Exploring The City

Over the past week the weather has been really nice. Temperatures have been anywhere between -1 to -10 so I have been doing a lot of walking exploring the streets. On one of those days I decided I was going to take some photos, I find the people here very interesting to watch and thought I might share some of the photos I took.

Pictures: Right a local solider, below a local lady smiling

What else has been happening? Paige has been going to kindergarden Monday to Friday at the local one which is located in the same complex in which we live. I think she is going through a stage as she seems to cry when I drop her off at the moment. The teachers say it only lasts a few minutes then she is fine. Most days her class goes out walking around the complex before having their lunch. If I am home I can see from our apartment window, she always looks like she is having fun. When I ask her does she like school she always says "yes". So as a mum I will continue to see how she goes and maybe trial only going to school three times a week instead of five days a week.

Picture: Paige walking with her glass (Paige in front right of teacher)

Yesterday I went with Nancy, Jillian and her Husband to explore "The Black Market" (just a name of the market nothing illegal there). The advice I had been given was to go with someone else that had been there before and to watch out for pick pockets. Nancy has lived here for three years so it was Jillian's and my first time to go to this market.

On arrival at the market it looked very big and while walking around looked well planned out. The same type of items are all in the same locations so depending on what you are looking for you just head to that location. The prices are very cheap compared to some of the shops in town. You could spend hours just walking around exploring. You can buy just about anything there. Being my first visit there was so much to see and I had my first experience at how pickpockets work here first hand.

Having read and had been told that groups of people like to surround you to stop you from walking and at the same time one trys to pick pocket you I always keep this information in the back of my mind. The plan I have is that if anyone ever gets too close to me from the front I always step to the side and usually they walk right buy as its me just being careful. While at the market while our group was turning a corner a man stepped in front of me so I stepped to the side and then there was another man in front of me, it all happened in a split second and I knew this wasn't right so I just gave a hip and shoulder and pushed my way through. I then turned and the men had disappeared. It was a little scary but I think they didn't expect me to do a hip and shoulder to get past. The ladies were just up a head and I asked "Did you see what just happened?" But they hadn't as their backs where turned to me. They couldn't believe they hadn't seen it. All in all it is an experience I wont forget in a hurry and I was glad that I had worn my travel wallet pouch around my neck which was tucked in to my shirt and jacket, I had nothing in my pockets at the time plus I think being on my guard helped. My experience just makes me more aware and to keep doing what I have been doing to ensure that I trust in my own instincts and be on guard. Having travelled all around the world this is the first time anything like this has happened to me so I will just put this down as an experience and continue to take peoples advice.

Picture: Three street cleaners

Wedding Anniversary

Today marks Ben and my 9th Wedding Anniversary.

While sorting through some computer files I came across these scanned photos and thought I would share them with you.

Being a Tuesday Ben was on site so we both had to settle with a phone call to wish each other a Happy Anniversary.

Paige was really cute wishing her daddy a happy anniversary.

In reflecting it reminds us how time flys and before we know it, it will be our 10th next year.

T is for Togrog Mongolian Currency

Having lived in Indonesia we had been used to thinking of money in Rupiah (rp) the Indonesian currency. Usually 7000rp equalled one Australian dollar.

In Mongolia the currency is called "Togrog" (T) which comes in 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000, 10000 and 20000 notes. Usually T1000 equals $1 US dollar. There are no coins used here now all the money comes in note form so T5, T10, T20, T50 are all worth less then a dollar. It is a little hard getting used to and I seem to have my purse full of small valued notes, I am forever trying to clean out my purse of the notes that are not worth much. I do miss the coins from Australia, easy to handle then the small value notes here.

I have received emails asking "What is the cost of food?". Food items here I find seem to be a bit more expensive then Australia and if you want to buy any items that are from overseas you are usually paying top dollar as they are usually in larger packets. Here are some examples of different types of food item prices: cake mix from the US is about $6 dollars, chili sauce $4, bread $2, 375ml soft drink $1, large packet of corn chips $5, chicken soup $3. Most of the ladies will buy two of everything when shopping as you never know when items will be back in stock again once sold out.

