Ulaanbaatar

12th June 2014          0km
Ulaanbaatar

The morning was spent at the Kazakhstan embassy, applying for the Kazakh visa.  I had overlooked that the embassy might want copies of both my bike registration and IDP.  While I had my Australian drivers license, they insisted that the IDP was needed.  Fortunately the girl in the consular section agreed that I could send her a scanned copy of both documents later in the day, so after filling in the forms and having her check over them, I returned to the hotel to email the extra documents across.  Now wait a few days for the call back from the embassy, hopefully confirming the passport is ready to pick-up with visa inside.

So with that administrative task completed, I took a walk around town for a few hours, and when I walked past a hair salon called “Welcome to Australia 2015” I decided I should go in and check it out. Since I was there, and a haircut was overdue, I decided I’d try and get a trim.  No one spoke English, despite all the walls being adorned with Australian flags, photos of the AU Olympic team, koalas, Opera House, etc.  Given the language barrier, I made the universal sign language for scissors with my fingers, indicating that I would like my hair cut.   A nod was received in reply and I was guided to a chair.  I spent the next two hours in the salon, not a word said, while my hair was washed, cut, washed again, scalp massaged for 30 mins, then some weird machine was connected to my head for 20 minutes, I’m not sure what it did but I went along with what the staff suggested.  Then my hair was cut again, washed again, then beard and eyebrows trimmed, before I was told “Finished” and was guided back to the counter to pay.    All that treatment for 35,000 Tughrik (about $23) and not too shabby a haircut, given I never told the guy what I wanted.

I walked back to the hotel, stopping for a 1.5hr massage to ease the sore off-road punished muscles.

Back at the hotel, I did a little more administrative work, completing an application for a letter of invitation for a visa to Iran.  Iran being one of the slightly more complex visa applications required, and taking significantly longer than most visas to obtain, I’m hopeful that using the services of an agent in Iran will ease the process.