5 July 2018, Thursday
I woke up at about 9am this morning. I had been nursing a flu in the last two days but it seemed to be worse today. I felt rather weak and decided I should find a pharmacy to buy some medicine. This was my first time falling sick after more than two months of travelling, and I thought it was quite an achievement I had lasted for so long before finally succumbing to illness. But first, I had breakfast at Zaya Guest House. It was included in the room rate and it was a simple affair of bread, cereal and juice. Bonus points for the freshly fried sunny side up egg.
I managed to find a pharmacy nearby and bought some flu medicine for MNT 11,000 (S$6.05). The words on the packaging were all written in Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet but thankfully the pharmacist was able to speak English and she assured me that it was the right medicine. It was produced by Bayer so it looked legit enough. I popped two pills as she instructed and prayed that it would work.
After that, I walked to Gandan Tegchenling Monastery, about 1.5km away. I arrived at 11:10am. The square in front of the entrance was filled with the most pigeons I had ever seen. I paid MNT 4,000 (S$2.20) for an entrance ticket, and was also given a pamphlet with a map of the buildings within the enclosure.
Buddhism was introduced to Mongolia from India more than 2,000 years ago. According to the pamphlet, Gandan Tegchenling Monastery is a treasure trove of valuable Buddhist heritage, including intangible Buddhist knowledge, unique rituals and artistic items. It offers religious and contemporary education to both monks and lay students within its various traditional colleges and institutes.
The centrepiece of the monastery is Janraisig College, a large, white building with an impressive two-tiered roof. I paid an additional MNT 4,000 to enter it and another MNT 7,000 (S$3.85) for Camera Permission, which allowed me to take photos or use recording devices inside the temple.
The moment I entered the building, I was greeted by the sight of the 26.5m-tall Migjid Janraisig statue. The original statue was erected in 1912 but it was removed in 1937 or 1938 when communist ideologies of the Soviet Union took hold in Mongolia. The new statue was built with nationwide donations and inaugurated in 1996.
Lining the walls of the temple were hundreds of smaller Buddha statues, sitting neatly on shelves behind the glass. Surrounding the main hall were rows of prayer wheels, which you should only spin in a clockwise direction. The whole atmosphere here reminded me of the time I visited the various monasteries in Tibet in 2015.
On the right side of Janraisig College was a yellow building occupied by Duinkhor College. The college was established in 1801 and functioned until the communist purge in the late 1930’s. The temple was reconstructed in the 1990’s after His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama announced Mongolia as the next site for his Kalachakra Initiation ritual. The Dalai Lama then visited and delivered the 21st Kalachakra Initiation at this temple in 1995.
The other buildings in the compound were more colleges of Buddhist philosophy and also the Gandan Library, which houses the largest resource of Buddhist sutras and shastras (paper based heritage) at the national level. Unfortunately, without a guide, I was not able to glean much information or knowledge about Gandan Tegchenling Monastery on my own. At that moment, I kinda missed the “brief information” given by my guide Tenzin when I visited Tibet.
After about an hour, I left Gandan Tegchenling Monastery and walked back to Peace Avenue. I had lunch at a restaurant and ordered a plate of traditional Mongolian beef noodles with potato strips and an iced latte for MNT 13,500 (S$7.43). I then went to the post office building, where I bought postage stamps and mailed out some postcards.
After walking past Blue Sky Tower, I came across a small granite monument beside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. It was a monument to “My Adored Homeland”, a patriotic song in Mongolia, often called the “unofficial national anthem”. It was erected in 1999 and it depicts the song’s first stanza notes engraved on a piece of granite shaped in the contours of Mongolia. I liked it because it was simple and meaningful.
At 2:20pm, I reached Sunday Plaza, a multi-level, air-conditioned shopping mall located along Nam Yan Ju Street. It was quite a large building and it comprised of many individual small stalls, a bit like Platinum Fashion Mall in Bangkok. It sold trendy fashion apparel, bags, shoes, accessories, electronics and more, but of course, the products sold here were not original. It was quite a comfortable place to shop and I just walked around window shopping. I had spent a lot of money yesterday at Mary & Martha so I was not in the mood to splurge any further.
Right around the corner from Sunday Plaza was Naran Tuul Market, also known as the Black Market. If Sunday Plaza was like Platinum Fashion Mall, then Naran Tuul Market was like Chatuchak Weekend Market. Naran Tuul was a huge open-air market and it sold everything that the locals used in their daily lives. Besides clothing and shoes, it also carried household items, furniture and lots more. It was interesting just to observe the locals going about their daily shopping routines.
At about 4:30pm, I decided to take a taxi back to my hostel because I was too tired to walk back. I stood by the roadside and tried to flag down a taxi but to no avail. There didn’t seem to be any taxis on the road. After more than 15 minutes of trying, I gave up and concluded that the only way was to take an unofficial taxi instead.
I approached one of the unmarked cars parking by the roadside, waiting for customers. Because of the language barrier, I couldn’t tell the driver that I wanted to go to Zaya Guest House. I whipped out my iPhone and showed him a photo of the State Department Store, since it was a landmark in Ulaanbaatar that he would surely recognise. From there, I could easily walk back to Zaya. I asked him how much the ride would cost. However, I didn’t understand his reply so I asked him to punch the figure into my iPhone’s calculator. He keyed in 5,000, which was reasonable enough, so I hopped on, thankful I was able to get a ride back.
At about 6:30pm, I went out again to look for dinner. The medicine worked and I felt better but I still didn’t have a huge appetite. I walked around the immediate area of Zaya Guest House and found a nondescript eatery selling noodles. I settled for a bowl of egg ramen and a bottle of Coca Cola, amounting to only MNT 3,200 (S$1.76). You can find cheap eats in Ulaanbaatar if you look for it.
After dinner, I went back to Zaya to pack my bag as I would be departing tomorrow to Beijing. With that done, I headed out again and went to the Tom N Toms Coffee outlet nearby. I ordered a cheese cake and mint coffee for MNT 12,000 (S$6.60). I was trying to use up most of my remaining Tughriks since they are practically worthless outside of Mongolia. I spent the rest of the night writing my journal, returning to Zaya at about 9:30pm. With that, it’s the end of my short Ulaanbaatar stay.
I didn’t do much today because I was sick, and also because I was still adjusting back to city life after spending two days living with a nomadic family in the grasslands. I missed the feeling of being surrounded by nothing but expansive fields and blue skies, playing football and sheep anklebone games with little Batuka, sipping on my cup of tea while taking an evening stroll and watching the sunset. That, to me is the real Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar represents the bright lights, big city, but the real heart and soul of Mongolia lies in the grasslands.