Archive for the ‘Mongolia’ tag
Arrival in Ulaanbaatar
I’m in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for the first of two 5 week stints here to work on a web project for an English language school.
Some notable differences to home so far:
- As I stepped out of the airport terminal I was greeted by 3 degrees and falling snow – so not quite the ‘summer jacket’ weather I’d been told to expect! (actually maybe that IS ‘summer jacket’ weather here)
- Power and Internet connections can be intermittent. We left at 4 yesterday because they had to turn off the power. Apparently in winter, operating classes by candle light is not uncommon.
- Bartering is normal. The office coffee supply, the office computers and even our graphic designer seem to have been acquired in exchange for lessons or other deals.
- Premium mobile numbers (e.g. starting 991), are much sought after with some paying thousands of dollars for a particular phone number. Apparently, some well to do types won’t even answer a call from numbers that aren’t one of these!
Here are some photos from my first couple of days here, including one of the school and lots of amusing literal translations on a chinese menu – delights such as “A fatty cow of article” and “The fragrant spring onion explodes the cow”!
