Ulan Baatar

The word for the day is "more".  There are more people, more cars and more buildings since Lane was last here.  Around 300,000 lived in the capital, 20 years ago, and now around 1,300,000 live in the city.  In front of the big gray building to the right is a green roofed Buddhist temple which still stands as a prominent landmark in the area.  It sits up on the hill and was easy to see a few years ago, not so much now.

A bit hard to see but on the hill side are much smaller dwellings called the ger district.

 

Ger district.

Many have a "summer' home just outside the city where it is cooler and set up for relaxing.

Our apartment building.  Although only ten years old it is falling apart like a 40 + year old building.  One rainy day the power to the building shut off minutes after we got off the elevator.  Whew!!!  Water pressure was always a guess and the toilet needed coaxing just to flush.

Typical ger furniture.

One of the few Buddhist temples to survive the Russian burnings.  Once the tallest building in the area and a major landmark for the city. 

White rocks form signs, words and pictures on the hill sides.

Toured a small dinosaur exhibit in a mall.

Drake size ger!

Play ground in front of our apartment building, many hours spent here along with many frienemies.

We watched a few shows displaying Mongolian talent. Amazing!!

Monument to the independence of Mongolia with the help of Russia (Zaisan). 

Another Buddhist temple inside the city.  Always fun to see the old and modern side by side.

Black Market

Lane went from not wanting to buy any clothing to getting matching shirts.  Hmmm.

Old favorite, chasing the pigeons.