When you're in UB

I always talk abotu what I have done and how I feel and what I think etc, as I am an egomaniac, and that is how I roll.  However, I have decided to talk a little about some of the aspects of daily life in UB, to put some of my stories into context, and to give to an insight into the things I encounter in my daily life.

I want to start with the buses and taxi's, and traffic and roads, since they are an inescapable, overwhelming, loud and threatening presence n the city, avoiding being run over is an integral part of my day, and nowhere in UB can you escape the sound of the roads, horns are incessant, INCESSANT.

The city roads are always busy.  The main road, Peace avenue, running through the middle from east to west is 6 lanes wide, but is often gridlocked.  Up my end of town, a huge section of the road has been taken up to be resurfaced, this has caused huge problems - buses have been rerouted, traffic jams have increased, its a nightmare.

Anyway, the buses....there are several bus lines, run by different companies.  The big buses, like this yellow one, cost 300₮ for any journey.  They are often crowded, I get a thrill when I get a seat, but often the joy is short lived, as if an elderly person gets on, and wants to sit down, they dont wait for you to offer, they come and hoik you out of your seat.  Fair do's I suppose.

The bus conductor is usually a woman, who seems to have almost supernatural balance.  The bus jolts and rocks constantly, the hand holds are not fixed, they swing from the ceiling, so with every lean and heave of the bus, all the passengers are rocked or thrown backward and forwards.  Sometimes the bus will jerk so violently that everyone is sent hurtling through the bus, landing in a tangled human pile against the front window.  When you have a seat, this is cruelly amusing, when you dont have a seat, it is painful and annoying. 

However, the conductor, seems impervious to the G force, and can walk around the bus with impunity from centrifugal forces.

She is usually very dour, and struts the length of the bus taking money and issuing tickets.  She will poke you in the back to get your attention, and will push you out of the way, if you are in it.

She is fierce and not to be messed with.  A few times I have seen the ruddy faced drunk street men try and get on to the bus, they sway and shout and mumble, and just like in London, all the passengers resolutley ignore them.  Except conductor woman.  Once she has finished collecting the money, she waits for the bus to stop, calls to the driver to open the door, and she pushes them mens right out, usually giving them a good smack upside the head or a kick up the bum as she berates them with shrill ire.

Bus stops are faaaar apart, half a mile or more.  When I first moved to the area, I decided that I would walk to the next bus stop - and pretty much walked the entire way to town.  Bus stops have a little kiosk at them selling cigarettes and sweets, and mobile phone credit (photos to come soon).

Buses squeal to a halt and doors open, people push and shove to get on or off, sometimes the driver gets bored and starts moving away slowly, several times I have jumped on or off a moving bus, oblivious to the engrish sign above the door:

 

At the bus stops the other kind of bus - the hated "micro buses" - also stop. These are people carriers, stuffed with people.  They are a menace on the road, and when they stop at the bus stop, getting in the way of the real buses, a mongol leans out, spits, and then starts shouting the route, in a really annoying monotone.  For me it is "incomprehensible shouting" SPIT "incomprehensible shouting" SPIT, move aside for people to cram in "incomprehensibe shouting" then the big bus wants to get into the bus stop and so beeps his horn long and loud, so the micro bus cheekily beeps back before scooting off, another one hot on its heels, the shouting and spitting to begin again.

I never get the micro bus because, quite frankly, I am 1, disgusted with the conductor person, and 2, I cant understand how they talk so dont know where the bus is going.

What else to say about the bus, hum, sometimes it is so crowded I cant see out of the window, and several times have got of a stop early. There is music playing o the bus, sometimes traditional mongolian warbing ballads, sometimes western pop (mongolians LOVE the Alicia Keys song New York, you hear it at least seven times a day, we all sing along "UB" insteadof New York). 

Mongolians have a different concept of personal space than westerners.  They have no qualms about holding halds and draping their arms around eachother.  Even "tough" looking boys walk down the street in a tender brotherly embrace.

On the bus people will practically sit on top of you, when I have had a seat, I have had people put their bag on my lap, lean onto me, or put their hand on my shoulder to steady themselves.  I am pretty ok with it most of the time, I find it hilarious really, and I have enjoyed embracing it, perhaps being a nurse, and having lots of tactile siblings has helped.

The other day an old lady asked me to help her across the road, she took my hand, and we walked hand in hand - she actually seemed reluctant to et go once we got to the other side, and we walked a little way still holding hands before she laughed and patted me, grinning toothlessly.

Taxi's are great here, I dont get them often as my salary wont allow for too much extravagance, but I do love getting them.  Every car is a taxi, you just stand at the side o fthe road and hold out your arm, fingers down, making a 'camp' gesture, and within 5 - 10 seconds someone has stopped next to you.

It is important to make a show of checking out the milometer though, as taxi fares are charged at 500₮ per kilometer, but some of them will rip you off somehting chronic if you dont stand up for yourself.

the old cliche clichedly annoys me, the assumption that if you are white you are rich.  I rail and rage against the idiotic racism of this assumtion.  Anyway - I wont get into it.  Just when you get in a taxi, make sure they know you are looking at the milometer.  Then when you come to a stop, ask not what the price of the trip is, but how FAR it was.  If you know, then dont ask anything, just give them some money and bail.

Oh, and the roads are basically a free for all, I have already described how crossing is perilous, cars will speed up and come for you.  There are se traffic lights, but mostly people pay them no heed.  At intersections cars and buses all rush to the centre, only to get snarled up for ages, until a policemen comes to untangle them all.  If the road is clear, it becomes some kind of whacky race, the other day the bus overtook a car (on a single lane back street) and I once had a very exhilarating taxi ride - I no longer need ot wonder what it woul dbe like to be in a car chase like off of the movies, for this driver was going very fast, weaving in and out of lanes, it was terrifying but also very fun....

Anyway, that is enough for now.  Having been here for a few months now, and being quite a laid back go with the flow person, I have adjusted well to this place I think.  I tend not to notice or question many of the vagaries of the city.  Although even I raised an eyebrow when I saw a naked man bathing in a pond in the centre of town, but I seemed to be the only one to even notice him!