Return to Ulaanbaatar, a Concert, and the Flight Home

 

Wednesday-Thursday, July 24-25

Return to Ulaanbaatar, a Concert, and the Flight Home

It was a full day’s drive from southern Mongolia back to Ulaanbaatar, but we arrived at pavement early in the day and drove on a nice two-lane road back to the city.  After checking in to our hotel we went to a “cultural show” put on for the tourists.  It was mostly forgettable, as these things tend to be, with the exception of the music.  They had an incredible throat singer who performed both solo and with an orchestra of Mongolian instruments.  Recognizable as having Western counterparts were a flute and two cimbaloms, and there were similarities to other instruments familiar to us. 


We then went to a restaurant in an upscale mall, where the selection of dishes included some which you won’t see on American menus: 





The next morning we went early to the airport for the Turkish Airlines flight from Ulaanbaatar to Istanbul (9 ½ hours), connecting to a flight from Istanbul to Toronto (10 ½ hours) and then a drive to Rochester.  It seemed endless, but was helped considerably by the fact that we flew business class. 

The route from Ulaanbaatar was not straight, which would have taken us over Russia.  Instead, we flew south into China and then west across Kazakhstan: 

The service on Turkish Airlines was spectacular.  Here’s the dinner menu: 

The food was delicious, and the presentation was lovely: 

We arrived home without incident, tired, but full of wonderful memories.  

Thanks for traveling with us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Naadam Festival

Image
 July 12, 2024 Naadam Festival   What a remarkable couple of days!   Yesterday we went to the opening ceremony of the Festival, held at a large stadium.   The weather was hot and sunny; fortunately, our seats were in the shade.   Prior to the opening ceremony was a shorter ceremony held in front of the Government Building with Genghis Khan looking on.   Called the White Banner (or Peace Banner) ceremony, it entailed lots of pomp and a speech by the president.   There was a brass band, military marchers, horses, and the like:   Lots of local people came dressed in traditional clothing:   We then left for the stadium:   There was a long procession to start the proceedings; here’s a part:   The National Anthem:   And then more horse riders with flags:   There were multiple kinds of music with associated dancers; here’s an example of dancing to throat singing:   There are three national sports ...
Read more

The Gobi Desert

Image
 Sunday, July 21 The Gobi Desert At breakfast this morning, there was a large pot of soup with a label in English:  Despite being in soup, the meat was dry, almost crumbly, and devoid of any flavor.  We set out to go to a Soum Center where we could buy gasoline, and arrived:  We discovered that there was no electricity, and therefore, no way to pump gasoline.  We wandered the tiny village, and waited, and after a few hours a generator was hooked up to the gas station, and we were able to fuel up.  We went on, and stopped at a tourist restaurant at another Soum Center for lunch, which was goat barbeque. The flat food above the goat in the photo was a sort of slimy bread-like thing.  We were behind schedule, and continued our journey to the sand dunes of Khongoryn Els, known as the “Singing Sands.”  On the way we passed some ibex:  We eventually arrived at the Gobi Anar Ger Lodge:  As usual, the toilets and showers were in a separate...
Read more