Home - Heathrow - Istanbul - Ulaanbaatar

Background

Some time earlier this year I attended a Zoom session with the Travel Group from the Royal Photographic Society, where someone was showing photos from their trip to the Eagle Festival in Mongolia the previous year. I was so incredibly captivated by her images and stories, that I immediately checked to see if Undiscovered Destinations, our favourite tour operator, arranges trips to Mongolia. They do. The very next day I made an enquiry, and a few days later they came back with a suggested itinerary and quote for a private and bespoke trip for the two of us. Less than a week after I saw the presentation, I booked our own trip to coincide with the aforementioned festival.

Our route

I have long wanted to visit Mongolia, but have been put off by the very basic accommodation – simple gers (yurts) with shared facilities. After much discussion with Mark at UD and his local team, they promised to try and find a way around the toilet situation.

27th August

As we have an early flight tomorrow morning, we have travelled up to Heathrow this afternoon, and are spending the night in Premier Inn, our favoured airport hotel (for its price, location, and facilities).

Premier Inn

We enjoy a meal in their courtyard restaurant – David has a Beef and Ale Pie, while I order Chicken Makhani Curry. The sweet Nepali waitress confirms that I have made the right choice: it’s her favourite dish on the menu.

We follow this with a chocolate tart and a stack of pancakes with berries and ice cream.

My chocolate tart

David's pancakes

They do a special on the cocktails (2 for £12), so it would be rude not to, right?

Espresso Martini - my current favourite cocktail

28th August

Heathrow Airport
We are up at 02:30 and at the airport by 03:20. Booking the Meet and Greet service makes life so much easier, we just turn up at the dedicated bay in the short-term car park at the airport and someone drives our car away to park it for us, leaving us free to just stroll into the terminal.

Just inside the door of the airport terminal, a few wheelchairs are situated (this is something I have not seen before, in the past I have had to walk all the way down to the end for the Special Assitance area to get one), which is great as the check-in counter is not open yet, so we have a lot of hanging around to do (one of the most painful thing for my back).

When the Turkish Airlines check-in counters finally open at 04:00, a long queue forms. Unlike many other airlines, there is not a dedicated line for Special Assistance passengers. Instead of requesting a porter to operate the wheelchair, we find it easier for David to push it. We encounter no problems during check-in, nor at security, and once through to airside, we head straight for the only food outlet that is open this early – Pret A Manger - for a sandwich.

Turkish Airlines flight from London to istanbul

As usual, we board first, which is a blessing, as the lockers above the last three rows of seats (where we are sitting) are already full of crew stuff. Boarding soon becomes absolute chaos, with passengers blocking the aisle as they try to cram their large hard cases into the overhead lockers.

The flight is full and cramped, and I am twisted in a very painful position. Even after I ask for a pillow to put behind my back, I am still in constant pain. I still manage to snooze on and off (could have something to do with the time we got up this morning and the number of painkillers I have taken).

Istanbul Airport

A fancy electric wheelchair is waiting for me at the ramp, with a space for the porter to stand behind the seat.

He whisks me down to a holding area, at a speed that David struggles to keep up with.

I tell the lady at the desk that I “would like to go somewhere to get something to eat, is there a a manual wheelchair my husband could use to push me in?” She looks at me as if I have asked her to fetch me the moon. “No manual wheelchair” she says, despite the fact that I can see one behind her, “You’ll have to walk”. How helpful. Not. Mind you, it is not at all unusual – most airports seem to be under the impression that disabled people do not eat. As the nearest café is at the far end of the concourse, I send David off to get something portable.

Other people waiting

While I am waiting for my Uber Eats (AKA David getting a takeaway), I hear another passenger arguing with the lady on the desk, complaining that there was no wheelchair waiting for her mother as she came off her flight, and they had to walk. As a result, her mother had a fall, had hurt herself and was bleeding. There is no apology or any sign of compassion, the worker is just looking at her system and arguing that the woman had not booked assistance so no wheelchair. Which is quite ironic, as no one asked me for any proof that I’d booked special assistance, the porter just pointed to the chair as I exited the plane.

The special assistance holding area offers great views

David returns with some very nice burgers, and not long afterwards an electric buggy arrives with the driver calling my name. I struggle big time to get into the back of the buggy (the only 2 seats left) but am offered no help from the very impatient driver. The buggy stops at several gates, and at around the third one, he calls out again “Grete Howard, come here.” Without a word, he hands me my boarding card. I ask which of the gate is ours, but he just points dismissively to an area with three different gates. Another much more customer service-orientated buggy driver takes pity on me and asks where we are going. He kindly looks it up on his system and shows me where to go.

With another three hours still to go before our flight departs, David goes off to get some Duty Free. There is free wifi at the airport, but you have to go to a kiosk to ask for the password, where they scan your passport and ticket; and then you get a whole hour free.

