Thankfully the road we followed was leading us right in the heart of UB onto Peace Avenue and we found a spot to park without too many difficulties. For sleeping we followed some recommendations of LP and found a nice enough room at the Seoul Hotel, very central if a bit sleazy (there was a strip club on the second floor and we found it a bit hard to sleep with the bumping beats underneath our room). Breakfast the next morning did not happen because there was a power outage ;o) Because UB is the main hub for most travelers (for the first time we saw many non-Mongolians) there are many options to get food and we really liked the Café Amsterdam which also has Wifi :o)
UB is an incredible city where everything seems to happen at the same time, there is always some noise, some food, a construction site, some event – it felt as if the city never slept.
The picture shows Sukhbaatar Square in the city centre. Orientation is however a completely different story and we spend sooo muuuuch tiiiime wandering around trying to locate places (locations are often given in relation to other buildings, forget about street names and house numbers). Our intention was to get the visa for Kazakhstan from the Kazakh consulate in UB. To begin with, we had three different phone numbers and an address which we were unable to locate on our map. We tried all phone numbers and none worked, in the end Holger got the right number when calling the German consulate and asking for the number. This brought us not a bit closer to our aim because when someone answered the phone were told that the Kazakh consul was out of town, his return was expected for next week – maybe. They then suggested we should write them an email, which we did. Seems like he is on some sort of long service leave because we have not heard back yet (three weeks later…).
By the looks of it, Kazakhstan seemed not to be happening hence we decided to apply for an extension of our Mongolian visa. This turned out to be a hilarious daylong adventure including a bus-trip to the airport, Mongolian noodle soup, a gazillion forms and getting to know some more of Mongolia’s bureaucratic rigging… With the help of LP and the city guide brochure handed out by the hotel we were able to locate the office in question. When we entered the building the guard told us to go round the corner, consulate services were located at the next door. When we entered the next door we found the guard there did not speak any English, which already made us wondering. Then the phone rang, Mr Guard picked up and after a few second gave the phone to Holger with the words ‘It’s for you’. When Holger rather surprised took the phone he heard a voice telling him ‘It’s me - Consulate services is next door’. Looks like they had some sort of camera system and the first guard saw us entering the building again at the wrong door. Off we went around the next corner, while Holger couldn’t hold himself because he thought this was hilarious. We finally found the right door but were told that the service in question was now located at the central Immigration office, which is at the airport. After some walking in some drizzle we caught a bus and drove a good half hour out of the city. After a tour around the airport we found out that the building we were looking for was a kilometer away, again some walking through a rather cloudy and cold day. When we finally had reached the office they had just started into their lunch break and Mongolian offices are really serious about lunch break :o). We seized the opportunity and had some Mongolian soup with noodles in the canteen, which was quite yummy and spotted the usual bits of mutton.
After lunch break we finally made it to a counter where apparently somebody was able to help us with our request, the immigration officer was rather sober and stern (seems to be a quality that marks immigration officers all over the world). ALL we had to do now was to write a letter asking for an extension, take a pink slip to a counter, get some photocopies of our passports, ask for a special form, fill out another form and pay some money. Of course we mixed things up and had to do several runs between counters before everything was on the way (we still don’t know why we had to take the pink slip to a counter and exchange it for two pink slips but it was very important and the missing bit of the puzzle!) Anyhow, by the end of the day we had the extension and were very happy about it!
Next day saw us organize some items such as batteries, an external hard drive and a map, we finished the day with soup, bread, dips and milk tea at a local eatery heavily populated by young Mongolians (we had given in finding the superduper Mongolian restaurant LP was heralding). In the afternoon Holger had also tightened Troopy’s wheel bearings and the watchmen on the construction site opposite the hotel showed a lively interest and were very keen to see all the details of how Melville worked and how we had prepared him for this trip. They watched Holger all along and helped with lifting our heavy drawer – we thanked them with a round of Kuemmerling (German herbal schnapps). One of them again made an offer to buy our Melville :o) He later on promised to keep an eye on Melville during the night which we were really happy about. That afternoon we also met Karen, a biologist from Alaska, who showed me a Mongolian Road Atlas I could get at the post office and who warmly recommended going West to spot gazelles and to see the steppe. This sounded like a terrific idea and we left UB for the West on Sunday not without bidding a last farewell to our guard who gave us two mini-bottles of Vodka as a farewell present (that's in the picture).
No comments:
Post a Comment