The streets of Ulaanbaatar are dangerous places but not, at this time, due to crime and muggings. They are dangerous due to heavy traffic, icy conditions, and this being a city where the pedestrians absolutely do not have the right of way and there are a limited number of stop lights. Neither the CHF Country director nor the Deputy Director own cars here in Mongolia due to not only the bad road conditions but also many of the drivers are first time drivers. Also if you have an accident you are in big trouble.
Tonight, there was a beautiful big full moon and everything was very clear but there are very few street lights except on the major streets. CHF staff members suggested I always carry a flashlight when I go for a walk at night in order to watch for man hole covers that have been moved by homeless people, who are getting down into them where there are some hot water pipes so they won't freeze to death. I do carry a flashlight and I do see open manholes here and there but at this time I think there are very few homeless people and children going down into them at night.
It is a great city for ice sculpture. They can do an ice sculpture in front of a business in October and it stays frozen until April. Most of the sidewalks, even in the front of businesses along the main street are icy. The other night I was walking along one of those icy streets and all of a sudden my feet slipped out from under me and I was up in the air with my feet as high as my head, but then I woke up and it turned out to be only a scary dream. I took the dream as a warning. I certainly don't want to try to get up the stairs to my third floor apartment with a broken leg.
I usually leave work a little early and go for a walk along Peace Avenue, the main business street, to get some exercise. One day last week, it was a minus 32 degrees Celsius/ minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit but it did not seem to be that cold. On Thursday, when it was only a minus 20 something, I went for a walk and a guy on the street was shining shoes at a reasonable price so I stood there and had my boots shined and thought, now this would not be happening in the states.
Today, Brian and his wife came by and we went for a walk for a couple of hours through the city to see some of the special sites and went to an indoor market where they had all kinds of fresh vegetables, primarily flown in from China. We then ended the day with a nice meal at one of the many enjoyable restaurants here in the city. You will see a picture of Brian and his wife at the restaurant on this blog. Then I walked a little over a mile to get home. Remembering my vivid dream of slipping on the ice, I walked very slowly and carefully, and besides, I was too full to walk very fast.
