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Ulaanbaatar

Landing in Mongolia in May 2024: a selfie at Chinggis Khaan airport, then Sukhbaatar Square at night with the Genghis Khan statue lit in gold.

Mongolia had been on the list forever. In May 2024 we finally landed, and Ulaanbaatar wasted no time reminding us whose country this is: the man on the horse is everywhere, starting at the airport named after him.

Selfie of Dileep and Inga with passports at the Chinggis Khaan International Airport friendship monument in the terminal
Fresh off the plane at Chinggis Khaan International Airport, passports still in hand.
Inga and Dileep at night on the steps of the Government Palace on Sukhbaatar Square, the seated Genghis Khan statue glowing gold behind
The Government Palace on Sukhbaatar Square by night, with Genghis Khan enthroned in gold light. Two guards, two tourists, no crowds.
Dileep photographing the illuminated Government Palace across Sukhbaatar Square at night, with street food trucks parked along the square
Dileep lining up his shot of the palace while the street food trucks did a brisk evening trade behind the Sukhbaatar statue.
The red neoclassical Opera and Ballet theatre of Ulaanbaatar lit up at night, white columns glowing against the dark office towers behind
A few steps off the square, the Opera and Ballet theatre: deep red walls, white columns, floodlights doing the rest.
Ulaanbaatar hotel room with a large bed under a teal quilted runner, wood furniture and a kettle set by the bay window
Base camp in the city: a proper bed and a kettle by the window. We would shortly trade both for a ger and not regret it.

The city was our launchpad for the wide-open part of the trip: a drive west across the grasslands to Kharkhorin, with a night in a family ger on the open steppe along the way.