Around Town

Today the temp was in the teens with a wind that made the walk to the office and around town both raw and bitter.  The first pic above shows off the statue of S. Zorig, the young intellectual who at age 28 led the 1990 protests culminating in the democratization of Mongolia.  In 1998 after serving as a leader of the Parliament he was selected by a coalition of parties to become the new Prime Minister.  Unfortunately, just two days before his formal election he was murdered at his home and the murder has never been solved nor any charges brought against anyone.  Nevertheless, he is honored here as the precipitate reason for the country becoming a democracy.

The second pic is of the coffee shop named Café Amsterdam, a popular site for ex-pats.  I met the owner here who is from Holland.  Unbelievably, as a young man he rode a bicycle all the way from Holland to Mongolia and then stayed here.  He told me that the trip took more than a year but he also stopped and stayed along the road in many places meeting a great variety of people along the way.  He married here and has two young children whom I also met.  And so it goes...