A Free Day in Ulaanbaatar

I woke up before six o'clock this morning. I told Tsenguun that I would make him all kinds of breakfast while I was in UB and I attempted French Toast to start a bright new day. Tsenguun liked the variety on the morning menu and I was contented to bring new recipe to incite the taste buds of my young Mongol friend. Enkhee joked that Tsenguun had two moms now. Why not? I found another holy mission for me to visit Ulaanbaatar, to satisfy Tsenguun's stomach every morning, in addition to promote toastmasters in Mongolia.

After Tsenguun left for school at 7:30, I invited Enkhee to watch the DVD of Magic Moment by David Brooks of World Champions of Public Speaking. After watching the first DVD of champion speakers from 1990 to 2001 for an hour, Enkhee liked it! She was excited to know about the Toastmasters.

At ten o'clcok, Enhkee and I got dressed and brought a thermo of hot tea with some desserts for her mother-in-law staying overnight at the hospital for a health check-up. The hospital looked very bright and tranquil regardless of the huge influx of patients and visitors. The huge mirror at the exit proved my words. In Mongolia, there is a spacious cloakroom at the entrance along with many mirrors on the wall, theater, government office, library, and school.

In the middle August of 2004, I bought a fox cap from a peddler at the Suhbaatar Square. Today, in the middle of January of 2010, I put on the fox cap standing at the same corner, but I couldn't see the sight of the old gentleman. In stead, a young camera man was kind to take a photo of Enkhee and me. Suhbaatar Statue now and then was the same. Tourists were out of sight on the huge square. The fox cap was warm on the freezing cold Suhbaatar Square, but I needed to find a shelter urgently in the coldness. My feet got frozen and my hands felt painful!

The first shelter we sought was Mongolian Theater Museum. Many costumes were displayed in the glass cabinets. Many photos were hung on the walls. Like I had expected, Enkhee was excited to find her father's performing photos. As the only two customers in the museum, Enkhee and I took it easy to tour around, sat and chatted in an old fashion living room at the far end of the exhibition hall. A crazy idea suddenly flashed over my mind. Why not I also dedicated a piece of Chinese opera for the spirits of the great Mongolian performers here like what I did at the Walhalla where housed the laudable and distinguished Germans in 1997?

I told the lady guard on duty that I was a famous Chinese opera singer from Taipei and I asked her if I could sing a popular Chinese opera song there. "Yes, all ears," she gave me a yes with a shy smile on her face. Without any warming up, I sang "Susan Under Arrest" for one minute. The lady guard at age of 60 plus was so touched to hear my voice from Taiwan. "Most people just came and went without leaving any acoustic footprint," she said, "thank you so much for making my day". Upon my request, we have a group photo together.

The second shelter was the Internom Bookstore right around the corner. A huge sign of Mongolia: Nomad Empire of Eternal Blue Sky by Carl Robinson was erected at the entrance. It's a newly published book about Mongolia in English! What a serendipity, I purchased a copy right away with a hope that I could donate the book after reading it. The information about Mongolia was scarce in Taipei City Library. I wish I could make Mongolia more accessible to the general public in Taipei.

Internom Bookstore is a modern general bookstore, with English textbooks on the second floor plus an in-house coffee shop. Even though I failed to find Baabar's "From World Power to Soviet Satellite", I was happy to buy a songbook of piano notes, three small Mongolian flags on the first floor; a Mongolian map and Robinson's Mongolia on the second floor. I kept a big shopping bag at the cashier counter before seeking the third shelter in a row.

It was 12:30 noon. Enkhee and I decided to skip lunch as we just had a late breakfast this morning. Enkhee proposed we visited Mongol Costume where I could find traditional Mongolian costumes. My interests were aroused immediately, I got excited about what I was about to see. On our way to Mongol Costume, we passed a beautiful park adorned with many sculptures. I took a photo of Enkhee with a Mongolian wolf and a photo of her with a turtle. When I saw a black marble sculpture of the universe, I asked Enkhee to warm the camera with her body, while I took off my overcoat, fox cap, and gloves, climbed on the marble as quickly as possible. Within a snapshot, my teeth started chattering and my body shivering.

Please don't ask me why women like shopping! Please don't ask me why women have many clothes! Women were born with shopping genes and women were brought up wearing different clothes everyday. That makes what women are today! The moment I walked into Mongol Costume, the gorgeous ethnic clothes on mannequins triggered my feminine gene expression at once. Without a second thought, I decided to have myself transformed into a Mongol princess.

Being the only customer during the lunch hour, I was dressed from head to toe by two assistants. It's like being transcended to another world, an old Qing Dynasty and I turned into Empress Dowager Cixi. It took a while to put on a bright and lavish jewelry decorated wig resembling two wings of a bird protecting the hearth, a head dress embroidered with corals and pearls, a cup shaped hat decorated with a red ball from which a long lace hang, and matching long earrings of pearls.

In ten minutes, I couldn't believe what I saw in a big mirror on the wall. I became an authentic Mongolian woman as long as I didn't open my mouth. If I stepped on a weight scale, I would weigh more than 70 kilograms by now. Chinese women have tiny and delicate bound feet so that they couldn't run away, Mongolian counterparts have huge and heavy bound heads so that they couldn't run away. After getting dressed all up, I couldn't wait to stand up, to take a catwalk on the runway like a supermodel from Paris. Enkhee took more than five dozens of photos of me in every possible posture for 30 minutes.

After a long and happy stay at the Mongol Costume, Enkhee and I went back to pick up the books we borrowed at Internom, and wandered on the street for a few minutes before we sought the fourth shelter—National Modern Art Gallery. Being the only two visitors at the gallery, Enkhee and I took it easy to walk around the three stories building to select one painting we liked the most among all. Enkhee picked up a painting of angels in blue by a cubist painting, I picked up a painting of Mongolian horses running on the plain.

The National Modern Gallery was not modern in terms of equipment and facilities, many plastic basin filled with water were placed at corners to keep the humility of the gallery. At the far end of the second floor, a session was closed due to the big fire of the adjacent newly constructed Communist Headquaters. It's a pity to know that many paintings were burned into ashes.

Mongolia is known for ballet dancers and opera singers. On our way back to Suhbaatar Square, we passed the National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, I bought three tickets to see Madame Butterfly of Puccini (the best seats are 8,000 tugrugs for adults and 4,000 tugrugs for children) Saturday evening, January 23rd.

It was a fruitful and meaningful day touring Ulaanbaatar and I was grateful to Enkhee for the orientation of the city I was about to stay for three weeks. We got home before 4:30PM. Enkhee make Mongolian tea for both of us. When Tsenguun came home, we ordered a delivery of a jumbo pizza from Mr. Pizza. What an Italian night to conclude a free day in Ulaanbaatar with pizza and coke! I wished my Italian friends were with us!