Irkutsk we'd be getting dropped off, but I knew the city is fairly small, so I'd figure it out when we arrived.
02-11-2015
, 10:14 PM
In more recent sailing news, I've been finding boats that are doing the Panama -> French Polynesia route, which is great. What is not great is that I have yet to find one that needs a crew for something beyond the passage itself. I'm looking for a sailboat that wants crew to help with some island hopping for a month or two. To be fair, I haven't put a lot of effort in yet, so hopefully I'll find what I'm looking for.
Here's a look at most of French Polynesia:
Most of the boats coming from USA/Mexico/Panama initially land in the Marquesas up in the northeast, then sail around island hopping for a while before making their way to the Society Islands on the western edge. Then most head off to New Zealand or Australia.
What I'm finding is that people want help doing the ocean crossing, but aren't as interested in having someone onboard for the island hopping portion. I get that, but it's a bit of a bummer. I'll keep looking. If I don't find one, I'll just head back down to St Thomas at the end of March and either hang out there for a while or find a boat doing the ARC Europe transit (BVI -> Portugal) again.
Or I may just say screw it and get on one of the boats headed to French Polynesia and just figure out my next step once I get there. I'd prefer to island hop on a sailboat but I know there's a cargo ship name the Aranui that does a two week circuit of many of the islands that you can book passage on. It visits Fatu Hiva and Hiva Oa which are two places I'd really like to spend a few days exploring. I'd much rather be on a sailboat, though.
Here's a look at most of French Polynesia:
Most of the boats coming from USA/Mexico/Panama initially land in the Marquesas up in the northeast, then sail around island hopping for a while before making their way to the Society Islands on the western edge. Then most head off to New Zealand or Australia.
What I'm finding is that people want help doing the ocean crossing, but aren't as interested in having someone onboard for the island hopping portion. I get that, but it's a bit of a bummer. I'll keep looking. If I don't find one, I'll just head back down to St Thomas at the end of March and either hang out there for a while or find a boat doing the ARC Europe transit (BVI -> Portugal) again.
Or I may just say screw it and get on one of the boats headed to French Polynesia and just figure out my next step once I get there. I'd prefer to island hop on a sailboat but I know there's a cargo ship name the Aranui that does a two week circuit of many of the islands that you can book passage on. It visits Fatu Hiva and Hiva Oa which are two places I'd really like to spend a few days exploring. I'd much rather be on a sailboat, though.
02-16-2015
, 02:43 PM
Quote:
Because there's not much in the way of food options on the train, despite having a restaurant car:
(in Russian, P is pronounced like the English R, and C like the English S - you can sound out that word - PECTOPAH becomes RESTORAH, very close to restaurant, which is what it means)
(in Russian, P is pronounced like the English R, and C like the English S - you can sound out that word - PECTOPAH becomes RESTORAH, very close to restaurant, which is what it means)
03-05-2015
, 12:55 PM
pig4bill - Siberia looked nothing like I expected, either. Well, maybe a little, but not much.
golddog - Costa Rica has been on my list of places to visit for a while. I've heard good things.
57 on Red - Yeah, I didn't want to push the lesson too much, lol.
BleetBleetImaSheep - That's exactly what I love to hear. Very happy to pay some inspiring forward after having been so inspired by de captain and his sailing thread.
So in sailing news, I've tentatively committed to crewing on a Panama -> Marquesas boat sometime in early April. The downside is that I'm going to have to get off the boat on the island of Hiva Oa and figure out what to do next at that point. Hopefully I'll find another boat, worst case scenario I fly to Tahiti and find a boat there or fly out from there to somewhere else.
Also tentatively committed to helping the folks I came across the Atlantic with to cross back over the Atlantic again. That will be an extended passage, starting in late August from Turkey. Probably arrive in the Caribbean in late November or mid December.