Pictures: Samples of two notes

Time Just Flys When Your Busy Hunting

"You haven't up dated your blog in a week, you must of been busy" a friend wrote in an email to me a couple of days ago. In reading those words I realised that a week has just gone by very quick, yes I have been busy.

So let me tell you what I have been up to.

Getting settled into the apartment I am starting to feel like a new women, back to the Domestic Goddess I know. Not being settle really took a toll on me. I was feeling really depressed and looking back on those weeks I felt I c see ouldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel and I hadn't really started to experience life here.
In the first couple of days I sorted out the apartment to the way I wanted. I decided to move some of the furniture around, do a lot of cleaning and worked out what I needed to buy extra for the apartment. I ended up starting a list so when I did go out hunting for the items I wouldn't forget.

The list
Clothes dryer
Another fridge (bigger then the bar fridge already in the apartment)
Small table for computer to fit into the selected space
Sofa bed for Paige's playroom
Non stick pots and pans
Cooking utensils
Plastics storage containers
Plus food items

In Australia you might head for the nearest Kmart or Target but here there are a couple of stores similar but not a lot of choice. So looking around dose take time, plus being able to book a van for transport isn't always easy as they are not always available when you want them so I had to consider that when planning my trips.

I was watching a show on TV about hunters the other day, the equipment they use, tracking animals and going through the bush not knowing if the animal would jump out at them and I could relate this in my shopping experience here so far.

I can just hear the narrator now;

The Domestic Goddess checks her equipment before heading off on the hunt. Purse tucked away in jacket, phone charged, thermals on and tucked in, woolen hat pulled over her ears and her best walking boots on to cope with the slick footpaths. She is ready to hunt. She strolls along the street watching both her footing and any open man holes. People coming thick and fast at her she does her best to get out of their way as they wouldn't care if they walked right into her. She spots a building that she thinks may contain what she needs, but from the footpath isn't too sure so feeling brave opens the door and steps into the unknown. "Oh a computer store", she tells herself. A lady looks up from her desk and without any hesitation the Domestic Goddess is out the door on the hunt again making a mental note about this store.

Walking a little further she spots a store that she heard another hunter (lady) talking about so she heads for the door and opens it to see what awaits.

A small supermarket she finds before her so she scans the area and starts at the back of the shop and works her way out. She stops in her tracks, in ore of what she sees, could it be, bending slowly with excitement in her eyes, she picks up the small colourful box and translates the American wording "Corn Starch" it takes a few seconds to compute "That's the same as Corn flour" she thinks and inside she jumps for joy as it has only taken her two weeks to find this product. Over joyed she whats to share her good fortune with her hunter friends and reaches for her mobile. In a couple of minutes the word spreads "You found what, Where , I cant believe you found that I will head past there to get some" another hunter replies on the phone. She searches the rest of the store but she will have to be satisfied with only finding the one item.

She steps back onto the street and continues the hunt...........

I think you have to see the funny side of doing the painful day to day tasks like shopping here. I have come to realise that there are a couple of simple rules here. When you see an item you grab it and if there is more then one packet you grab that too as it may not be there next time. Stock up when you can.

Having looked around the shops its amazing how many products you cant buy here, I thought it was hard finding things in Indonesia when we lived there for two years but here it is a lot harder. Items such as some herbs and spices, cream, baking soda, self raising flour, tasty cheese, just to name a few. Sometimes I am so glad that a number of items have pictures on the product as most of the wording is either in Russian or German.

Picture: Some items we can buy here

The other item I had trouble finding was a clothes dryer. You would think that being so cold here everyone would have one to dry their clothes, not so as they are really expensive to buy here so the stores don't stock them very often. The wages per month for Mongolians isn't very high for example a Professor at the University may only earn $180 per month. In Australia you can buy a dryer for about $300 - $350 but here they cost about $500 so most families would use drying racks in their living area which I had been doing but I thought if I was able to find a dryer then that would be a better option. I hunted around many of the stores and I was able to locate two dryers in the whole of UB city. I wasn't to happy at paying the high price but I figure its better then having washing drying over the limited space in the apartment we have.

