Another Perspective

By Charlie

You will forgive the Five Snouts for becoming jaded. After nine months of vigorous snouting, our snouts are perhaps a little dry. Whether it be the constant wonder of this place or the profound wrongness, it is our reality and our routine. It is just not as interesting as it used to be.

This is why it is good to get some perspective. The Snouts are pleased to welcome a guest contributor. NPR engineer Michael Cullen is our guest this week in Ulaanbaatar. He offers these fresh observations about Mongolia.

You can reach Michael at: michael_cullen@mac.com

Here is his dispatch:

—
Howdy All:

This is a really bizarre place.

Kind of like a post-Soviet wild west.  Grungy concrete apartment blocks everywhere. 9 stories, no elevator. Supposedly the rent is cheaper the higher up you go. There are tales of elderly people who only come down a couple times a year. Infrastructure is either falling apart or totally trashed.

The cityscape reminds me of what I saw in suburban Moscow 15 years ago. 

Beijing, where I spent 3 days last week has totally changed. Mostly for the worst. More cars, more pollution, more garish office buildings. But there are Starbucks, Internet Cafes and everybody has a mobile phone.

It snowed last night here in Ulaanbaattar and now everything is flooded. Streets and sidewalks both. No storm sewers in evidence.

Horrendous drivers piloting battered Ladas with a smattering of new SUVs. I’ve seen 2 VW Touregs for example. Pedestrians beware. There are few traffic lights, and most don’t work.

Unbridled capitalism. Everybody has their hand in something. You can buy almost everything–it’s just a big production finding what you need.

Lots of talk of government corruption and incompetence.

We went to 2 small radio stations in the north of the country over the weekend.  Totally bare bones operations. Chinese-made DJ boards with a computer for playing music mp3s, a 100 watt transmitter with coax cable out the window and up to the roof. One of the stations is using a TV receiving antenna for transmission. It actually works.

Not having a clue, we installed a satellite dish and receiver for VOA. Thanks to some help from a guy at the local cable company, we got the dish pointed correctly and VOA News is now available. Whether the staff will actually air anything is open to question.

Public Radio’s Bill Siemering is trying to get folks interested in doing news, but the people we met were DJs wishing to be rock stars. They also make local music videos. That’s what really turns them on.

We also went to the Russian border. Which was closed due to a power outage. But we received a guided tour of the border crossing facilities. Their hi-tech x-ray machine didn’t work without power, but the post was fully staffed.

In Sukhbaatar, at the border, the local Mormon Church Ward building is the nicest spot in town.

We also visited the provincial museum. Mothballed socialist realism from 1971. We were the only visitors that day, and perhaps this year. 

The highlight scenery-wise was a scenic overlook view of the Selenge river valley toward the border. The Mongolians like this place too. They left their discarded plastic bags and broken beer bottles behind for us to enjoy.

Charlie wanted to have a look in the border guard’s high-powered binoculars, but they said no. We ended up giving the two soldiers the remains of our smoked fish, cucumber, and bread picnic.

It’s been a bit of a roughish visit by western standards. No power in the entire northern part of the country Monday, so no hot water Monday in Selenge or Tuesday in UB. The centralized steam heat has been turned off so it’s a little chilly too. The hot water also comes from the power plant, thanks to Russian ingenuity. 

Mongolian food in Mongolian restaurants? Meat, root vegetables, and mayonnaise. ‘Greek Salad’ has appeared on every menu. And everywhere it is different. Great beer, however. Eating at the ‘Texas Pub’ was an experience. The staff calls it ‘TAY-hos.’  The back room housed a big party of Christian missionaries from all over.

Hotel beds up north? All three were the same. Box springs, yes. But mattresses, no. AIDS education literature and free Korean-made condoms courtesy of the UN in the bedside drawer. One electrical outlet for the TV, little fridge and tea kettle.  Your choice.

I flooded the bathroom in one of them taking a shower. The shower and bathroom were together in one tiled box. The single floor drain was clogged. Only an armful of towels stopped the water from entering the hallway.

My hosts, Charlie Mayer and his wife Rachel Henighan have been here for almost a year now, and I think they’re ready to go home. They are not complaining, but it’s hard. Right now they are in the midst of a supermarket expedition. It will take all afternoon to get there, buy food, and get back.

I’m not complaining either. Just observing. I wouldn’t have missed this trip for anything.

Charlie and Rachel’s phone was cutoff this morning.  (Cable TV also dead, but unrelated.) This is how Mongolia Telecom tells you it is time to pay the bill.  They do not mail them. If you can’t make outgoing calls, this is the signal to visit the business office, stand in line, give them your number, and pay cash.  Then they turn the phone back on.  "At 3 O’clock."  (Of course)

Amazingly, both BBC World Service and VOA have FM stations here.  So I’m all caught-up on the latest from the Bush Administration.

I’m writing E-mail from 2 places.

A French bistro place with slow Wi-Fi and music to drink cafe au lait by via a Bose iPod boom box. And the offices of the Asia Foundation–a quasi-NGO funded by Congress.  It started life in the sixties as a CIA front. My first foray into development speak and bureaucracy. Their Internet is slow too by DSL/Cable modem standards, but OK for E-Mail.

The Asia Foundation is paying me a small stipend to help Charlie with equipment installs etc.

The countryside, as everyone calls it, is beautiful.  Berkshires-size mountains, wide valleys, and grasslands–but basically treeless.  Looks now like Vermont in mid-April. Just barely green. Cows, cows, and cows.  Horses and the occasional yak.  Trash strewn by the side of the road too, unfortunately.

If the rest of the equipment finally arrives from a less than competent FedEx, we will go back north before I leave to install new Mackie mixers. The shipment was supposed be here a week ago.

There was just a power failure here and one of the fabulous Windoze computers won’t re-boot.  I’m gonna try now and help folks here get it running again.  Wish me luck.

It is 38 degrees here now with ‘wintry mix.’ I’m told it never gets above 75 and the humidity is zero.  But then 40 below in winter is common.

More impressions and .mac posted photos next week.

–Michael