The bus ride back to Irkutsk was uneventful. We were pretty jammed in there, but it wasn't too bad. The driver let us off near the center of Irkutsk, and since the city isn't very large, I walked back to my hostel from there. Spent some more time exploring the city and stocking up on stuff for the train ride to Ulan Bator. Tried to find decent internet access, but when I saw this:
the first thing I thought of was FREE CANDY panel vans, so I decided slow internet access was just fine after all.
One thing I really liked about Irkutsk was that the grocery stores all sold individual packets of hot chocolate at the registers:
as well as teas and coffees. Picked up a few hot chocolates and also restocked on the Russian version of CupONoodles for the train ride.
My Irkutsk friend was kind enough to give me a ride over to the train station and hang out with me until the 2200 departure. In the train station was something I've never seen before:
Yes, that is a contact lens vending machine. You'd never see that in the USA because contact lenses require prescriptions here. So far that's still the only one I've ever seen.
The train ride out of Irkutsk was pretty standard. The little towns outside of Irkutsk were a little depressing because of the trash piles:
but it was pretty cool to see how the people there live. I wonder what these folks are growing:
golddog - Costa Rica has been on my list of places to visit for a while. I've heard good things.
57 on Red - Yeah, I didn't want to push the lesson too much, lol.
BleetBleetImaSheep - That's exactly what I love to hear. Very happy to pay some inspiring forward after having been so inspired by de captain and his sailing thread.
So in sailing news, I've tentatively committed to crewing on a Panama -> Marquesas boat sometime in early April. The downside is that I'm going to have to get off the boat on the island of Hiva Oa and figure out what to do next at that point. Hopefully I'll find another boat, worst case scenario I fly to Tahiti and find a boat there or fly out from there to somewhere else.
Also tentatively committed to helping the folks I came across the Atlantic with to cross back over the Atlantic again. That will be an extended passage, starting in late August from Turkey. Probably arrive in the Caribbean in late November or mid December.
The bus ride back to Irkutsk was uneventful. We were pretty jammed in there, but it wasn't too bad. The driver let us off near the center of Irkutsk, and since the city isn't very large, I walked back to my hostel from there. Spent some more time exploring the city and stocking up on stuff for the train ride to Ulan Bator. Tried to find decent internet access, but when I saw this:
the first thing I thought of was FREE CANDY panel vans, so I decided slow internet access was just fine after all.
One thing I really liked about Irkutsk was that the grocery stores all sold individual packets of hot chocolate at the registers:
as well as teas and coffees. Picked up a few hot chocolates and also restocked on the Russian version of CupONoodles for the train ride.
My Irkutsk friend was kind enough to give me a ride over to the train station and hang out with me until the 2200 departure. In the train station was something I've never seen before:
Yes, that is a contact lens vending machine. You'd never see that in the USA because contact lenses require prescriptions here. So far that's still the only one I've ever seen.
The train ride out of Irkutsk was pretty standard. The little towns outside of Irkutsk were a little depressing because of the trash piles:
but it was pretty cool to see how the people there live. I wonder what these folks are growing:
03-05-2015
, 01:06 PM
When we neared the Mongolian border, the train stopped for a few hours to do a wheel change for the different track size. It's always nice to get out and stretch your legs. I found a Swede and we explored the area around the train station. There was a long line of Russian tanks on flatbed cars that he wanted to get closer to check out, but I decided to maintain distance given my nationality. He thought that was pretty funny and agreed that I was a good insurance policy for him because if we were both questioned, he figured they'd be a lot more interested in me than in him.
No clue what this says but I love the pictogram:
small child /facepalming in a yellow triangle?
This was another solid one a few feet away:
I like how they have him just walking down the track instead of crossing it.
After the wheels were changed, we crossed the border into Mongolia. There was a tiny little train station with some Mongolian military who saluted us as we passed:
but not much else. We arrived in Ulan Bator the next day at around 0500. My hostel was about 2 miles away, so I decided to walk to it. I always prefer walking around new places to get a better idea of the place and to experience and appreciate the area. One of the things I learned to appreciate during this particular walk was that I was not staying here:
despite the welcoming name.
