Week Khoyor: babies, brawls, burgers and fries

View of Blue Sky Tower out of my bedroom balcony window

I haven't written here in a while and quite a bit has happened since my last entry. First off, I have settled into my Guest House quite nicely. My first Saturday morning I woke up to eggs, beans and sausage kindly cooked by my dear landlady Natsaga. I've also hooked up my Playstation 3 and am enjoying Assassin's Creed Brotherhood on the weekends (I've rebuilt nearly 50% of Rome thus far).  In the evenings before bed I've started reading Ender's Game, an awesome book by Orson Scott Card. Shout out to Kelly Devine for gifting it to me.

During my first weekend in UB I went out with the Peace Corps volunteers who were staying at the guest house. It was a volunteer's birthday and we celebrated by going to a very good Indian/Mexican restaurant called Los Bandidos. I ate chicken curry and naan bread, and it was delicious.  After dinner we went to a club where it was salsa night.  I have been to Mexico and Puerto Rico, but I ended up learning salsa in Mongolia.  After salsa we went to karaoke, which is not my favorite thing to do, but I endured what seemed like endless hours of terrible singing.  


I met my first Mongolian baby last week. The baby was introduced to me by one of my favorite co-workers Uyanga, who took me to a restaurant called Aura where we met up with the baby and its mother. The Mongolian baby is a very big baby compared to most other babies.  He was clearly well fed and very cute. He slept on the table almost the entire lunch.  Just as we were finishing he stirred, awoke from his peaceful slumber and began crying for food. Thats when it got a little awkward, so I went and stood by the door while the mother breast-fed the Mongolian baby.

As I was standing at the door I heard a commotion outside. I looked and saw a man in a light purple sweater attacking a group of women.  I stood there wondering how I should react.  I thought, should I be the passive bystander who watches such events but does not do anything to help? Well, the decision was made for me when I realized that these women were actually my co-workers. I rushed over to the scene where the man had locked his hands around one of my co-worker's wrists. Me and the other ladies tried to pry the man off of her, which took a good two or three minutes.  Then I learned never to mess with Mongolian woman. Once freed, my co-worker actually went after the guy and we had to hold her back.  She even picked up a piece of piping and tried to whack him with it.  Fortunately though, the violence was quelled and we departed the scene.  I learned later that the man had been driving and almost hit them as they walked across the cross-walk, a quite common occurrence in Mongolia. The problem started when she kicked the guys car and he got out and hit her.  What an eventful lunch hour! 

A burger and cola from AB&F

More recently I've been going out to dinner a lot.  Last weekend I went to Namaste at the Flower Hotel, an Indian/Pakistani/Desi restaurant far to the east of Sukbaatar, near the American Embassy.   I went with PCVs Leon, Katie and Aaron (or Erin idk). I had another Indian chicken dish with naan bread and a Mango Lasi. This weekend I went to American Burger and Fries (AB&F) no less than three times. Once with a PCV staying at the guest house who happened to share my last name. She was convinced we were related somehow. AB&F serves a burger that tastes exactly like burger king's, along with other American favorites like NY strip steak, chicken tenders, and nachos.  I found that it is a great place to meet English-speaking expats. Whilst there I met many people, including an eighteen year old English lad from Devon who I was very impressed by.  He is here on his own working for a medical charity while he waits to hear the outcome of his University applications. I really hope he gets accepted to King's College (X-ing-fingers).


At work I was lucky to have the opportunity to work on investment teasers last week. I researched some reports and feasibility studies on specific development projects and then wrote short and enticing summaries to be sent out to major investment banks like Morgan Stanley and the Kuwait Investment Authority. I wrote one for a Hydroelectric project in Shuren and another for an initial investment in the first two phases of the national railway project.

You don't have to wait for July to see fire works.  Just come to Ulaanbaatar where they set them off every Thursday night right outside my bedroom window!

Mongolia. week neg.

For starters, neg means one in Mongolian.  After being in Ulaanbaatar (UB) for one week, I am starting to feel pretty comfortable.  I have moved into a private room at the Steppe Guest House.  The guest house is across the street from the central post office, next to the Russian embassy and right on the southwest corner of Sukbaatar Square (which translated means axe-wielding hero square). The square is at the center of the city and it has the Parliament building, the state opera, a museum and a larger than life statue of Chengis Khan (yes its Chengis not Ghengis and don't be caught mis-pronouncing that in front of Mongolians or the they'll send the horde after you).

Chengis Khan!

View of parliament building and the square on my way to work

The guest house is very comfortable and it has everything you could need, including a tv, shower, laundry service, fully equipped kitchen, and the occasional peace corps volunteer to hang out with when your bored.  The landlady, Natsaga, is probably the nicest person in UB.  She loves foreigners and she and her aunt clean regularly and occasionally make food for the guests.  I highly recommend this place.

There is lots of stuff to do in UB.  The city has lots of restaurants, bars and clubs.  My second night here I went to BD's Mongolian BBQ on Seoul Street near the circus.  I went with everyone from the bank and the occasion served as a goodbye dinner for the two departing interns and a welcome dinner for me.  The restaurant is "make your own stir fry," all you can eat for 15,000 tugriks, and if you get your ingredients right it can be really really good.  Unfortunately, this restaurant is an American chain from the South, which legitimized its name by opening a restaurant in downtown UB, so its not real Mongolian food by any means.  But its some of the best tasting food I have had here.

The following night I went to Ikh Mongol, a restaurant off of Seoul Street next to the circus.  There I met a few Canadian travelers, a guy from Montana studying goats for National Geographic, some American banjo player who is living in UB so she could learn to play the morin khuur, a traditional Mongolian bowed string instrument...she also brought her Mongolian friend with her.  I also met a young Mongolian guy who recently graduated in economics and poli sci from Hunter College in New York City and his neighbor, a girl from Minneapolis who is a full bright scholar filming a music documentary for MTV.  So it was a motley crew and they were all at this restaurant to see Altan Urag, a Mongolian rock band that combines traditional Mongolian wind and string instruments with a rock and roll drum beat.  They were pretty impressive, especially the throat singing.  The video that I will link doesn't give them justice, but it will give you an idea of what the instruments are like.

Now to the food.  I got a pizza, which was pretty good.  But the chef at this restaurant is German, so their Weisswurst is supposedly the best on thing on the menu.  Next time I go, I will probably get that.

That's it for now...more to come later.