The weekend before Greg left for London, Boston, Cambridge and Seattle for recruiting fairs (last January), a conference and a quick visit with his kids we drove across town to Zaisan.

Can you see the Ger in the building?

The River Tuul, frozen solid

The Golden Buddha

Zaisan is not only an area of Ulaanbaatar, but it is amonument erected to commemorate the glorious Mongolian victory over the forces of evil: Chinese Imperialism, Italian Facism, and Hitler’s Nazism.

Behold a crisp, clear and VERY cold day in late January 2010. You can also see the pollution that hangs of UB in the winter. This is actually a relatively clear day.

Looking West

The weather this year has been quite mild, comparatively. I keep hearing that come January, it is suppose to drop to -40 or -50 for weeks on end. I am keep hope that whomever the ‘experts’ are, are wrong! I am looking forward to this being my last ‘real’ winter as La Paz is considered to have Fall and Spring weather pretty much year-round. When it is winter in Boliva, we will be sailing in the northwest. Not a bad trade-off from two years (three for Greg) of living in the coldest capitol city in the world.

Zaisan is suppose to be a cultural and environmental preservation site with no building allowed and is revered as spiritual area. Unfortunately, through political influence and money, this supposed cultural preservation site has become 'the place' to live with unrestrained building of apartments and single-family dwellings.

The backside of Zaisan Memorial; what is suppose to be a cultural heritage site with no commercial or residential building. It seems that Mongolia is not immune from the effects of greed and corruption; money can buy one nearly anything in post-Soviet Mongolia.