It all started as a simple thought a day before to have purposeless stroll around the new city I was in, to utilize an off day. Fortunate enough to meet Duluunaa and Togosoo of UB free walking tour at National Museum on my midday stroll and later was joined by Bastien & his family; and the experience on day went to next level than not just lazily moving around unknown roads and streets.
As we walked, we stopped at important monuments & statues; and they informed us on the background history & importance, why those monument being there.
In front of the National Museum of Mongolia, there is a statue representing the victims of political purges.
We where told that inside the museum there are articles briefing the vivid history and evolution of the nation until the current democratic days.
Closer to museum was the Genghis Khan Square, There were couple of kids playing Morin khuur, a Mongolian string instrument; in which the strings were actually hairs from stallion tail.
There is a big statue of Genghis Khan, who conquered most part of Europe and Central Asia in 13th Century and ruled as Mongol Empire. There are statues for his loyal generals, one of them was actually his son.
We were also told on the meaning of their national flag. The red band on both side represents their survival ability in spite of blood shed across their history and extreme harsh environment; the blue band represent their blue clear skies; also on the flag was their symbol with abstract representation on sun, moon, earth, water & fire; an interconnected fish like picture; on both side of them was bars or pillars used in their ghers.
In the Genghis Khan square there were kids riding their toy cars, some skating and even few teenagers stunting with their bicycle. The square also has the center most point of Ulaanbaatar and the previous names of the city.
Adjutant to the square was a Marco Polo's statue. He had lived 17 years during Yuan emperor reign. We were told, some Mongolians believe that Christopher Columbus had access to some unpublished text from Marco Polo's travel notes.
Opposite to the statue was a Mongolian map-shaped stone, on it a song called 'My adorable homeland' in-scripted. Duluunaa sung the song for us on our request.
As we walked further across, there was a wedding hall, surprised to know that it was the only wedding hall across the whole country.
Then we moved further to the Temple museum of Chojin Lama. While the nation was ruled by different outsiders the country lost most of its temples. There are just above one hundred now in the country from what it used to be above twelve hundred temples. Also we had an interesting short conversation on religious practices (if any) of the Mongolians.
Then we walked past the National Library; Byambym Rinchen's statue, who was one their modern day scholar; Yumjaagiin Tsedenba's statue, one of their Prime Minister.
Our stroll around the city or 'Walk tour' as how Duluunaa and Togosoo would prefer to call it concluded at Yumjaagiin Tsedenba square.
But we sat down at a nearby cafe for a coffee, where I got to know more about Bastien Gregis. Bastian along with his girlfriend Elaura are on a year long hitchhiking trip across Europe and Asia with a theme Pouce à l'Est (which literally means thumb to the east).
Over the past two and a half months they have covered 8 countries and are now in Mongolia. His mother and her husband flew down all the way from France to spend sometime with them here.
We got to know some interesting places, experience and pictures from their hitchhiking trip across Austria, Czech, Praque, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia.
We shared our travel aspirations, further destinations and parted away with hope to meet some day some where if life gives us an opportunity.
With them, the walk tour was simple and yet informative. Both the Mongolian girls shared the outline of their nation's history, the impact of China and Russian on them.
As we walked, we stopped at important monuments & statues; and they informed us on the background history & importance, why those monument being there.
In front of the National Museum of Mongolia, there is a statue representing the victims of political purges.
We where told that inside the museum there are articles briefing the vivid history and evolution of the nation until the current democratic days.
Closer to museum was the Genghis Khan Square, There were couple of kids playing Morin khuur, a Mongolian string instrument; in which the strings were actually hairs from stallion tail.
There is a big statue of Genghis Khan, who conquered most part of Europe and Central Asia in 13th Century and ruled as Mongol Empire. There are statues for his loyal generals, one of them was actually his son.
We were also told on the meaning of their national flag. The red band on both side represents their survival ability in spite of blood shed across their history and extreme harsh environment; the blue band represent their blue clear skies; also on the flag was their symbol with abstract representation on sun, moon, earth, water & fire; an interconnected fish like picture; on both side of them was bars or pillars used in their ghers.
In the Genghis Khan square there were kids riding their toy cars, some skating and even few teenagers stunting with their bicycle. The square also has the center most point of Ulaanbaatar and the previous names of the city.
Adjutant to the square was a Marco Polo's statue. He had lived 17 years during Yuan emperor reign. We were told, some Mongolians believe that Christopher Columbus had access to some unpublished text from Marco Polo's travel notes.
Opposite to the statue was a Mongolian map-shaped stone, on it a song called 'My adorable homeland' in-scripted. Duluunaa sung the song for us on our request.
As we walked further across, there was a wedding hall, surprised to know that it was the only wedding hall across the whole country.
Then we moved further to the Temple museum of Chojin Lama. While the nation was ruled by different outsiders the country lost most of its temples. There are just above one hundred now in the country from what it used to be above twelve hundred temples. Also we had an interesting short conversation on religious practices (if any) of the Mongolians.
Then we walked past the National Library; Byambym Rinchen's statue, who was one their modern day scholar; Yumjaagiin Tsedenba's statue, one of their Prime Minister.
Our stroll around the city or 'Walk tour' as how Duluunaa and Togosoo would prefer to call it concluded at Yumjaagiin Tsedenba square.
But we sat down at a nearby cafe for a coffee, where I got to know more about Bastien Gregis. Bastian along with his girlfriend Elaura are on a year long hitchhiking trip across Europe and Asia with a theme Pouce à l'Est (which literally means thumb to the east).
Over the past two and a half months they have covered 8 countries and are now in Mongolia. His mother and her husband flew down all the way from France to spend sometime with them here.
We got to know some interesting places, experience and pictures from their hitchhiking trip across Austria, Czech, Praque, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia.
We shared our travel aspirations, further destinations and parted away with hope to meet some day some where if life gives us an opportunity.
Certainly, it was more than a walking tour. Don't miss it if you visit Mongolia any day.
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