"Ulan Bator" a Mongolia Travel Page by emmet7

a pleassant surprise!

particularly after my depressing loop through Russia (true under-achievers) from Manzhouli, China to Chita & Ulan Ude, Russia and on to Mongolia.

there were an incredible number of hotels and pubs in UB, plenty of restaurants (especially Korean and Japanese)

rather surprised how well-dressed some of the women were and that there was a touch of cosmopoloitan lifestyle to see

Japan & Korea seem to provide some investment in the form of tour groups filled with sex tourists from the look of many hotels.

many building projects with some fairly upscale shops but the Mongolian special crafts; cashmere and leather goods were over-priced, I even travelled out to a remote cashmere factory, they had a better selection but I could have purchased sweaters in the main department store for the same or less.

vast wide open spaces, clean, sunny, dry weather and long history makes Mongolia a refreshing travel destination.

I liked the Mongolian food but the Korean food was to die for, fabulously tasty pulgogi & kimchee.

I was there for work so was mostly in Ulan Bator, the only major city and capital, though I did ride the train from Russia to UB, the UB to Chinese border town Erlian.

the landscape did not change much in the north huge rolling grasslands with the lone horseman or yurt here and there.

in the south it went from dry grassland to desert and nothing, would loved to have travelled in the west of the country, it is supposedly one of the few untouched and wild places left in the world.