Picture: Tomato Paste, check out the writing

Ben Writes

Since moving to UB I have been writing this blog so I asked Ben to write a few words about where he works. For those people that don't know Ben works away on site, he catches the company bus on Monday mornings and comes home Friday nights to be home for the weekends.


Ben writes;
My role is called “Principal Geologist”, which in terms of site means that I’m a geologist in a consulting and advising role, especially in the area of Mining and the responsibilities of the Mine Geology Team.
The total workforce is about 500 people, 50 of whom are expats, mainly Australians, then Canadians, Kiwis, Philippinos, Americans and Indians. On site there are about 25 expats, the others are in the UB office.
The mine is an open cut which produces about 250,000oz per year. It’s not really too different from mines in Australia . As they say “If you’ve seen one open cut mine, you’ve seen them all”. The orebody and overall geology make the difference between mines. This mine has about 24 million tonnes at 1.6g/t so it’s a large, low grade deposit processed currently with a CIL plant and hopefully to soon commence a Heap-Leach. I won’t go into detail explaining these, but suffice it to say that the CIL is a big process plant with tanks, crushing circuits and mills, the heap leach is a big crushed stockpile that has chemicals pumped over it.
The mine life is until 2010 unless the company get approvals to start the Gatsuurt project which will add a few more years. I have a two year contract with the company.

Picture: Site Camp






Picture: Mill and office area

Home Sweet Home

As I sit here in our apartment writing this blog I can say that we are finally getting settled. With the past negative month behind us we can now look forward to having some sort of home here in UB.

After moving in and unpacking which didn't take me long, I was so glad to see the end of the suitcase for a while.

I had to take some time and fill out a check list of what was in the apartment. Some things I found I can use and some is just junk. A lot of the kitchen items I think I will just buy new ones as as they have seen better days.

Seeing as I feel the apartment is on the small side I decided to move some furniture around to try and get a better layout in the area I had to work with. The colour scheme is very late 1980's, greys and pinks but at least it looks neat.

The apartment has 3 bedrooms, one of which is quite small. The master bedroom has it's own bathroom with a bath and the main bathroom is off the small entry area. The living, dinning and kitchen is all in one room which is about 10 metres by 10 metres square, there is a small nook which I have put the computer in. I suppose the positive side is less cleaning to do.

One of the bedrooms I am going to turn into a playroom for Paige. I am getting some of the furniture taken out to make more room . I am replacing the king single bed that was in the room with a small fold out sofa bed that I have purchased so Paige can sleep in there if we have visitors and use the sofa to sit on to watch her DVDs.

In the apartment the floor is mostly wood except for the master bedroom as it has carpet. I was surprised that the carpet and sofa were not cleaned before we moved in, it was easy to see how dirty these items where so after complaining, this job has been booked in to get done.

Over the past week I have found many items that needed fixing. Paige decided to close one of the bedroom doors which some how locked me in the room, the only way out was to take the door handle off, I was lucky that Paige had been playing with a screw driver that I was using earlier in the day other wise I am not to sure what I would of used to take the handle off. The other item that I couldn't understand wasn't fixed was the electric cook top as it didn't work. Why? because the electric cord for the cook top didn't reach the power point. The last lady had been using a power board next to the heating part which I thought was really dangerous and making the electric cord longer must of been too hard to do in the past so I have added it to the list.

All in all we could of done a lot worse so with some ideas to add some colour around the apartment and moving some furniture around our "little dog box" will start becoming a place we can call home. Finally..........................................................

So let me show you around.........

As you open the front door you can see the living area. The mirrors in the right of the picture is a storage cupboard on one side and the laundry on the other. I think I will get sick of cleaning the mirrors because of Paige's finger prints.

As you enter the apartment you can see a door on the left side of the photo, this is the main bathroom. You can then see the dinning table, the sofa and a white door, this is Paige's playroom.

