Wedding season in Ulaanbaator, throat singing and contortion

It's Saturday and then end of a long week in Ulaanbaator. I've really enjoyed it, not least for good colleagues and lots of interesting conversation about books, travel, religious faiths and Ghengis Khan, the great conqueror who made this country famous and whose influence is still very much central to life in Mongolia.

The Mongolian folk opera, dance and throat singing was wonderful but I still can't fathom throat singing (even in the privacy of my own hotel room!). Along with the Mongolian female contortionist, throat singing was a first, this week.

Ulaanbaatar is a city of contrast. The young people in the streets are very hip, as in most urban spaces and there are lots of new shopping galleries and restaurants where they hang out. There are also many foreigners, including lots of Australians working in the mining industry. Having lunch the other day, I sat next to two West Australians vying for a contract to build a railway line to a mine.

We ( another UN consultant from London and I)  are working on the development of survey tools for a review of supply side issues linked to school dropout in Mongolia, along with two research groups at the National University of Mongolia. The people  in the research group are knowledgeable and active and their turn around times keep us on our toes. They are also lots of fun and that makes each day just a pleasure to go to work.
We've also had s bit of time to explore the city (but not enough) and today we are venturing out to the countryside. More of that later. here are some images of UB.

 Sükhbaatar Square with the Parliament Building and the Opera House.

April 2011

This has been a month of packing bags and reviewing airline schedules. First was a trip to Dili for UNICEF and a project on Out of School Children. Now I'm back here and feverishly writing up firstly a research proposal for further wpork and now a paper of Out of School Children in Timor Leste. It's a good discipline and I really like the colleagues with whom I'm working.

Then it was back to Melbourne via Darwin and Adelaide and a wonderful view of Lak Eyre along the way.

The farm has had some gardening attention (still harvesting loads of tomaties and beans) as has the flat in Melbourne, although the area for work is so much smaller.

This week Michael has been working in Sydney so I went for the ride. It wasa good catch up time with old friends like my family, (David my nephew turns 40 tomorrow!) and old friends (my goddaughter Alexis and her lovely husband Paco home from Mexico and looking for work) and  my old friend amd flatmate Leonie (still amazing us with her work as a chaplain and prison visitor).

We also took inj the new Sydney shops and Annie Liebovitz's images at the Museum of Comtemporary Art at Circular quay.

Then there was the mandatory Sydney Harbour ferry trip late one afternoon. Now it's back to the desk, head down and writing away!

Roaming around in Rome

It seems like ages since we were in Melbourne even though it seems that every day we meet a few more people from there. We drove back to Rome from San Gimignano, managed to get a car space outside our hotel (unbelievable!!) and after disgorging all our gear and returning rhe car we did an open air bus trip around Rome to get oriented. Today we started to do that again, but then started looking for the shop where I'd bought a handbag about 15years ago. The shop was there, the handbags are even better and I'm bringing a new one back. The good thing was that Fulvio, the handbag designer also had news of old friends Paolo and Silvana, from Hanoi days, and even though I thought they had moved to Genoa, they were home in Rome and we visited them in their beautiful top floor apartment for gelati and grapes late this afternoon. It was so good to catch up with them, enjoy the delights of the local market (Campo di Fiori)as well as other landmarks. Tomorrow, home via Qatar for work and more work, this week and next! We both think this has been a wonderful time away together and are thankful for this special opportunity.

Michael makes a friend in San Gimignano

Fulvio at his shop Ibiz in Rome

Birdseye view at Piazza de Popoli Rome

Il Campagnolo where we stayed near San Gimignano

Colosseum with huge crowds

San Gimignano

Veggies and fruit, Campo di Fiori, Rome

Michael last stayed here in 1968

With Paolo and Silvana on their rooftop verandah, Rome

Paolo and Silvana with Michael, Rome

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Demo, PIazza Navona, Rome

Next week , the  diet!

Sitting outside in Assisi

We have had a wonderful time in Italy. We arrived in Rome from Finland early Sunday morning...and noticed at once the change in temperature! Booking a small car we made our way (Michael driving!) across Italy from west to east (Fumicino Airport to Pescara) where we stayed with old friends who live in the hills overlooking this seaside city. We ate well, going for a country meal of arrosticini  in Villa Celiara, enjoying meals in the terrace  garden of our friends and visiting the hilltop towns of Chieti and Atri. Cristiana and Guiseppe plied us with every kind of local food and drink and we spent lots of time chatting and joking our way through days and nights. Andy, their son, who of course was a small boy when I was in Hanoi, is now tall and going on 21! He is also a delight. Tomorrow we hope to go to Florence and then to Sam Gimignano before heading for Rome on Fridy and home on Sunday. Holidays finish too quickly!


Driving across the Appenines



in Villa Celiara

A baby Fiat in Pescara

Guiseppe and Michael buying cheese in the Pescara market

Dinner in the Orsini-Restivo garden

Elaine & Cris



Cris, Elaine & Michael with Emperor Hadrian in Atri



The garden at Hotel Tre Esse Assisi



St Francis Church Assisi



Tallinn and Helsinki

On Thursday we travelled with our friends Marjatta and Juhani to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, by a huge Baltic Sea ferry. Tallinn was an interesting medieval city, once part of Russia but now an independent territiory. We enjoyed a wonderful meal at Mannerheim Restaurant http://www.mannerheim.ee/eng/about  and also a tour of the city. We stayed overnight and travelled back to Helsinki on Friday, again by ferry, http://www.tallinksilja.com/en/shipsAndTerminals/balticPrincess/
and have spent the past two days exploring Helsinki, including a lovely afternoon with Marjatta's brother and sister-in-law, Martti and Riita, lunching and comparing prices on beef and bananas. Not  lot of parallels with Aiustralian prices on either front!



Marjatta and Juhani on board



Martti, Riita and Michael in Stockmanns Deli  in Helsinki (like DJ's food court)

Bananas at E1.29 per kg



Beef at E 67.50 per kg



Railway Stn Helsinki

Town Hall, Tallinn

Michael, Helsinki Harbour market

Elaine on board the ferry

Mathildedal, Southern Finland

Ulaanbaatar to Moscow to Berlin and then to Dusseldorf! It was good to spend time wth friends in Velbert and attend their 125th birthday celebrations along with Michael who arrived the morning of the party.

Ulrich, Dietgard and Michael at the 125th birthday party

Now we are in Finland with more old friends in their home by the Baltic Sea in the Gulf of Finland at Mathildedal/

The Baltic sea from their verandah

Elaine & Michael in Naantalie



Outdoor drama theatre Mathidledal



Morning walk Mathildedal

Morning walk Mathildedal

Marjatta and Juahni's house on th Baltic Sea in Mathildedal, Southern Finland

With a one pointed mind



On the way to Terelj NP. See the Ger Camp by the river and the flock of cashmere goats!

 This is the end of a wonderful weekend spent not working in Mongolia! Saturday 4 of us hired a car and driver and went about 80km north into the Terelj National Park, walked up a hill to a Buddhist Meditation Centre and walked back. When we got up to the top of the stairs of the furthest building an officious young lad told us we couldn't go on as their company had hired out the centre for the weekend.



At the top!

 

 It turned out to be a lunch for people from the World Economic Forum and all these locals had carried the first class five star lunch and furniture up the hill and were awaiting their important guests. But, it is very difficult to keep people from a public place in a national park, so we continued up and enjoyed the view. The VIPs had not arrived as we departed the spot and then had a picnic lunch by the river. Just wonderful.

Three guys in Sakhbattar Square, UB

New.old and not yet finished, UB

  

 Sunday I think I may have walked about 10km around town to shop, to sight see and to visit several monasteries. I think my favourite place was a craft shop called Mary & Martha set up as a series of Fair Trade microenterprise projects for women and men in difficult circumstances. Interestingly the staff also liked my button necklace and took copious photographs. I guess that next time I'm here, if ever, I may see my necklace Mongolianised and for sale! I also had a quick lesson in what happens in Tibetan Buddhist practice from the saleswoman at the last monastery where I ran out of puff and had a big rest.

Circling the urn with incense, Ganden Monastery

Ganden Monastery