if you like chess-there is a intellectual museum in Ulaanbaatar and there is the worlds biggest chess table with pieces and thousands of chess boards and pieces from around the world. Fantastic!!!

I really liked Ulaanbaatat, but am not sure why. It feels more like an eastern European city than an east Asian one. It's pretty run down in places too, but its got quite a nice 'small town' feel. I was there during the Naddam festival in 2006 which was simply spectacular. Definitely recommended.

I love the food (buuz rules!) and the people are great, but the mobs of little street kids who mob any white person around the central department store are tiresome! Apparently there were incidents where they even kidnap Mongolian women to be pseudo-mothers. They live underground around the hot water pipes for the city, and just mobbed me even inside the store itself until I just pushed my way through the scrum of 3 foot tall kids grabbing at me (holding my wallet the entire time obviously!!). Then again, it was February, it was -40 I went there to go trekking, so probably I was the only foreigner they had seen for months ;)

There is a totally charming children's playground here.. or at least there was in 1988. check out the dragon slide. also the natural history museum has pretty neat dinosaur reconstructions.

Good restaurant on central square! Boeddhistic monastery is worth visiting!

What a cool place to visit. You have to see the Winter Palace.

Go out to the country and stay in a ger camp.

When traveling in UB, us common sense. Don't go out alone after dark. Keep drinking to a minimum if in small groups. When you do go out, go in groups as pickpockets and aggressive robbers target single people and the obnoxiously drunk

The people are generally very friendly and a lot of younger people speak at least a little English. Nightlife is quite fun, although slightly random, but beware drunken Mongolian men as they can be a little over-emotional... generally I would say cross the street, but don't panic! Best advice I would give is use it as a base and get out of the city on some trips into the country!

Very interesting in a weird way, though I didn't expect to see Audrey Hepburn billboards advertising watches. Temples and communist buildings abound, along with a huge square. Friendly locals, I ate at a French restaurant whose name I can't remember but it was great. Certainly worth a peek, though it will wear thin after a couple of days.