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Modern Mongolia

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Some may think Mongolia is endless steppe and Gobi Desert and men on horse galloping. That is true only in some parts of Mongolia. One third of the population is nomadic and almost half of the population is living in the capital city Ulaanbaatar.

The city is a mix of ancient Buddhist temple, soviete period block buildings and modern architecture. This is central hub of all the country for trade and supply. The railway comes from Russia to all the way to China. Highways connected all the 21 provinces nowodays.

Ulaanbaatar has the only international airport and becomes the central spot for tourists around the world.

The heavy traffic and sky scrapers in down town surrounded by ger district and mountains is the main image of the city. Shangri-La, Best Western Permium and other chain hotels provide comfortable hotel stay while some ger camps offer unique stay outside of town.

If the visitor reluctant to eat local food can choose western meal restaurants Bluefin, California, Nazka, Choijin Temple and many western

restaurants in teh major hotels. Or simply can have a bite in KFC, Pizza Hut or Burger King. Surprise, no Mc Donalds in Mongolia. Plus there are many Korean restaurants and several good Indian and Japanese restaurants.

Mongol

ians are heavy black tea drinkers but you will see nowodays Coffee Shops in every corner. The biggest coffee chain in Ulaanbaatar is Cafe Bene and Tom'n Toms. There are new place opened recently called Morni

ng Street in down town next to the main square. The old name of the site is Gutliin 22 tranlated to Shoe's 22. The street is open early morning 6am and provides breakfast and coffee shops. Even Pho soup is served.

Taxi is cheap and cost around 0,4 USD per km but taxi drivers does not speak English. Uber or Grab i

s not serving but local taxi app UB Cab is quite coveinent also not in English though.

From the main square in 5 km around pretty much you can walk into the main highlights including Zaisan Hill, the WWII memorial, Gandan Monastery, The State Department Store, Choijin Lama Museuma and National History Museum.

Cellphone network coverage is pretty good and almost country wide specially in each soum or county. Between villages the signal may not be present. The main network providers are Mobicom and Unitel. Data or 4G is only available in the cities and villages.

It is good idea to have a tour operator or tour guide during the trip in Mongolia in order to experience more and make the trip worthwhile since the country does have many English speaking people in the pubclic servies. The younger generation speak English nowodays as in many countries.

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