no gluttony

One morning, I went looking for the city art gallery. My guide book, published this year, was apparently outdated already on this piece of information, and no passers-by had a clue. So I opted for the Mongolian Union of Artists, where they were holding a photography exhibition publicized all over town and in the English-language Mongolian newspapers. It was a second-floor room in a run-down building, with graffiti outside. Some urban youth culture, a good sign?

I expected the vanguard of modern Mongolian photography…To my amusement, the exhibition happened to be all about China, topics ranging from rural life to urban development, and the photography was conducted by mostly Chinese photographers. The only local art wasn’t inside – it was from a street artist waiting to sell his works outside the building.

I’d spent only £2 again on a good lunch at a café. I tried to keep this principle in mind: The cheapness in food should never mean gluttony! I have trained myself to be a constrained eater during the entire journey, intentionally trying not to over-eat.

This was because of my experience of seeking medical help when I caught a bug the last time in Ulaanbaatar. I was in such pain that a doctor was called to visit me in the guesthouse. She wasn’t sure whether it was my stomach or appendix that was the problem. So I was asked to go to the city hospital, twice, for a blood test. Then the doctor told me I must stay in Ulaanbaatar for an operation to remove the appendix. Hell, I thought, I would have to miss my train, which would mean waiting for another week for the next train, which would also mean I’ll miss the train from Beijing to Shanghai which would then mean I’ll miss the bloody ferry from Shanghai to Kobe, Japan, which would eventually mean I’ll miss the damn ferry from Osaka to Okinawa, which would tragically mean I’ll miss the final ferry from Okinawa to the Keelung port of Taiwan.

Luckily, another doctor got suspicious of the first diagnosis and gave me another test. He told me in the end that I just had a bad stomach infection and all I needed were some painkillers and a little break from the delicious Korean food that I was indulging myself in. That was an experience that put me off eating madly (or as the Chinese would say, bao yin bao shi, i.e., eating violently).