When you walk into the living area you then can see the kitchen. The above third picture is looking back from the dinning area and you can see a chair on the right hand side, this is where the nook is that I have placed the computer. In the middle of the picture is a book case, to the left of it just past the mirrors is the master bedroom. Paige's bedroom door is the one that you can see and to the right of that is the front door which you can not see.

This is the view from the dinning area window which we have a small balcony we can use in summer. On a clear day we can see the mountains in the distance. Sitting at the dinning table having a coffee is one of my favorite things to do as I enjoy looking out the window to see view.

Paige's Birthday Day

On the 24th February we celebrated Paige's birthday.

Seeing as we hadn't moved into our own apartment we tried to make the best birthday we could for Paige.

I thought I would make a birthday cake but seeing as the oven in the quest apartment didn't work and I couldn't find a cake mix I hunted UB for a already made cake. I was lucky enough to find a small plain cake that I ended up frosting and adding chocolate sprinkles and M&Ms too. Both Ben and I hunted for some birthday candles with out any luck so we had to make do with some table candles, pink ones to make them even more special.

Paige driving car around indoor play centre

In the morning Paige woke up to pink, purple and white balloons in the lounge, the balloons I could find. We were going to have pancakes for breakfast but that didn't work out as the pancakes kept sticking to the crappy frying pan. We gave Paige a small dolls house that I had found. Both Ben and Paige put it together, I am not to sure how long it will last as it is from China and with most of the toys here are quite crappy and breaks easy.

We headed to an indoor play centre that one of the ladies had told me about and had the centre to ourselves as we had arrived as it opened.

Paige had a ball as there were cars, a trampoline and she could do lots of climbing. I am so glad that at least one thing turned out for her birthday.

We headed back to the quest apartment and sang happy birthday. She thought the cake was really nice she wanted to eat all the M&Ms off it.

All in all her birthday didn't turn out to bad in the long run.

Paige blowing out birthday candles

Food Shopping in UB

Since I last wrote I wish I could say that we are now settled but I can't. Seeing as there are no apartments on the market to view in our price range we had decided to move into "The Dog Box" as I call it. This is the apartment is the one which one of the families has moved from to go to another job else where. So with no other option except back to the hotel, we are moving into this apartment. I will post some photos once we have moved in.

Over the past week we moved into a guest apartment for a week until the apartment we are going to is painted and cleaned. Plus we cant stay in the guest apartment after that as another family has been booked into here.

Well living in UB isn't as easy as living in Indonesia. I shouldn't compare but as I have learnt its hard not too, I think it is because I have only lived here for one month and we are not settled yet, so much is different here too our life in Indonesia.

Seeing as we have been staying at the guest apartment I have had to do some food shopping so that's been a bit of an eye opener. Three times a week there is a shopping van that the company dedicates to the ladies to do their food shopping. So Paige and I decided to try it out.

Once all the ladies that want to shop are picked up we all say where we need to go and the van driver takes us there and waits for us to finish. Even if you don't need to shop at one location the ladies will usually go into the shops to see whats new or if there is something they might need anyway.

As I found out once you have paid and bagged up your own shopping at the check out you are unable to take the shopping carts to the van so you can only shop for the amount you can carry in bags so it seems most ladies will shop a number of times a week. GREAT.......... so after the van has visited a number of shop locations we are dropped off home where you have to get all your bags from the bottom of the apartment building to your apartment. I never thought I could carry so many bags in my life at once. This has made me decide to get our own driver which I will look into. So the other thing about food shopping is most things are labeled in Russian, German or Chinese so I am so glad for pictures on the items. There are items I have had to buy to try so it is all hit and miss to see what you get and if you are going to like the taste.

After having some snow over a couple of days it made me relise that when we do move into our apartment it will be a good idea to have a good stock of items at home as we may not be able to do shopping over a number of days due to the weather. A number of ladies buy extra items when they can as some of the food items are not there when they go back the next week to find them. I dread my fist real food shop and the bill it will be as stocking the cupboards at the start you seem to spend a large amount of money at once.