Ulaan Baatar

Breakfast Soviet style. The hotel was Russian owned and run and we had that fine Soviet style friendly staff to serve us breakfast. But at least we got eggs and bread. We started our day with a brief tour of the city. It was more interesting to see the reaction of the group to the Soviet style architecture and general state of UB. The parks and lawns were unmowed, the paint on the buildings was peeling. The city was dominated by Soviet style high-rise apartment blocks that looked like the worst of American housing project- with trash outside. The apartment blocks were interspersed with villages of gers (yurts) with makeshift fencing around them.
Our first stop was Sukhbaatar Square, with its hero art sculpture of the hero of the revolution, Sukhbaatar, who in 1921 declared independence from the Chinese.

In front of the State Parliament building is a mausoleum supposedly containing the remains of Sukhbaatar and their horrible Stalin-esque president, Cholbalsan.
We headed for the Zaisan Memorial that afforded a great view of the city.

The memorial on the top of the hill was build by Russians to commemorate unknown soldiers and heroes. We learned a few Mongolian words and practiced them on the Korean tourists climbing to the memorial.

Our next stop was the Gandan Khild Monastery. It is the largest and most important monastery in Mongolia. The building was started in 1838 and unlike most of the monasteries in Mongolia, survived the Russian purges of 1937. The communists decided to keep it as a showcase to impress foreigners. The monastery is active and it was interesting to see the monks in action.

We had lunch at an Italian restaurant- the group definitely wants to stay away from Mongolian cuisine for as long as possible.
Finally, we got to see the National Museum of Mongolian History. The highlight of the museum was the second floor collection of costumes representing the ethnic groups throughout Mongolia.

Our last stop was the State Store. Once again, the feeling of Soviet style pervaded. It was four floors with a collection of everything imaginable from food and liquor to house wares to clothing to souvenirs. We got a Genghis Khaan clock- quite a find and picked up wine for the ger camp. (It turns out that during the Naadam Festival, all the stores are closed, so this was our one opportunity for any shopping). While we were in the store, they had a power failure and there was absolutely no reaction- everyone just continued shopping in the dark.
A quick stop back at our hotel and we headed off for dinner at a French restaurant. The food was pretty good, but we could have done without hearing French spoken.
Another fight for towels back at the hotel and we ended Day 1 in Mongolia.