Trip to
Erdenet
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| Erdenet roof lines and colors |
MBM Hotel. Our
trip to Erdenet started off in Darkhan thanks to three Service Center employees
who stopped by the Young Single Adult conference near Shamaar by the banks of
the Orkhan River, the longest river in Mongolia. We left our bedroll and a few
other items at the camp for others to take back to Ulaanbaatar.
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| The best looking city in Mongolia |
After our two hour ride over various shortcuts and washed
out roads we finally hit pavement. At
the MBM Hotel, we settled into a night
of welcome relief from camping. The hot shower and modern conveniences were especially
appreciated. The hotel was classy for a nominal price of $45 a night. In the
morning we were served a complimentary “foreigner” breakfast of eggs, pancakes
and ham. The Mongolians had their traditional rice and milk cereal.
Taxi ride. We had
arranged for a taxi to take us to Erdenet – a two hour drive one way from
Erdenet if you drove fast. We were overcharged but we took it as a learning
experience. We can’t be smart all the time and in certain ways we were caught
and had to pay double the normal rate.
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| Looking toward downtown Erdenet - cows rule |
Our taxi driver drove fast and we arrived a little after
noon. The drive was on a smooth paved highway much different than those
surrounding UB. The views of the landscape were stunning but our driver was in such
a hurry to make his money and return that we have no pictures. There will be a
future opportunity.
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| Former church site - now the Gold Hotel |
The Gold Hotel. In
Erdenet, we met the senior couple, the Lamoreauxs, who serve there. We went out
to eat to a Korean restaurant and then settled into our hotel, the Gold Hotel,
almost the equivalent of the MBM in Darkhan but with better beds. The price was
better, only $37 a night. We had a refrigerator and shopped at a nearby store
for our food for the next two days.
The only drawback was the Karaoke Bar right under our room.
The music and off key singing died down just before midnight. The second night
they must have had some professional singers because the music was much better.
We asked about this to another senior couple and he said that all the major
hotels in Mongolia have Karaoke bars so it was unavoidable – except perhaps for
the location of our room.
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| Notice the Karaoke Bar sign at street level? We didn't. |
We found out later that the Gold Hotel used to be the
meeting place for the LDS Church in Erdenet twelve years ago when our daughter
was there. They now have a new chapel, the
only church building in Erdenet. When we
got into the taxi all we had to say was “soom” (meaning church) and he knew
right where to go.
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| Beautiful building on the main street of Erdenet |
Erdenet. Erdenet
is the most modern City in Mongolia. It was built by the Russians in 1970s when
they developed a copper mine in Erdenet. Most of the Russian mining employees
are gone except for one or two apartment buildings filled with the remaining Russian
employees.
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| Cultural Center in Erdenet |
The main street is wide and the driving civilized.
Crosswalks actually mean something and half of the drivers will actually stop.
This makes things a little more complicated because the other half won’t. The
sidewalks are wide and in good repair. Walking was unhurried, less congested
and peaceful compared to UB.
There are skiing hills on two sides of Erdenet. The area
reminded us of Rapid City SD with one part of town, the mine and power plant
separated from the main residential and business area by a narrow gap.
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| Sister Narantseteg and her new friends |
Doing our duties.
We met our main contact, Naratseteg and her translator, Erdenetseteg, at the
church for three hours of productive training on the computer. Both sisters
were delightful, friendly, and smart.
The next day we attended both branches and gave our talks in
Sacrament meeting. We learned not to be chatty and to shorten up our talks
because of the translation time. This was especially apparent when the Branch
President in the first meeting started making a racket behind me when I wasn’t
finishing on time.
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| My new friends decorated my hair |
The first Branch had about 50 in attendance – a low amount -
and the second Branch had about 100. Normally the two Branches are equivalent.
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| Part of our training group |
We had a good training experience. There were about 15
members who stayed after church for a two hour training on the computers. This
training was a little ragged because we had so much difficulty signing members
into new.familysearch.
The older members didn’t have e-mail addresses, so these had
to be created. And then when we finally got all the forms filled in, several of
the members received the “message” that there was already an account created
with their membership record number.
Apparently someone had done it for them and they had no idea what was
done. We sent several help messages to
new.familysearch and have since heard back on how to resolve their log in problems.
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| It was interesting to see how this was working out |
We formed some great
relationships and helped a few members overcome their difficulties. The
Lamoreaux’s fed us and Erdenetseteg at their home after the meetings and
training were concluded.
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| Trainer in charge doing her thing |
The train ride home.
We caught a train that takes a 12 hour nighttime trip to go to UB. This time we
shared our compartment with a young mother with two children age three and
under. We offered a lower bunk to this little family while I slept on the top
bunk.
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| Train ride home |
It was enjoyable and we were able to learn a little
Mongolian while helping her out in various ways. The little 3 year old boy
threw up and Darlene helped the mother deal with it. At four in the morning she
and her children got off and we were joined by two middle aged Mongolian men.
They inherited the top bunks. One spoke in Russian and Darlene and he enjoyed
some conversation.
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| Sister Oyun - our daughter's second companion in Erdenet celebrating her birthday at the YSA conference. She had just returned in April from Korea after living there for 8 years. |