Another thing I learned during the walk is that Mongolians are crazy for karaoke. I don't think I've ever seen anywhere with a higher density of karaoke places than Ulan Bator. They were on pretty much every single block. Here was one of my favorites:
No clue what this says but I love the pictogram:
small child /facepalming in a yellow triangle?
This was another solid one a few feet away:
I like how they have him just walking down the track instead of crossing it.
After the wheels were changed, we crossed the border into Mongolia. There was a tiny little train station with some Mongolian military who saluted us as we passed:
but not much else. We arrived in Ulan Bator the next day at around 0500. My hostel was about 2 miles away, so I decided to walk to it. I always prefer walking around new places to get a better idea of the place and to experience and appreciate the area. One of the things I learned to appreciate during this particular walk was that I was not staying here:
despite the welcoming name.
Another thing I learned during the walk is that Mongolians are crazy for karaoke. I don't think I've ever seen anywhere with a higher density of karaoke places than Ulan Bator. They were on pretty much every single block. Here was one of my favorites:
03-05-2015
, 01:19 PM
After passing a few more sweet karaoke places:
I eventually made my way within sight of my hostel:
Yes, it's the Danista Nomads place. Not the nicest area of the city, but the place had character. While they call themselves a hostel, they are more like a 1/2 star hotel. It was something like $14/night for a private room, including a private bath. That also included decent (for Mongolia) internet access and a small breakfast. Pretty amazing deal. The owners were super friendly and spoke fluent English. About the only real downside was that the bathroom was a wet bath, which means that there is no separate shower area, just a shower head plugged into the wall. This means that when you take a shower, you generally soak the entire bathroom. I've stayed in a few places with wet baths before, so no big deal.
After settling into the hostel, I met the first American I'd met since leaving the USA. She was living in Kuala Lumpur and spending a few weeks in Mongolia. We decided to hang out for the day and went exploring the city.
Probably the most amusing thing I saw the first day was this place:
which I assume was an internet cafe of some kind.
Also made the usual grocery store stop, and got to see some good stuff:
I eventually made my way within sight of my hostel:
Yes, it's the Danista Nomads place. Not the nicest area of the city, but the place had character. While they call themselves a hostel, they are more like a 1/2 star hotel. It was something like $14/night for a private room, including a private bath. That also included decent (for Mongolia) internet access and a small breakfast. Pretty amazing deal. The owners were super friendly and spoke fluent English. About the only real downside was that the bathroom was a wet bath, which means that there is no separate shower area, just a shower head plugged into the wall. This means that when you take a shower, you generally soak the entire bathroom. I've stayed in a few places with wet baths before, so no big deal.
After settling into the hostel, I met the first American I'd met since leaving the USA. She was living in Kuala Lumpur and spending a few weeks in Mongolia. We decided to hang out for the day and went exploring the city.
Probably the most amusing thing I saw the first day was this place:
which I assume was an internet cafe of some kind.
Also made the usual grocery store stop, and got to see some good stuff:
03-05-2015
, 01:33 PM
We made our way to Sükhbaatar Square:
which is the central square of the city. There are statues and monuments to Genghis Khan pretty much everywhere, as the Mongolians have a ton of national pride related to him. This one was my favorite:
The Mongolian Stock Exchange is on the west side of the square:
looks like I managed to capture a drug deal in progress there. It's the little things, isn't it?
Mongolian currency is the Tugrik. It's pretty much worthless outside of Mongolia. 1 Tugrik is equivalent to $0.0005, or about 1/2000th of a dollar. When I was there it was about 1/1600 of a dollar. I withdrew some cash from an ATM and was like wtf did I just withdraw?!:
most of those are 10,000 tugrik notes, or about $6.25 bills at the time. Yes, that's Genghis Khan on the currency. He's on pretty much all of it. Note that I have a few 100 tugrik notes there as well. Those were worth about $0.06 each.
