NOV 28, 19 .. THANKSGIVING DAY 2019 .. A TIME TO PAUSE AND REFLECT

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2019

I feel that this is a day to pause, to be still, and to reflect upon all that we have to be thankful for. It seems it should be much more than an enormous feast and watching a football game or two.

Our minds are amazing. However, from one nano second to the next nano second, our minds can only focus upon one thing, upon the one moment, that moment we call The Present.

If we can focus our mind upon what is good, upon all that we have, and all that we have to be thankful for, then that positive focus can greatly assist us to continue to have a positive outlook during our day.

Count your blessings instead of your crosses,
Count your gains instead of your losses,
Count your joys instead of your woes,
Count your friends instead of your foes,
Count your smiles instead of your tears,
Count your courage instead of your fears,
Count your full years instead of your lean,
Count your kind deeds instead of your mean,
Count your health instead of your wealth,
Count on God instead of yourself.
Author Unknown

We wish all of you the very best Thanksgiving Day 2019

Patti and Cap

NOV 26, 19 .. ULAANBAATAR, MONGOLIA .. THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN

I was asked by one of our most 'faithful followers' and a close friend as well if I'd post some photos of the downtown area/buildings of Ulaanbaatar.

This being my fifth year visiting Ulaanbaatar, it is like home to me. Who takes any pictures at home? One gets 'numb' as to taking photos of their own home town.

When I was new here (the summer and autumn of 2015) I took hundreds of photos because Ulaanbaatar was not home yet.

That being said, I'm not able to post an all-encompassing 'photo shoot' of this area because I do not have my memory chip archives (dating back to 2015) with me on this trip. 

Further I've been unable to access my 'Google Blogspot' photo archives to get back to year 2015.

Finally, with the temperature at minus 20°F below zero last night, I'm not motivated to go do a photo shoot right now.

BUT I certainly AM ABLE to give you a brief look at the heart of the downtown area of Ulaanbaatar and I will now DO SO.

Beginning September the 10th, I snapped all of the below photos during this visit to Ulaanbaatar and included them in other individual posts. As you can see, the weather was wonderful in September and October and into early November as well.

CHINGGIS KHAAN SQUARE

If one feature 'defines' downtown Ulaanbaatar, it is Chinggis Khaan Square.

'Google Maps' (click on the below link) shows it as Sukhbaatar Square. It is now known as Chinggis Khaan Square.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ulaanbaatar+Metropolitan+Area/@47.9173452,106.9129935,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x5d9692edcbb624f1:0xe1e2457c790545d4!8m2!3d47.9090129!4d106.8907103

If all you ever see of Ulaanbaater are the below three photos, you've seen the heart of the city.

Do you see the building on the extreme right edge of the above photo?

Now I'm going to turn 90° to my right.

The same building is to the left in the below photo. 

In the above and below photos, notice the pink and white building in the distance.

This is the Ulaanbaatar Opera House.

Notice the building to the left of, and behind, the Opera House. Below are closer looks at it. My dentist's office is in this building.

THE BLUE SKY HOTEL AND TOWER

The Blue Sky Hotel and Tower is directly across Peace Avenue from Chinggis Khaan Square.

The Blue Sky also defines the heart of downtown Ulaanbaatar.

There you have it. My best effort to give you a brief review of the heart of downtown Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Smiling at giving this my-very-best-shot.

Cap

The below link will take you to my OCT 12, 15 post showing downtown Ulaanbaatar..

http://bobbacaps.blogspot.com/2015/10/oct-12-15-downtown-ulaanbaatar-chinggis.html

NOV 23, 19 .. IRKUTSK / ARSHAN Part 5 of 5 .. KHAMAR-DABAN .. TIME TO EAT

The time has come the Walrus said to wrap up this series of five posts of IRKUTSK / ARSHAN. 

How better to do this than to sit down at the number one (Trip Advisor) rated restaurant in Arshan, KHAMAR-DABAN, and enjoy yet another fine dinner in Russian Siberia. 

Before our drive to Arshan, I'd checked Trip Advisor for restaurant recommendations and so I asked our hosts if we could eat at KHAMAR-DABAN. All three of them were familiar with it and it was also their restaurant of choice in Arshan.

KHAMAR-DABAN

Here we are, we've arrived at ХАМАР-ДАБАН

In the above photo ХАМАР-ДАБАН looks small. It is not small. The restaurant extends to the left into the white building.

Do you all see Patti's reflection in the above window?

Inside we walk. 

At this point, looking to the right in the below photo, it still looks pretty small. From my vantage point, I thought that the entire dining area was what I was seeing.

Below can you see Patti (in black with her 4-footed cane to her right) ordering our dinners.

The below photo shows the dining area on the other side of the room beyond the ordering counter in the above two photos.

And then, I turned around and walked into the 'other part' of the dining area.

In these three photos you are seeing the part of ХАМАР-ДАБАН that is in the white building (first photo at the top).

KHAMAR-DABAN is enormous.

 In the below photo, our table was the last table.

A very pleasant 'wintering area' for the plants.

"What's that 'Zilla?"

"When are we going to eat?"

"Zilla! I thought you'd never ask."

Here is (Patti and mine) 'our truth' about meals in Russian Siberia.

The Russian Chefs know how-to-do Chicken Caesar Salads!

Never once, in any restaurant we ate in during our five months together in Russian Siberia, did we have a poor Chicken Caesar Salad. 

Chicken Caesar Salads became our 'default' choice of dinner where ever we ate.

In the bottom below you see steamed meat dumplings.

These are very popular in Irkutsk and Buryatia.

Also popular are deep fried meat dumplings.

Soup and salad.

That is that for dinner here at KHAMAR-DABAN..
ХАМАР-ДАБАН

Our table was the now empty table in the foreground immediately above.

Now I am going to show a few general photos of Arshan that I snapped at random as we were driving around.

When I wrote Part 1 of 5, I did not include all of the below photos and information. No one is going to return to Part 1 of 5 so I am including it here (a day late and a dollar short).

To get to Arshan you pass through the Tunkinskiy Natsional'nyy Park.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.905089,102.429962,8z

We have come to our final photo of our visit to Arshan.

On our weekend trip, we stayed in the town of Slyudyanka. The name of the hostel that Patti and I stayed in is the Arshan.

In Russian : АРШАН

It just so happens that one of our hosts who took us to Arshan owns the hostel we stayed in.

Talk about being 'connected' ! 

Still Smiling about one fabulous weekend..

Patti and Cap