Capital of the Greatest Empire of Them All

Real Dinosaur

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I think my first impression of Mongolia and Ulaanbaatar were fitting, really freezing. The first cold snap of the year had been a day before my arrival, with the sting certainly still in the air. The Siberian winds are unforgiving when the they start to turn towards winter. I missed out on the snow that had fallen the day before and fortunately for me, my second day in UB started what the locals were saying was unusually good weather for September.

UB's not much of a city really, but one that'll easy grow on you. No fancy architecture, most of the temples were taken care of by the Russians in the last century, and even though it has a population of less than a million people a third of the Mongolian population live there. The great thing about the place though, everything is easy and close at hand. For a place in the back end of nowhere, it has a great selection of international restaurants, all within ten minutes walk of the guesthouse I was staying in. Comparing this to the likes of Beijing, if an Indian took your fancy, then a fifteen minute taxi was the only way. The center of the city against which all directions are given is the State Department Store, a place where endless luxuries exist under one five storey roof, from instant coffee to wide screen tv's to cashmere scarves. If it ain't there, it's not for Mongolia!

The one major site that I visited during this stay in UB was the Natural History Museum. There's really only one reason to visit and it certainly isn't the stuffed penguins and kangaroos. The Gobi desert is home to one of the richest areas of dinosaur remains in the world. Some of the precious finds are on display. The main attractions are a fully complete skeleton of a mid size dinosaur (see photo; sorry, the dino buff with me has forgotten the name!), and the intact skeletons of two smaller dinosaurs that were engaged in mortal combat when it is suspected a sand cliff collapsed and buried them alive. One actually still has the others arm locked in it's mouth (sorry, no photos here). Around this the displays were filled with bits and bobs like dino eggs and giant bones from the larger members of the family.