A few UB thoughts

More photos here
Hi all, Mel here. Just wanted to get a few thoughts out while the group (my travel companions Terri and Jeri, our fine friends that are putting us up, Becky and Kathy, and the recent edition of a great lady, Eleanor--Becky's first grade teacher, mentor and now lifelong friend.) are all hanging out chatting

We had quite a day of culture today. Becky was saddled with work again, leaving Kathy to run us around the city. She's a great guide and we were taken on a cultural tour of UB

The first stop was a giant Buddha statue near a memorial called Zaisan. The Buddha was gold (as most Buddhas are) and lived up to its bigness. It was a site to see, before heading to Ziasan, a soviet era memorial that was on top of a mountain (OK, large hill, but the climb up made it feel like a mountain)

Ziasan was worth the climb, the memorial commemorates the union between the soviets and the Mongolians. Mongolia is now, like Russia, a burgeoning democracy now, but this was a great reminder of a recent era. The view was incredible. Facing the city, you can see that UB is really a big sprawling city. There is tons of construction and too many cranes to count. Turn around though and you can see open land--with the exception some gers behind you.

Speaking of gers-just outside the city there are Mongolians version of the suburbs called the ger districts. Thousands of people, setting up their own streets and towns, yet still living completely off the grid, power, plumbing and water wise.

Anyway---after having a great chat and buying some art from an artist and throat singer near the top of the monument. We headed off to the Winter Palace of Bohd Khan.

The Winter palace was a huge temple/palace erected in the mid 1800's. The temple had a great mix of restored buildings and falling down structures that are currently remaining in an arrested state of decay. The artifacts inside were cool as well. The weirdest part though was the stuffed animal exhibit from the King. He liked collecting wildlife from various parts of the world and their was an whole room devoted to various old reptiles, mammals and fish that saw better days about 200 years ago.

After the palace, we fell into a great opportunity. Becky has great connections through her work and we were able to attend a pre-festival concert. We were waaaaaaaaaay under dressed, but it was worth the embarrassment. The opening was a bit slow--European type performances but with a Mongolian twist. The best was a duo who did "o solo mio" one in Italian and one in throat singing. Throat singing (and I mean this in the best possible way--because it does sound really cool) kind of sounds like your powerline is about to explode, but in a really melodic way. The remainder of the concert turned really Mongolian after that. Incredible costumes, full on traditional orchestra and amazing singing.

That's all for now---Terri or I will be back on to post about Naadam in the next day or so.