7 June Afternoon and Evening.
You may remember that I somewhat cryptically commented in my previous post that the visit to Zaisan was the last scheduled stop on our tour. At some point in one of the bus rides between stops Odka asked if anyone would be interested in shopping for Mongolian cashmere. Enough people in our group responded in the affirmative so, rather than going directly back to Sükhbaatar Square, we made a sight detour to a place that Odka assured us offered the best bargains in UB. I didn’t go in nor would I have shopped for cashmere there or anyplace else. Thus, I can’t confirm any alleged bargains but only Lu or perhaps Lu and Ana made a purchase. Later events would raise my skepticism about this “opportunity” even more. (I thought it might be a bit of a side hustle that paid Odka some sort of commission.)
This first shopping detour reduced the amount of time we had for other sightseeing but since we knew we’d have the better part of another free day in UB it didn’t strike any of us as a real loss. G, E, R & I stopped for a late lunch at a small vegetarian restaurant that G knew from prior trips. She seemed particularly eager to take me there since I’d indicated on my registration that I preferred vegetarian food. The food was quite good particularly since the typical Mongolian diet doesn’t feature much in the way of vegetables and vegetarian restaurants are a relatively new phenomenon in the country.
After lunch, Groud went off to tend to some business while Erin, Rose and I stopped by the post office to buy and mail some postcards then continued down Peace Avenue to do some shopping at the State Department Store.
In many departments making a purchase here is, I think, a procedural remnant of the communist era. First, you have to find a person who works in that department. You show him (or her) the item you want and receive a ticket. Then you stand in line to pay for the item and obtain the receipt that you submit to the “salesperson” who gives you your purchase. We had planned to visit a museum or two but by the time we’d finished shopping we found ourselves in a sort of temporal limbo with just over an hour to kill before rejoining our rapidly bonding group to see a show of traditional Mongolian folk song and dance.
Since no one had made any large purchases, we simply wandered around a bit facing the challenge of being a pedestrian in UB. Pedestrian transit might be manageable if it were only the hordes of traffic coming from unexpected angles,
ignoring traffic signals amid persistently blaring horns, and an attitude that pedestrians never have the right of way even when they think they do. However, you also have to cope with Mongolian sidewalks
where traps like this pop up randomly and with alarming frequency. At one point, though, I overheard a man in a suit urging (in English) his similarly dressed companion to cross against the light because, “It is allowed to jaywalking.”
The show was interesting but it left me with the impression that it had been tailored a bit to suit western tastes and sensibilities. I felt this most strongly with regard to the instrumentation of the orchestra and the use of some more modern choreography. I did get to see my first live throat singing and, for me, that was particularly exciting.
We also saw a contortionist who moved her body in ways that simply defied description.
The highlight was the performance of the Tsam Ceremony. It is traditionally performed at the beginning of the year to exorcise evil spirits. It typically had some sort of narrative content expressed in a series of masked dances where the masks were usually quite grotesque. In fact, tsam translates as masked dance. Again, there are no photos of the performance because of the extra charge added to the admission.
It was here in UB that Ana showed the initial manifestation of “the cold.” John and Ann were a bit tired from all the walking about during the day, so Groud put them and Lu in cabs and they returned to the hotel. This left the four musketeers from lunch to walk back to the center of town to have dinner together. This time, G took us to a local pub – with no karaoke. Curiously, the music being played was almost exclusively from the “Great American Songbook” – Rogers and Hart, Gershwin, Porter, and the like.
Here’s another observation: Like the Chinese (and the Japanese, for that matter), Mongolian restaurants serve each dish when its preparation is complete. Unlike the Chinese, meals are served individually rather than being placed in the center of the table to be shared. Thus, as happened to me at lunch when I was the first served, Groud, who was the first one served in the evening but understanding western manners, sat watching her food while waiting for the rest of us to be served. Also, if you’re ever in a restaurant in Mongolia, don’t be concerned if there are no utensils on your table when you first sit down. They bring your cutlery with your meal.
With a bit of a chill in the air we walked briskly back to the hotel where I packed for the trip to the ger camp tomorrow. I hope it warms up again or I will face a bit of a challenge because I didn’t pack for the cold. General photos of UB, including some taken after the ger stay are in the linked album.