on sightseeing

1. A small hill next to the town (Arvaykheer) where we stayed.

Man-made steps all the way to the hill top.

Unrecognised Wordings.

Reflective roofs under the harsh noon light.

Despite looking warm and sunny, it was actually quite cold and extremely windy.

A brick monument right in the middle of the platform at the top.

A herder and his sheep passed by.

At the foot the hill were these houses with coloured roofs – yellow, red, blue and green.

i wondered if there’s any reason why these four specific colours were chosen.

2. A horse memorial site

What a view! Doesn’t matter that it was freezing cold :)

i don’t remember much of its history except that it was built in memory of a very famous
race horse in the 18th century.

3. Sukhbaatar Square

It’s not difficult to tell which is the famous Chinggis Khaan statue.
Not sure about the other two, could be his famous warriors?

Buildings around the square.

4. Zaisan Memorial

A circular mosaic wall mural built to honor soviet soldiers killed in World War II.

Panoramic view of the city

Residential area right at the foot of the hill.

Gorgeous view when walking up and down (about 500 steps) the hill.

We didn’t do much sightseeing during the one week stay (which was good!). i much prefer to see and experience the daily life of the locals... well except the toileting part. i need modern toilet facilities.

1 & 2: Uvurkhangai

3 & 4: Ulaanbaatar

Mongolia

eating in mongolia

Imagine this: Mutton Every Single Meal For A Week.

This was what i thought i will be having in Mongolia. The thought of it alone made me lost all appetite... and so, for the very first time, i decided to pack cup noodles* and biscuits for a trip. What a loser. Heh.

But it turned out, we had lots of varieties!

Breakfast

This is not Spot the Difference. Breakfast for the first 4 days in Uvurkhangai were more or less the same. But as long as there’s bread, i am one happy gal.

Breakfast in Ulaanbaatar (capital city), like the hotel, was much more fanciful.

Salad

Who would have thought there were salad for appetiser! They were so fresh and cherry tomatoes so sweet. Also, the pickled cucumbers in the last picture was very nicely done.

Khuushuur

A type of popular meat pastries in Mongolia. The fillings are usually beef or mutton. But to cater for our foreign taste buds, they did two other additional fillings – carrot & cabbage and potato.

We also tried our hands at making khuushuur and it was quite fun. Mine was the two marked with sad faces... not the ugliest of the lot i would say ;)

Helping to deep fry our masterpieces which consisted of all shapes and sizes lol


Sad but so tasty!

Lunch and Dinner

This was our very first meal in Mongolia, a very westernise lunch. We had the choice of spaghetti with pork or fish fillet.


After lunch, we started our 8-hour long coach journey travelling from the capital to Uvurkhangai. Thus, takeaway dinner – deep fried chicken with rice.


Mutton fried kway teow (flat rice noodle). The mutton taste was rather strong so i picked them out. Overall wasn’t too bad.


Steamed rice with (very tender) chicken, vegetables and fries.


Drumstick with creamy vegetable soup. A tad too salty but still good.


Buuz (minced mutton dumplings). Very strong taste and i can’t stomach this at all. But at least it was pretty to look at.



Khorkhog. A traditional dish of barbecue lamb cooked using hot stones and water. Very delicious! i think this is the only dish that i miss having.


Packed lunch on the coach (returning to Ulaanbaatar).


Back at Ulaanbaatar, we started having meals at different restaurants. The first was this barbecue buffet place. Basically, choose the meat, vegetable and sauce that you like and the chefs will cook it teppanyaki style.




Lunch at Seoul Club was good. Not surprising at all since there are many korean expatriates working in the city.



Modern Nomads Restaurant. The traditional fried noodle that i ordered failed badly, the whole plate was left almost untouched.


Some of the rest of the dishes that my friends ordered. i ended up sharing the chicken with rice which wasn’t too bad :)

*In the end, cup noodles were all given away. Yeay!