No car day in Ulaanbaatar

zieak ♦ October 8, 2011 ♦ Leave Your Comment

Yesterday Pepper and I were out of the house by 9:30 to get some things together to have brunch with Meghan and Liz. All the stores we tried to hit were closed until 10 though. We lingered in the sun and found an ATM that worked (1 out of 4 isn’t too bad). We did some enthusiastic shopping – found almost everything we were looking for and at decent prices. We’re celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving today and needed some provisions. (One big benefit of having friends and coworkers from around the world – more holidays!) We left the market and headed home and as we crossed one of the main streets near our place (we live between the two main east-west roads) we realized there were no cars on the street and people were brazenly walking down the middle of the street.

Huh?

We were heavy with groceries so we just headed home. When Meghan and Liz arrived they told us it was “no car day”for the city. Kids were out with rollerblades, bikes and scooters. In a city with the second worst air pollution in the world (although the majority is due to the sprawling ger districts burning coal and other fuels incompletely) it was refreshing.

Unfortunately, by the time I went out to take pictures at about 5:30 the roads were reopening. So I don’t have pictures of it. But there will be future days and I’ll be sure to capture images next time.