Ulan Bator Stories


Whoa the Macarena

Ulan Bator I just spent the day walking around and enjoying the weather. Warm and sunny. I have that the UB is not that pretty a city and not a bad description. Again, I get impressions that the Soviets built it just to warehouse people. Seems a shame that the destroyed temples and monasteries just to build ugly apartment buildings. I did witness...


The Trans-Mongolian Railway

In a five foot wide train compartment it doesn't take long to realize that your Chinese roomates are smugglers. Despite the complete language barrier, the fifteen boxes, two suitcases and eight duffel bags filled with cigarettes and who knows what else spoke for themselves. Not content to only smuggle in these paltry sums, each stop added to the collect...


An update from Mongolia

Dear everyone, Greetings from Mongolia! Our ten days here is coming to a close – we’ve been quite busy with many different programs while here. We’ve stayed in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, population one million with mountain views outside our window. It is a city that still has many marks of its communist past, and also many ger communities on t...


Horses and Hosher

Mongolians are quite a unique people. Residents of Asia, yet with a history of native people, they have a rich culture. It's cool. We're staying in Ulaan Baatar, home to 1 million people, half the population of the country. The other half is spread out over the vast expanse of the countryside. Yesterday a few of us got the opportunity to ride horse...