Don't spend it all in one place, right?
Well, here's somewhere to spend it:
Yes, that's the Mongolian IKEA. Pretty sure it's the only one.
which is the central square of the city. There are statues and monuments to Genghis Khan pretty much everywhere, as the Mongolians have a ton of national pride related to him. This one was my favorite:
The Mongolian Stock Exchange is on the west side of the square:
looks like I managed to capture a drug deal in progress there. It's the little things, isn't it?
Mongolian currency is the Tugrik. It's pretty much worthless outside of Mongolia. 1 Tugrik is equivalent to $0.0005, or about 1/2000th of a dollar. When I was there it was about 1/1600 of a dollar. I withdrew some cash from an ATM and was like wtf did I just withdraw?!:
most of those are 10,000 tugrik notes, or about $6.25 bills at the time. Yes, that's Genghis Khan on the currency. He's on pretty much all of it. Note that I have a few 100 tugrik notes there as well. Those were worth about $0.06 each.
Don't spend it all in one place, right?
Well, here's somewhere to spend it:
Yes, that's the Mongolian IKEA. Pretty sure it's the only one.
03-05-2015
, 01:55 PM
Saklad - I did very little currency exchange. I used credit cards when possible and withdrew currency from ATMs as needed. Managed it pretty well and didn't end up with much excess currency. Lucky for me, I think currency is a pretty sweet souvenir, so I never minded end up with some. One thing that happened on the train was that when we'd enter a new country, people would get on the train with enormous wads of cash and offer to exchange. The rates were competitive, but I never exchanged that way. Figured the odds of ending up with counterfeits was pretty high.
While I mostly got around by walking in Ulan Bator, I did take the bus a couple of times. Here's a shot from inside the bus:
That little sign is a warning of pickpockets. They are all over the place in Ulan Bator, it's a pretty bad problem there. The buses are notorious for them, especially during the rush hours. I was cased a few times, but I just gave them the look each time and they found easier targets. The bus was 400 tugriks, which was about 25 cents.
Found another American a few days in:
Also found the best ever name for an internet cafe, unfortunately being used for a book store:
Knowing that I was headed to China, it seemed like a good idea to pick up some toilet paper:
which is luckily solid by the roll. Most of the bathrooms in Mongolia and China are BYOP, so you want to make sure you have some with you wherever you go. I think I went for the yellow/green stripes if I remember correctly.
One of the pluses in Mongolia is that food is super cheap. After getting tired of eating mutton every single day (it's the most common dish, and is everywhere), I headed to a Korean restaurant and got this:
for about $6! What a score! There are a lot of Koreans in UB, and a lot of Korean restaurants. Quality was pretty decent. That kimchi was a very welcome change from infinite mutton.
Speaking of scoring:
While I mostly got around by walking in Ulan Bator, I did take the bus a couple of times. Here's a shot from inside the bus:
That little sign is a warning of pickpockets. They are all over the place in Ulan Bator, it's a pretty bad problem there. The buses are notorious for them, especially during the rush hours. I was cased a few times, but I just gave them the look each time and they found easier targets. The bus was 400 tugriks, which was about 25 cents.
Found another American a few days in:
Also found the best ever name for an internet cafe, unfortunately being used for a book store:
Knowing that I was headed to China, it seemed like a good idea to pick up some toilet paper:
which is luckily solid by the roll. Most of the bathrooms in Mongolia and China are BYOP, so you want to make sure you have some with you wherever you go. I think I went for the yellow/green stripes if I remember correctly.
One of the pluses in Mongolia is that food is super cheap. After getting tired of eating mutton every single day (it's the most common dish, and is everywhere), I headed to a Korean restaurant and got this:
for about $6! What a score! There are a lot of Koreans in UB, and a lot of Korean restaurants. Quality was pretty decent. That kimchi was a very welcome change from infinite mutton.
Speaking of scoring: