2023.01.25-26. – Round 2

Going back to Mongolia!

BUD - IST

I guess I won’t give as detailed an account of our journey to Mongolia as I’ve done back in October – it’s mostly the same, really. We got up fairly early, finished packing, left the house in my mother’s care (and our car in my stepdad's), they took us to the airport on their way to drop my brother off at school. At the airport, we had the suitcases wrapped, checked them in, said goodbye to my hubby’s parents (who, again, came to see us off), and went through security check like the pros we are (really, it was so smooth we even remarked on it).

One of our suitcases, just before the polar bears joined the rest of our stuff in there.

At BUD, we took a quick look at the new HP merch in the Disney shop (well, I did, hubby has already seen it all), then spent about 20 minutes in a Plaza Premium lounge – since the Mastercard lounge is being renovated, we could go use this lounge instead and it was so much better than the Mastercard one. I didn’t eat anything though, as I knew we would have breakfast on the plane anyway.

In the lounge (in BUD)

The plane that took us to Istanbul

The flight was short and pleasant (we had breakfast (still really good), watched an episode of Sandman, and landed), and now we are chilling in iGA Lounge, our ‘usual’ spot at Istanbul Airport, until our flight in the evening to UBN. We have about 4 and a half hours altogether to spend at this airport, so we won’t even have time to get bored.

I'm not sure what these are but they are all over IST airport duty free shops and they look so good!

The tops of some mountain range peeking over the clouds (somewhere in Europe).

I hope we’ll be able to sleep on the flight to Mongolia – this time, we have neck pillows and we’ve bought exit row seats so that we’ll have plenty of leg room. Also, I am travelling in sweatpants because of my surgery wounds (since jeans are too tight and uncomfortable against the still healing incisions) and I guess that will be more comfy to sleep in as well.

A plate of delicious cakes and cookies in the lounge in Istanbul.

Washing my teeth at IST before boarding our flight to UBN - last time they were so yellow by the time we got to UB that I didn't risk not washing them again during the journey

IST – UBN

Well, we haven’t really slept this time either. It was much better concerning leg room as we were sitting in an emergency row but a drawback to emergency rows is that you cannot pull the armrests away, they are bulky and firm and steadily there in the middle – so we couldn’t hug or cuddle during the flight (well, I did my best, putting my legs on hubby’s lap over the armrest, or folding myself in half and trying to drape myself over his chest with the armrest poking into my stomach) which made it impossible for me to fall asleep. Also, my mind was really active, jumping all over the place, even though I felt very tired. I managed about an hour of sleep altogether on the plane, in 3 or 4 separate naps – and I think it was pretty similar for my husband too. Still, a better experience than last time (last time I was suffering much more).

Luckily, it wasn’t as hot or as smelly either on the plane, so that must have helped too.

So much legroom - if only the armrest could have been pushed aside or removed.

Other than that, the food was good (as usual), the view just before landing pretty neat, and – contrary to our experiences last time – we got through passport control quite quickly and easily. After reclaiming our bags, we got an eSIM at the airport for my husband and met our trusty Mongolian guide/driver who drove us back to UB. We landed at around 1.30 am (CET) which is 8.30 am Mongolian time; and got to our apartment just before 4 am (CET) which is 11 am here. So it took 21 hours altogether, from door to door, to get here. By this time we were (with under 1 hour of sleep each and 3 airports later) pretty exhausted, so we took a nice (but short) bath and had a 4-hour long nap (sleep?) before getting up for the rest of the day. Spent the early evening hours unpacking and trying to get the apartment in order – it’s pretty dusty and smelly right now, and the air is super dry, and there’s no internet, so yeah, we have some things to do.

Once again, we arrived in Mongolia just as the first rays of sunshine illuminated the waking mountains.

To celebrate that we are back (and since we had neither energy nor ingredients for making a proper meal), we ordered dinner from Namaste.

Our dinner from Namaste - yummy