The way back home

So our stay in Mongolia had nearly come to an end. After our trip to the Gobi, we were again quite grateful for a bit of comfort (which for us meant a bed, shower and a decent meal). Unfortunately, we had both developed a bit of a diarrhoea (which didn’t stop us from trying a Mongolian BBQ in the evening though – brilliant!), and the next day (our last day in UB) thing got worse for me (I just felt really bad, as if a bad cold was coming on). But in spite of that we found the time to visit the National Museum of History, which actually turned out to be really interesting. It provided a lot of interesting information about Mongolia, kind of nice to put all our experiences into context against the information at the museum.

After a lunch of Korean noodles purchased at the State Department store (kind of like the Harrods of UB - a massive place selling pretty much everything available in Mongolia. Funny name for a chic shopping centre - probably an echo from the good ol' communist days), we decided to go to the cinema, of all things – I guess it felt like some kind of a step back towards “normal life”. We saw Kung-Fu Panda – it was really good fun actually (also good to hear the somehow “innocent” laughter of the Mongolian kids). Apart from a bit of last minute shopping, that was pretty much it – our trip to Mongolia was neatly wrapped up with a decent meal at an Italian restaurant (by now we’d had enough of Mongolian food…).

We took the same route back as we had when we came to Mongolia, that is to say we flew to Milan with a stopover in Moscow, from where we had a train ticket for Nice. We were a bit worried about the changeover in Moscow since we only had less than 2 hours for the transfer, but things went a bit more smoothly this time (well, everything it relative – we still didn’t have time to do any shopping!). Aeroflot once more surprised us with the quality of their food, so all in all the voyage to Milan was painless.

Arrival in Milan was a… relief. I guess the first thing we noticed was the bus ride to the centre – no bumps on the road! (the roads are bumpy even in UB) And it has to be said our hotel in Milan was a notch up from Khongor guesthouse (nice though it was). We had nearly all day to explore Milan, but needless to say, we weren’t too energetic, so we contented ourselves to walking around, and having a nice meal in the trattoria around the corner from the hotel.

The next day, we still had a few hours to kill before catching our train to Nice, so we decided to visit the Pinacoteca di Brera, a nice enough art gallery (we decided to take the audio guide for once, and it was actually pretty interesting. After a very tasty lunch of Prosciutto and Mozzarella, it was time to get the train back home…

So how to summarize our travels in Mongolia? For me it was a very fascinating and rewarding experience. Travelling around Mongolia is not easy or comfortable (be it eating, getting around, sleeping), but that is part of the charm, as the cliché goes. Once the roads and the infrastructure are improved, the country will change dramatically. Which is a shame, in a way (although I suppose it will improve the lot of the Mongolians). It’s not a place to appreciate man-made wonders (although there are impressive temples), or even necessarily for natural wonders (which is not to say the landscapes aren’t captivating – they are, but it’s just that you will find higher mountains, prettier lakes and bigger waterfalls elsewhere). Rather, it’s a place to appreciate for its culture, the way of life of its people and their hospitality. Maybe they could teach us a thing or two about sustainable development and living in harmony with nature as well?

More photos here.