Read More about Ulaanbaatar at The Asia Times

If you've liked the pictures I've been posting on Ulaanbaatar you may want to read more about this unusual city. Here's my article in The Asia Times (Online Edition, April 24).

http://http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KD24Ad02.html

Dusk in Ulaanbaatar

Ulaanbaatar is a baffling city. Fermented mare's milk (an alcoholic drink known as airag) can be bought supermarkets. While the manhole covers have all been sold as scrap metal to China, and many of the sidewalks have crumbled to dust, at the same time the skyline is filled with new construction projects. With only 1,000,000 residents, it is the smallest of the East Asian capitals, and yet within a five minute are a Dutch cafe, a French bakery, and a Cuban restaurant.

The city is full of striking long-legged Mongolian beauties. This billboard hardly does it justice.

The headquarters of the communist party - torched by rioters after the election of June, 2008.

I have been staying with the legendary, long-time Ulaanbaaar resident 'Dirty Mike.'  The back alleys behind Dirty Mike's apartment building, itself near the State Circus Stadium, exude with the gritty charisma of Ulaanbaatar.

A Taste of Russia

I have been in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar for almost a week now. Most of my time has been spent on bureaucratic wrangling. After all my papers were in order, I attempted to procure a double-entry Russian visa. This was a truly masochistic experience. Ultimately,  I was denied for the reason that my passport does not have two completely blank pages side by side. Revising my travel plans and moving on to the next embassy, that of Kazakhstan, has not led to a change in fortunes. This embassy has moved to a dusty side street in the southern edge of the city. It was only through a heroic burst of energy that I managed to uncover its general whereabouts. I stood at the gate this morning until a woman came out to tell me that the consul was missing. 'Tomorrow, 10 am,' she said.

Mongolia was the second communist country in the world, after the USSR, and for the greater part of the 20th century it served as a Soviet satellite state. Here are some views of a Russian church, located in what I've been told is the Russian part of town: