Off the beaten path - Ulaanbaatar city guide

Here’s my subjective guide to Ulaanbaatar, the city of Red Hero, or as expats call it the “Northern Singapore” 😉 I was lucky enough that my friends live there and they have lived there for a few years now so they were fantastic guides and took me places where I’d probably not stumble across otherwise. Today I’ll share those spots with you. As well as some more touristy bits that ‘everyone shoulde see’.

During my two and a half week long trip to the country of nomads I’ve spent 5 days in Ulaanbaatar.  I wanted to have enought time to catch up with my friends. It turned out that it was exactly the time I needed. 5 days is precisely the amount of time necessary to get to know the city without any rush as well as experience some extracurricular attractions such as getting a tattoo. In my previous post we introduced you to Mongolia and informed you what practical stuff you should have in mind while planning a trip there. This text is the first of three upcoming posts in which we suggest what to do, when you find yourself in the land of steppes. The capital gets first shot, being the only city in the country which sole purpose is not industry related. Plus you’ll all end there. Literally, since it’s the only city with international airport (if I’m not mistaken, the rest serves internal flights only).

 

Las Turistas

Okay, let’s start with what’s on everyone’s list – tourist attractions. In this category you can find interesting museums, temples and historical places. During our trip we probably managed to cross all of the things a tourist has to see off the list. Except for the Natural History Museum where T-Rexes are running loose together with their friends. This one was closed (for over two years to be exact). Mongolians are slow when it comes to renovations. And the dinos will wait. Well, they’re waiting for so many years, what a difference a few more might make them?

1. Gandan

Gandan is an absolute must-see. This monastery complex serves as the main religious center in the whole country. In the temple you will come across a giant golden Buddha statue and a row of prayer mills to spin. Our team’s designated mill-spinner was Doris. She cared for our prosperity for the whole trip. In different buildings you can stumble upon some rituals, in which you can take part and see buddhist traditions from the backstage. It’s important that you don’t step on the doorstep while entering the temple! What’s more, you can’t face your back to the Buddha statue so you have to take that step backwards.

Bonus info: If you enter Gandan by the main gate, on the left hand side you will find a fortune teller’s yurt. You may try meeting him but he’s probably booked up way in advance. Nevertheless it’s worth visiting if you want to see what lies he has up his sleeve. He told my friend she will get married and pregnant within a year. It was five years ago. Btw, if you’re interested in Mongolian fortune tellers and more, I recommend you a book by Terzani.

 

2. Bogd Khan’s Winter Palace

The place is half museum half gallery. It used to be occupied by Jebtsundamba, the highest rank clergyman and political leader of the country. The one that built the palace was Zanabazar, who will make a few appearances during this post. He lived in the palace with his wife. You can find there the memorabilia of their life together: everyday objects, clothes, furniture and gifts from abroad like chinese porcelain, elephant’s outfit (since there are so many of them in Mongolia!) or badly stuffed animals. In the part of the complex dedicated to art you can admire many different Tibetan thangkas and sculptures (many of them made by Zanabazar himself).

 

 

An interesting info that noone needs: In the museum you can find unique Polish-Mongolian sculpture. No one knows what that’s really about but buddhist sculpture has the distinct face of a typical Polish politician.

 

 

3. Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts

Here he comes again. I warned you. This is the main museum to visit if you want to get to know Mongolian art, history and traditions. You’ll find here Zanabazar’s works but not only. You’ll also find lots of buddhist stuff, many ancient excavations and ethnography pieces such as clothes, music instruments and games. It’s also the place that’s best prepared for tourists from abroad. In the price of the ticket you’ll get headphones that give you access to audio-guide, explaining most of the exhibits. The lady is talking like she’s about to die and she mostly describes what you see instead of telling the stories that are behind the exhibits. But it’s still worth listening to at least a part of it to simply understand what you’re looking at. Warning: if you want to listen to everything it will take plenty of time!

 

 

4. Choijin Lama Museum

Buddhist museum that is located in a temple right in the city centre. Small building looks very cool between modern skyscrapers and offices. The collection in the headquarters of Choijin Lama (meaning national oracle) is very rich but also very dark and mysterious. Under the roof you can find creepy heads hanging, as well as more than enough exhibits presenting the history of Buddhism that can get you overwhelmed. It’s worth leaving this one for a separate day. We’ve visited both the museum and the above-mentioned Zanabazar Museum the same day and it was waaaaay too much for our brains.

