Day 15 (July 15, 2026):



.

The Aurora Hotel has provided excellent accommodations for us. It’s located right on the main street running east to West in UB, giving us excellent access to transit into the heart of the city, as well as a very comfortable room and a great daily breakfast buffet.


Gandantegchinlen Monastery













National Museum of Natural Sciences



The museum has a very impressive collection of dinosaur skeletons from the Gobi Desert.




Eagles of Mongolia.


Yes, Mongolia has bears!

And moose!

UB continues to grow at a rapid pace. And on the road south to the new airport, it was clear that the city is expanding southward. Hundreds of apartment towers, with hundreds, more under construction.

One thing you cannot help notice is that Mongolians love to fence off their property. And we are talking elaborate, iron fencing in many cases. It’s very common to see a fenced off area on a hillside, with a house and a yurt in the enclosure.



The national flag of Mongolia, flying proudly outside UB’s new airport.

As we sat in a CU store in the airport, having some lunch, we looked down and saw two young guys who had obviously just arrived by Air. They had two huge boxes between them, which contained their bikes and camping gear. They had things stream all over the sidewalk beneath us and were getting their camping gear organized. No doubt they are planning a long cycling tour around Mongolia.

When I say the airport is new, it’s actually five years old. It was built with a major financial contribution by Japan.

MIAT Mongolian Airlines is the national flag carrier of the country. Their domestic flights are operated by MIAT Regional, whose fleet is comprised of Canadair Regional Jets. (More specifically, CRJ-700 Next Gen.)

We were so proud to board a Canadian maid aircraft for our flight from UB to Dalanzadgad.

Upon landing in Dallon, zag died, we had a good view of the mountains south of the city. To the south of that mountain range there a China.

The airport in Dalanzadgad is a shoebox.

There were no cabs at the airport. This air traffic controller from UB had just arrived in Dalanzadgad with his wife and daughter by car was kind of us to give us a ride to the hotel. One of many examples of kindness we have been shown since our arrival in Asia.


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