I’d like to say that boarding is smooth and painless, but nothing could be further from the truth. Only as the boarding has actually started, does the gate agent ask if I need a wheelchair. I tell him I can walk, as I can see the plane at the end of a short tunnel. I am invited to join the queue for first class, and at this point, I am beginning to wish I’d accepted the offer of a chair, as it is nearly ten minutes before we are allowed through. Eventually, we are scanned in, but it seems that the plane is still not ready for us, as we are stopped at the end of the tunnel for several minutes. My back is not at all happy at this stage. There is a further delay as two men in front of us block the aisle on the plane as they try to store their luggage, take out their books and headphones, put away their jackets etc etc etc, all the while seemingly oblivious to the long queue of passengers building up behind them.

Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Ulaanbaatar

We are right at the back of the plane, and before we’ve even taken our seats, the air stewardess asks if we are travelling together. She explains that the flight is not full, and offers David to move to a spare seat in an empty row. Yay!

The flight is OK, and I am very glad of the extra space, as there is very little legroom. At some stage during the flight, my knees, back, sacroiliac joint, shoulders, neck and wrists all hurt, so I take a double dose of painkillers. And as a result, I thankfully sleep the rest of the way.

Ulaanbaatar Airport

The wheelchair porter takes us through the Diplomates and Crew lane at passport control, which means we whizz through in no time. At the luggage carousel, however, life has definitely moved into the slow lane. It doesn’t help that our bags are amongst the very last to arrive.

Ulaanbaatar

We meet with Mr Turo, the driver who will take us into the city centre and our hotel. As soon as we step outside the terminal building, we are met with a pea-soup-thick fog. Mr Turo explains that he will take the ‘country route’, which at 81 km is further than the usual road through the town (50km), but is usually way quicker, easily cutting half an hour from the journey time (which would be two hours or more if taking the slower route). The landscape is barren, with not much to see but a few gers (yurts), horses and a train, even after the fog clears as we near the city.

The first thing we notice is the cars: it seems every third vehicle on the roads is a Toyota Prius!

They are mostly right-hand-drive cars imported from Japan, but we do see some left-hand-drive ones too.

Many of the Priuses (is that the plural of Prius?) have been modified with a raised suspension to allow for some of the very uneven tracks outside the main cities.

Best Western Premier Tuushin Hotel

Turo tries to drop us off at the raised entrance to the hotel, but it is blocked by a large vehicle unloading, meaning we have to get out and walk up the ramp. A porter with a trolley is summoned for our luggage, and we go to check-in. We hand over our passports, and after much tapping of keys on the computer and discussions with a colleague, the receptionist admits that she can’t find out reservation. I dig out the confirmation I received from Undiscovered Destinations (the British company we booked with), and finally, she is able to locate our booking… under Grete David. Doh.

Having checked us in, the receptionist explains that the room is not ready until 14:00 as per their check-in times. I argue that we have pre-booked an early check-in and show her the paperwork. More discussions with colleagues, several phone calls, more tap-it-ee-tap on the keyboard, followed by even more discussions. Eventually, she comes back to us and says that the only available room is a suite, for which they will charge us half the daily rate, which at the current exchange rate is approximately US$97. As we’ve been travelling for a day and a half to get here, and it is now only 09:30, we would desperately like a room, and don’t care how much it costs at this stage.

The room is super, with a separate sitting area, bedroom, and of course a bathroom. What I don’t understand, however, is the idea of having a window between the bathroom and bedroom – who wants their roommate watching them on the toilet?

The living area

Bedroom

View of the bathroom from the bedroom

View of the bedroom from the bathroom

The room offers great views over Ulaanbaatar.

After a much-needed sleep and a refreshing shower, we re-pack our bags for the journey around Mongolia, followed by a pre-dinner drink from our Duty-Free purchase.

We head for the Steak House on the third floor, only to find it is not open in the evenings, only for breakfast. Instead, we are directed to the 25th Floor Executive Lounge.

Dinner

David tries out the local beer while I have a couple of glasses of Pinot Grigio

We both order a local dish called Khuushuur - fried pasties with beef and cheese. This plate is for just one person - we should have shared one plate as neither of us can finish them all. The pasties are fluffy and not at all dry, and filled with tasty minced beef. We also share some chips that come with three different dips: chilli, a mayo mix, and ketchup.

Grabbing some Coke Zero cans to take away, we return to our private lounge for some Duty-Free rum and coke, followed by a ‘drop’ of Tia Maria. As the room offers no small glasses, we improvise and use the espresso cups instead.

Goodnight from Mongolia, our 149th country. Thank you to Undiscovered Destinations for arranging this private and bespoke trip.