 

 

5. Sukhbaatar square and Gengis Khan monument

It’s such a classic, you can’t omit it. The square is named after Genghis Khan (the name has been changed in 2013, I’ve learned about it as Sukhbaatar square). You’ll find it right by the main street (Peace Avenue) and its space and emptiness resembles Warsaw’s Parade Square a little bit (both were influenced by Soviet architecture). On the weekends there’s always something happening here: fairs, performances, concerts. It’s worth checking for interesting events while you’re in Ulaanbaatar.

 

 

6. Union of Mongolian Artists

It’s a modern art gallery that’s full of life and far away from the beaten tourist path. This is a place that not everyone knows about but it’s well worth visiting. There are two main exhibitions and a space open to different workshops. If you’re wealthy you can buy Mongolian art and put it above your fireplace. Seba was thinking about one of them but he didn’t have million Tugrik on him. We stumbled upon the exhibition of Mongolian artist who was working at Warsaw’s Fine Arts Academy for years so we took the opportunity to talk to him in Polish.

 

 

On the plate

Of course, man does not live by art alone. It’s also important to eat something. Since we knew that the next two weeks we’ll spend in the steppes, sentenced to Mongolian food only, we used our time in the capital city to try not-so-Mongolian dishes. Although we did visit the traditional places as well and can recommend them.

 

1. Korean food

While visiting Ulaanbaatar it’s worth having a real Korean feast. There’s plenty of Korean stores and restaurants serving bulgogi and bibimbap. There are even two restaurants claiming they’re North Korean but we didn’t find time to stop by so we can’t say if they’re any different than the South Korean ones. The latter are easiest to find on the so-called “Korean street”, located behind one of the main shopping centres – Ikh Delguur. There’s over a dozen of them. Personally I can recommend the one located on the left side of the street, walking from Ikh Delguur, with wooden entrance under thatched roof (behind the building with wings painted on). The food was so good we visited them twice during our short stay.

 

 

 

2. Indian cuisine

Fancy naan breads or palak paneer? No problem. Go to Namaste, where you’ll eat like kings. The prices are similar to the ones in Poland but the portions are so huge they’re impossible to eat. Most of the dishes have two options: “half” and “dinner”. I warn you, the “dinner” is enough for two regular-sized humans.

3. Burgers

In the steppes your diet will consist only of mutton (terrriblleeeee ;))) and it will be greasy (these are the most energy-giving parts). It’s worth eating nicely fried beef before going on a trip. We recommend choosing  Ruby Burgers. Our favorites were: mexican with huge amount of hot peppers and the burger served in black bun. The dishes are big and the prices satisfying.

 

5. Snacks and beer

Our favourite spot to spend warm evenings at was Green Zone. We ended up there three times. Here you’ll eat European-type vegetarian dishes meaning hummus sandwiches and other veg snacks. When it comes to food you can have better but the atmosphere in Green Zone is really unique. Be sure to use the outside hammock in which you’ll spend long hours chilling out. It used to be ‘dangerous’ inside. There’s a big aquarium on one of the walls. Now it’s empty but in the past some clients ended up with fish on their shirts, jumping out on a way to freedom.

 

 

6. Mongolian food

Okay, you’re in Mongolia, you gotta eat Mongolian. You’ll find proper dishes in moderate prices at Granville restaurant. There are no buuz on the menu but the size of Khuushuur is huuuuuge! I also recommend soup with dumplings. It’s one of the few places where you’ll have veggies served with your Mongolian food. Appreciate it before going to the steppes.

 

7. Drinks

I’ll say it right away: yes, there are drinks there, but they’re terrible. SET, because that’s the var that I’m talking about, serves drinks tasting like plastic, based on the most artificial syrups on the planet. And they’re not cheap. So why am I even mentioning it? It’s because of the view. The bar is located on the 16th floor of a skyscraper so you can see the whole city from up above. I recommend it especially during sunsets. It’s damn windy there so make sure you dress warmer. Or just ask the staff for blankets. If you manage to communicate.

