Destination Mongolia

We flew into Ulaanbaatar and headed to our hostel, in an old soviet era apartment building. The manager a friendly young guy called Anan, warned to careful of pick-pockets but assured us more violent types of robbery were extremely rare due to the harsh penalties. We had a quick scrub and headed out to an Irish Bar for lunch. The food was delicious and the local beer even better. Later that night after an afternoon siesta we decided to check out the night life. We did a mini pub crawl, saw a cover band and tasted more local brews, all cheap and delicious. 

Some interesting things you may not know or expect about Mongolia:

1.  The people are very stylish - after witnessing some questionable fashion trends in China not least of all the umbrella hat I was surprised to see how well the Mongolians dressed. They looked more like people from a European city than the most sparsely populated country on earth.

2. Chicks love beer - during our night out we saw as many, if not more Mongolian young women with a pint in their hand as men. I have the feeling most could easily out drink me.

3. Mongolia was part of the allied war effort in WWII - they donated 50 tanks to the Russians, only one survived and was brought back from Berlin to be displayed near the peace monument.

4. It's Chinggis not Genghis - Genghis was the name adopted by dumbass round eyes who first went to Mongolia because they couldn't pronounce Chinggis correctly.

5. The former national wrestling coach is famous - after winning their first 2 gold medals in enemy territory at the Beijing Olympics the expectations were high for London. In a bronze medal match the Mongolian competitor starting celebrating before the bell. He was deducted a point causing him to controversially loose the match. Furious at the decision the coach stormed into the arena, stripped down to his undies and chucked a massive tantrum. There are now Mongolian memes signifying "that's bullshit" with a pic the coach in his undies .

6. Without Mongolia Jurrassic Park would be even more unrealistic - the Gobi Desert is where they found the first fossilised dinosaur egg with a fully formed embryo inside.

7. Security guards sleep in gers on top of semi-constructed buildings - due to the extreme cold the window for construction is only about 3 months. For the other nine months some developers pay for security guards to mind the buildings. They sleep on the roof of these buildings in traditional Mongolian huts used by the semi-nomadic population called gers.

8. The Mongols have a saying - it was the Chinese who built the Great Wall but it was us who made them build it. Something for the Mexicans to think about if Trump ever gets his way.