SKY LOUNGE ....ODDS AND ENDS

Above is the Sky Lounge at the top of the Blue Sky Hotel across from Subk. Square in the heart of the city.  Its Signature Restaurant is at the top right just over the balcony.  That restaurant is french haute cuisine and one of my future destinations. This lounge is on the 23rd floor and gives a panaramic view of the entire downtown and the Square.  Drinks are a reasonable $6.50 with a gorgeous view.

Now for the odds and ends.  Did you know that the population of the students and the recent graduates of the Mongolian universities favor women to men 70/30 per cent.  When I asked I was told that many women have become educated but families spoil the boys and do not push them towards a higher education.  Thus, there are many women lawyers and doctors but few men.  All but one of the lawyers I have met have been women.  But almost all government positions and corp. top positions are held by men.  Maybe that will change soon.  I am told that many educated women in their 40's are not married b/c they are are wating to meet someone with a similarly educated background and there are not many... 

Did you know that steak tartare comes from the armies of C. Kahn in the 13th century when his horse soldiers would carry patties of raw chopped horsemeat in their saddles for quick meals on the run.  These soldiers were call tartares and the meal has carried over as a delicacy today with beef substituted for the horsemeat.

Did you know that the Mongolian culture film at the National Museum is narrated by a PHD from Indiana University named Christopher Atwood.  It is very well done and many watched this film with me.  I wonder if Craig knows Chris.

Did you know that C. Kahn like Julius Caesar and Napoleon established a rule of law and set a tax structure to support his conquests.  And he established the fairest and wisest  tax code that maybe has ever existed.  This tax structure was also simple.  He decreed that all citizens should be taxed a certain per cent but there would be imposed no tax on lawyers, doctors, monks amd soldiers.  What a great system.  Of course it would have been more fair if he had removed the doctors and monks from the list but this is how it went in the 13th century, a man ahead of his time.  And so it goes...