Mongolia

Mongolia has by far been one of the most beautiful places I've been to. Not only does the country have amazing landscapes, the Mongols are such good natured and friendly people.

During my mission trip to the place, we spent time painting rooms, building a porch for a church and ministering to youths, alcoholic rehabs and the poor. And as we gave, I felt blessed by the Mongols with their kind acts of generosity. Despite having little, they welcomed us into their gers or tents, and give us the best of the little they had. Each day as we drove around, I felt so fortunate to be in a country with 800 years of history, once having been the biggest empire on Earth. Surrounded by the magnificent mountains and endless green landscapes, I think Mongolia gave me more than I gave to the people.

We stayed in the capital, Ulaanbaator (Ulan Bator) in a building constructed during the Soviet era. Once a communist state, many state buildings have soviet architectural elements, especially those around the main square, Sukhsquare. The people in the city are very modern people. They have iPads, iPhones and iPods. Many of the youths love K Pop. I was particularly impressed by how fashionable they were too! Many girls were wearing heels and wedges out despite the uneven road pavements and rocks around that threatened to twist their ankles.

Something cute about Mongolia is that anyone can use their cars as taxis. I was impressed at how trusting they were with strangers, picking them up and driving anyone to a chosen destination with their personal car. In the countryside, I hear that Mongols would welcome strangers into their gers, share their food and beds before parting ways.

Another interesting fact is that there are no signs with road names in Mongolia. Once, we were meeting up with a mongolian friend and it took us quite awhile before we ended up finding each other.

Well, here are tonnes of pictures from my trip, all almost in sequence!

Send off by our cell group in church!

Bibim Bap on Korean Air. I was so impressed! 

Transit at Incheon Airport

The world's first Airport LV. It was pretty big and they made us queue before entering to ensure that we get a great shopping experience!

Our flight from Seoul to Mongolia got delayed by 3 hours so we decided to leave the airport & take the train to Seoul station for an hour! Sadly, it ended up in a mad rush for the train back and we had to run all the way to our gate. How drama!

Hot bibimbap. We were joking that we'd tell our friends we flew to Korea just for an hour to have bibimbap!

Mongolian international airport! Psst, Chinggis and Gengis Khan are the same person.

Mongolian Airlines. Russian and Mongolian language use the same Cyrillic script!

Our first and only shopping stop *sobsob*

Amazing Mongolian Handicraft! I wanted to buy everything in the store!

Sukhbaatar square with Chinggis (Gengis) Khan in the middle seated on a chair like Abraham Lincoln!

LV, Zegna and more in Mongolia! I was surprised because other third world countries like Laos and Cambodia don't even have such shops. This showed me how great the rich-poor gap was in Mongolia, especially since we got to go to the ger district where the poor live

Enjoying wifi at someone's house!

Pizza dinner from Dodo's Pizza

Fiona & I cooked a lot there because it's not easy finding restaurants or takeaway unlike in Singapore. Pancakes were one of the things we cooked *yum*

Painting a Sunday School support centre called Beginning of the Future centre. This was particularly tiring and funny because we kept dripping paint everywhere and we each had some on our hair!

Constructing a porch at the church! The girls only moved some bricks and spent more time preparing a meal for the locals.

Playing basketball 

Youths we interacted with and taught

Peeling potatoes for a meal we were about to cook

Washing plates in an orderly and efficient fashion

Youths in the church

A ger we visited

Inside the ger

Naadam festival was July 11-13, when men would compete in 3 sports- horse racing, wrestling and archery.

This ger showed us that the family was pretty well to do! We went to a poor family's and only had 2 beds with little decoration around.

Mongolian tea called Suutei Tsai (su-teh-ceh). It contains milk, black tea and salt so it tastes like salt water

Love this shot!

Traditional mongolian food- Khuushuur

Buuz

Some soup with the inner parts of a goat, heart and all

Barbecued meat. Mongolian meat is pretty tough and chewy!

Meat with noodles beneath

Terilj Park

Leanne & I

Paid $3 to hold an eagle. Never seen an eagle up close in real life and was afraid it'd peck my eye out, hahahah.

Mongolia was so beautiful that I felt absolutely refreshed after my trip. I will definitely return back there because there are just so many poor people that need help. Sadly, in Mongolia, alcoholism is pervasive because alcohol is so cheap! You can buy a bottle of vodka for $15. We visited a family where the father got drunk the previous night and beat up his child.

There is so much we can do, living in this little island. We are so blessed and yet we complain and get caught up in the rat race & need for efficiency. I always thought that these reminders from the government were a way of getting us to quiet down but it was only on this trip that I was able to compare one capital with another and realise how blessed we truly are!

One thing I have taken back from seeing the Mongols is the need to always be flexible. Mongols were once great warriors because of their nomadic lifestyle. They were able to move quickly and because of the weather they experienced at hope (annual average of -13 degrees celsius), they triumph over any natural conditions that stand in their way. In the city, I have seen how Mongolian men are masters of everything, from horse riding to building houses and being a good father. If they can do this, even without having a perfect world around them, with roads full of potholes, pavements that are covered in soil and dust and flooded roads, I don't see why we can't especially when we have been so blessed with a livable city.

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