Settling down in Ulaanbaatar

On my last night at Khonggor, I was having a beer and cooking curry in the lounge. Two women walked in and asked me if there were any cool bars around. They told me that the hostel guy told them NOT to go out at night.

So, we went anyways. Joanna is from England and is on the way home after teaching English in Korea, and Elvan is heading home to France after working in Malaysia. We partied together for the next few days. One night, we were the only patrons at this oddly futuristic dance club. We asked if there was any live music, and the owner actually called the house band to play just for us! Our private concert lasted 3 songs and they suddenly packed up and disappeared.

This was, of course, way before I knew about the dangers of Mongolian Vodka.



One morning Joanna, Elvan and I had our (very expensive for Mongolian standards) hungover breakfast at the Irish Pub, and wandered around the city.



We saw this strange, Roman looking building with a Lenin statue in front of it, and decided to take a look. We entered a dimly lit renaissance style lobby and a middle-aged Mongolian lady who spoke excellent English asked if we wanted a tour.



Turns out it's the Children's Art Center, which is a government sponsored art program for kids. The lady who gave us the tour, Bulganna, told us she used to travel the world giving lectures on Mongolian history. She gave us one for free right on the spot.

We met one of the artists, Ganbold. He does Picasso-style paintings with Mongolian themes. Bulganna mentioned that he wanted to learn English, and I volunteered to help in exchange for him to teach me Mongolian.



So through a series of pure chance encounters, I was all set in this strange town. In less than two weeks of moving here, I now have two more-or-less regular jobs, a language exchange, and a set of new friends.