Day 186: Asia Adventures Begin — Arrive in Ulaanbaatar —Shopping for Naadam with our guide Ganzo — How Not to Beat Jet Lag
Today we demonstrated all the ways *not* to beat jet lag.
We got almost no sleep on the 5.5 hour flight from Moscow to Ulaanbaatar (locals call it “UB”) and couldn’t wait to get to our hotel rooms and pass out. We secured an early check in for this reason.
We got off the plane and were unexpectedly directed into an Exec Lounge while someone took our passports and managed immigration for us. So nice to relax with a snack instead of standing in line.
We waited for a while, met our guide Ganzo, then found our luggage and rode into the city, getting to the hotel around 10am.
Needless to say, the best way to beat jet lag is to fight through the exhaustion all day so you can sleep through the night. Maybe take one short little cat nap in an emergency. Lots of water, maybe a workout. It’s not a mystery.
What did we do? We checked in, put the kids in bed, showered, pulled the blackout shades, and set an alarm that would allow us to sleep for three and a half hours.
You’d think it was the first time we’d traveled internationally.
We are in UB for Naadam Festival. Naadam is a midsummer festival, holiday and sporting event that is the must-see highlight of the Mongolian calendar. The festival officially celebrates the Mongolian Revolution and independence, although the event is said to predate Genghis Khan — whose name is actually pronounced Chinggis Khan. The Festival is locally known as “Eriin gurvan naadam,” which means “Three games of men.” The games include archery, horse racing, and wrestling.
Ganzo recommended that we get some tranditional clothes for the event. We didn’t want to be out of dress code so we did some shopping at the State Department Store.
Willa was loving this mission as expected. Margaret and I were semi into the plan and really just wanted to avoid looking like shlubby American tourists. James agreed to wear a hat and only a hat.
We returned to the hotel and walked around back to this strange, dystopian Soviet-era amusement park we had seen from our window. We avoided the rides and just hit a couple playgrounds. The whole experience was especially weird because our brains were foggy from jet lag.
We left the amusement park / horror movie set, browsed the mall next to the hotel and then grabbed an early dinner at Mongolian’s restaurant — a rec from Ganzo. We had dumplings and tsuivan, a tasty noodle/meat/veggie dish, all washed down with a Golden Gobi beer.
Back at the hotel the evening was ending pleasantly. We got the kids showered and we were all in bed by 8pm, ready to sleep off this jet lag.
Or not.
We all went to sleep around 8:30. Margaret was up with James at 10:30. Willa was up not long after. I woke up at midnight. James got back to sleep at maybe 12:30 or 1. Margaret finally got to sleep around 2:30 and I think I zonked around 3am.
That damn nap!
