First Day of Arrival

It's Monday. On Saturday I arrived here in Ulan Bataar at 06:30 after nearly missing my connecting flight from Moscow due to a flight delay. Thankfully there were about 15 people on my flight from Zurich-Moscow with a final destination of UB so they grounded the flight until we all arrived at the gate.

Upon arriving I was so insanely jetlagged. I got to my hostel and passed right out until noon. I then woke up, walked around the city for a few hours and got my barrings straight. Souel street, Peace avenue. East to West and they run parallel to each other. That's all you need to know it seems. Being here is my first time in an proper Asian country so that first walk around town was a bit of a culture shock. It has the feel if the wild west out here, but with a little bit of that obvous easternness. In a way it's almost reminds me of an unswept Mexican boarder town, the main streets are laden with bars and restaurants. They seem to cater towards western tourists in a way but not many are here to be seen. When you do see them they seem to be those middle aged miner types, you know, those guys with the thick mustache, BBQ gut and sun beaten skin. They always seem to be accompanied by a young and healthy looking Mongolian, indeed their local connection.


Anyways, later on in the evening I met with a new friend, someone I've never met before but was put in contact with through a friend. He's an Englishman in his late 20s and the head of metals and mining investments for Origo Partners, a private equity fund specializing in mineral exports to China. We had dinner together then went out for some drinks. "There is this concert tonight" he said. "It's this expat Mongolian group, should be fun!" Right away I was reminded of these guys I had stumbled across during my research on Mongolia over the past few months, a sweet music remix of Empire State of Mind by this duo called Jesse James. "That just sounds like it would be the guys who did UB State of Mind" I said to him. I was taken by surprise when I found out that it was indeed those same guys. Crazyness!

The place was full of english speaking Mongolian locals and expats in their 20s and 30s working in UB, mostly for private equity or mining startups, investment banks, property or sustainability focused NGOs. They were cool, welcoming people and it was good to see a strong expat community. It was crazy meeting Jess from the video above, and the guitarist James. Jesse works for one of the largest property firms here in UB and James for the Wildlife Conservation Society as a research biologist. Very cool dudes. I felt a bit like a groupie talking to them, but not so much, their video only has 25,000 views... ;)

I spent Sunday hiking up one of the hills around UB. It was a lot of fun, and we got a good view of the city. Im keen to get out of the city though and do some hiking in more rural areas... After all, Mongolia is the size of Western Europe and only houses 3 million people... there are ALOT of rural areas.

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Something which I have to mention both because its hysterical and slightly disturbing that I've heard from so many people already after being here for only 3 days is the violence in this city towards non-locals. Apparently its very common for non-locals to get jumped or simply sucker punched in the street when walking around town, especially at night. It's a phenomenon to the expats out here, just something they have learned to accept. A few of them were telling me,

" I feel safer here in UB than they might back in London because here in UB the people will fight with you for sport, not because they are bloodthirsty. You'll never see a Mongolian with a knife or a gun, but they love to fight and often do with foreigners to show their dominance over them. Back in London however you get these street kids with knives who go looking for fights and an excuse to stab you, thats something to worry about!"

To be honest I think this might be something to worry about. I don't wanna be having a goodnight out and then unknowingly get my ass handed to me by a group of thick Mongolian dudes. I've heard that even when you smash their face in defending yourself they wipe the blood of their broken nose and busted lip with a huge smile on their face, so happy that you've decided to fight. These guys are the last great nomads on the planet facing -40c winters live well below the poverty line. They know no pain. I must say though, thank goodness they have more heart than the thugs in England.