A rainy day

Today was to have been a day when we could explore Ulaan Baatar as we saw fit. However, the weather was not fit for it. The rain that had started yesterday continued through the night and into today. It doesn't rain but it pours here in Mongolia. I had not anticipated weather like this. Whilst I brought an umbrella with me against thunderstorms, I brought no raincoat, not thinking for a moment that it would rain like this - solidly for days on end - in August in central Asia.

After a late breakfast we set off in the rain towards a monastery mentioned in the guide book. We had to step over puddles, and edge past rivers and streams of water at road junctions. At a main junction we were appalled to see a little lost puppy dog shivering with cold and wet. Even as we looked at the poor fellow, another dog appeared and made friends, and though that intersection will ever after be called in our minds the "Puppy dog intersection", we trust that he was alright in the end.

With only two umbrellas, we struggled to stay dry. The monastery was interesting enough, but it was busy with Buddhist monks doing Buddhist monk kind of things, so I didn't feel it was appropriate to interrupt them or go into any of the sanctuaries, as we had at the temple on the mountainside the other day. In some of the squares within the courts of the temple, there were many hundred pigeons, which many people were feeding. Personally I am with the Venetians here (feeding pigeons is banned in Venice). I think feeding pigeons is about on the same level as feeding foxes, rats, or seagulls. Or wasps: Why?

The rain came down. From the monastery we retreated to a coffee shop for a latte and some cake - although what we inadvertently bought was a tuna slice. Arrggh. Then, a few hundred yards to the State Circus building, which proved to be, not a state circus of any kind, but a market of imported goods, mainly children's clothes. The rain increased to a crescendo and we were trapped for some time in the foyer of this building, next to vendors of brightly striped donuts and cup-cakes with  cheap synthetic butter-cream.

From there, once the rain had abated to merely reasonably heavy rain, we hurried back to the State Department Store, five or more floors of wonder. We wandered round here for a long while, keeping out of the rain and checking out the prices. 

We had intended to visit a faraway market in another part of town - but the walk of 3km or more out there, and then 5 or 6 km back from there to the hotel, didn't look quite so appealing in this driving rain. Over a lunch of burgers we decided to scrap that idea, and spent the afternoon instead in a fruitful browse of the local souvenir and tat shops to the east of the State Department Store on Peace Avenue. Then, after using up the remainder of our Mongolian currency on food for that evening and the train journey tomorrow, we returned to the hotel.