Into Mongolia

Statue of Sukhbatar, Sukhbatar Square

The spectacular scenery as we drove down from the Russian border filled me with expectations which were not immediately met: Ulaan Bataar proved to be a smog and traffic-filled city, quite chaotic and filled with contrasts. Derelict buildings jostled new skyscrapers; men in traditional shepherd’s clothing walked, gawking, alongside men in suits with cellphones to their ears. It certainly has its charms, not least of which is very cheap prices: quite a relief after Russia!

We stayed first at the guesthouse recommended by the Lonely Planet guide, but quickly changed to the Golden Gobi, a family-run guesthouse that had been recommended to us on Olkhon Island. Most of the guesthouses run their own tours and we checked out several before deciding on a 5 day trip with the Golden Gobi.

As happened elsewhere we quickly began to run into our friends from other cities along our route. We were told that we had just missed Ros and Devina, two British army officers that we had had interesting discussions with on Olkhon, but that they had found out where we could listen to Mongolian throat singing and would like to go with us when they got back.  So we decided to stay in town until then. It was a little more time in Ulaan Bataar than we might have wanted, but it gave us a chance to get warm hats and gloves for our trip and try and round up another couple of people to go with us, which would cut our costs considerably.

Hair pre-destruction

We had noticed walking around the first day a hair salon with the delightful name of ‘Destroy Hair’. I quickly decided that getting my hair destroyed in Mongolia was a once in a lifetime, not to be missed experience.

Destruction in Progress

The cost  for a wash, cut and blow-dry was 8000 tugriks– about $5- and my hairdresser turned out to be very competent. The receptionist spoke a little English so I was able to get pretty much what I wanted: a quite short, easy to care for travel hairdo.

Post-destruction