Hipster underground

1. Dund Gol

   It’s a bar, club and record store managed by a musician from the hip-hop group with the same name. Thanks to his works the place has a fantastic atmosphere. Only disadvantage is: you never know if it’s going to be open. Batbold is an typical artist, bored by business, so you’ll meet him more often sipping on drinks in nearby bars rather than at his own place. But if you succeed in coming inside, you should get a beer (the best one is Senguur White!) and drink it under the freshly made art installation on the backyard and dig through the stack of vinyls. They’re imported from Russia and China and in most cases they are not the same quality as the ones you can get at ‘our’ record stores, but still you may stumble upon some treasures. I managed to find two amazing records. Batbold sold me one of them with tears in his eyes, explaining that ‘the green was his favourite’.

    

   

    

   

   

   

2. Art Gallery by the Green Zone

   A tiny art gallery that you can enter from the backyard of Green Zone. I don’t know if you can always do that but a nice lady let us inside and allowed us to go everywhere, see everything, touch the paintings and photographs, do everything we liked. She even treated us with traditional Mongolian dried cheese. We couldn’t afford works of art but I’ve bought some postcards – reprints of the paintings from the gallery. I’ll frame them and put them on my wall. They’re super nice and were very cheap, so that’s a good idea for a souvenir.

    

   

   

3. Republik

   Bar popular mostly with expats. You may often stumble upon different concerts here. Locals recommend this place as a space with music that won’t hurt your brain. On the walls there’s graffiti with Mongolian girl wearing traditional clothes and hair (which you might know as Amidala from Star Wars’ outfit) but also flexing in quite modern sunglasses.

4. Grey Ink Tattoo

   Tattoo studio, in which I got a small piece of art along my spine. Le me just tell you that getting an appointment with tattoo artist in Mongolia isn’t the easiest quest. The problem is not a long waiting time (it’s the same with the rest of the world when you choose popular artist), but that you have to convince that person to even come to work! I ended up with different artist since the one I planned decided to elongate his weekend and didn’t come back to the city on time. I was finally tattooed by Ariun Bold from Grey Ink. He’s a very nice guy and I recommend him to everyone. The studio is stylish and modern so you have fun spending time there after two weeks away from civilisation. And if you’re resourceful you can have your make up done as well because they have make up salon there as well. What’s interesting, in Mongolia tattoos are much cheaper than in my home country, so if you plan on having it and you’ll be visiting the land of steppes it may be worth waiting and getting it there as a souvenir.

 

Sport is health

Tired with city noise and traffic jams everywhere? Maybe it’s time for some extreme sports outside of the capital. You may try paragliding or horse riding.

1. Horse stables close to Genghis Khan Monument

   Not far away from the giant Genghis Khan monument located several dozens kilometres from the capital there is a horse stable managed by Swiss lady and her husband. It’a a place where you can ride well managed and nicely treated horses. What’s more, it’s super picturesque. Crossing streams, climbing hills? All in the price. Place is suitable both for experienced riders or total noobs (I haven’t even been on a horse before so I was in the latter category). You may learn here but not always you’ll find english-speaking personnel here. Contrary to everything else I experienced in Mongolia, they do care about safety – you’ll get helmets and leg protectors.

   

2. Paragliding in Ulaanbaatar

   If you prefer aerial attractions rather than horse riding, you may get resourceful and find guys flying paragliders. There are many of them in UB, they’re giving lessons and even offer single flights from the hills towering over the city. It’s worth mentioning that it’s super cheap in Mongolia. Our guy doesn’t have his website yet but after 7 years of flying he plans on doing it more professionally. If he will, we’ll come back with details.

   

   

   

Already visited all these places and you don’t know what else to do?

Go climb the hills towering the city and admire the sunset above the Mongolian capital from under the monument of Mongolian-Russian friendship called Zaisan. Or go buy anything you might wish for on Black Market. You’ll need enough time to do that, so plan carefully. We’ve spent a few hours there and didn’t even get to the most interesting parts of the market such as shamanic stands. You’ll find a lot of chinese rubbish but you may also buy a goat. If that’s your wish.