A Morning Walk on Snow

A beautiful morning walk to remember.

A weekend morning walk on snow made me feel very good today. I had fixed the alarm of my mobile on 8am to get me up. With the first alarm, unintentionally my hand pressed the ‘stop’ and I pulled the blanket on my face. Talking in my mind, “just 10 more minutes in bed, then out!” When I opened eyes again and checked the time, already one hour had passed. And its when I don’t believe most of the times, how did it go so fast? Its just five minutes that the 8am alarm rang! I have many such stories about getting up in the morning after late-night sleeps. Anyhow, when I pulled the curtain off my window, whitened roofs and roads flashed my eyes like a camera-click. All around was covered with beautiful white scenery. Then I thought to have a walk outside.

Its already ‘harsh cold’ here in UB. Though we already had our first winter snow a couple of weeks ago, but it whitened the surface just for some hours. From yesterday, I can say its the first full-fledge snowfall of this winter. And the other day I noticed smog in air is now getting thick and more polluted, as every winter in Ulaanbaatar. Any day when its snowing, the smog disappears sometimes, like today. Winter is dry and very harsh in Mongolia. But the good thing about a snowy day is that, its not windy and the cold is not very harsh.

The sky was overcast when I came out of the building. While walking on sideways, it was slippery and I was trying to avoid the traces of foots and walk on the soft and fluffy untouched surface beside bushes making a trace of my big winter-boots. Looking down ahead my steps, it felt like walking on a flat long ball of blossomed cotton ready for harvest. I had an extremely exciting feel of the crunch sound on fluffy snow with the crush of my each step. I always like this crunchy feel, but it also avoids my feet from slipping. It was like stepping on a fluffy ice-cream without a fear of slippery. A black puppy was having great fun, while running slowly making beautiful small round traces on the sideways. It was sniffing and I could clearly see the fog-like air coming out its nostrils. I was walking between the lines of small trees. Little snow on its branches looked like carefully put by someone. The footpath between tree lines in the middle of road beside Chinese Embassy was empty. I tried to step faster to keep in pace with the running puppy on the footpath, but soon it went off my eyes. The pine trees covered white with snow gave a beautiful look of Christmas coming. My hands tightly in pockets, I was thinking wish I could take such a walk every morning after a fight with my cell-phone alarm and the reluctance to get out of a warm bed.

Below are two shots of snow in UB, by my friend Soyolbolod.

View on the hill near Bogd Mountain.

The North Koreans in UB

The North Korean hospital in UB.

For readers from Afghanistan and Pakistan, it might be curious why I would update a post about any North Korean in Mongolia, but it is interesting to people from West.  North Korea is an isolated totalitarian country having no connection with rest of the world other than some countries. Mongolia is one of the some countries having diplomatic relations with North Korea. Generally many nations or parts of the world can be unknown to you, but what makes it different about North Korea is that you can’t make a visit there unless you are a citizen of some countries with diplomatic relations.

Since the communist era, Mongolia has had ‘good relations’ with North Korea, as well as very good with South Korea since the democratic revolution. There are North Korean students in our university, a restaurant in the city. I didn’t know there was a hospital too, until recently when I had to go there. There was slight numbness in my index finger of left hand. I went to the South Korean hospital for acupuncture. The hand therapy didn’t work for two days. Then my Korean friend suggested the North Korean hospital, which she said was very famous for acupuncture. This hospital is in the 34 District, a kilometre ahead of the Urgoo Cinema.

Their way of treatment was different from the South Korean and Chinese one. The doctor was a kind person. He spent more than 40 minutes checking my hand, while other patients waiting. The way they inserted needles in my arm was different than that of the South Korean. However, what impressed me was the attitude and service of the North Korean doctor. Never met one before, I had a feeling of how would a North Korean be?

It is also because the North Korean students living in our dormitory are very isolated. They less interact with students from other countries. Actually living together in the same building for more than a year now, I have seen them just once! I hear from South Korean students that they are told not to talk to other people and just have their business of study. And this experience had made me more curious about the North Korean hospital. The doctor was kind enough to ask me about how hard is it to live in the minus 40 C of Mongolia coming from a hot country like Afghanistan.

The doctor asked me to come the next day. When we asked about the fee, he said ‘Its Free!” Hm… that’s the good thing about communism, isn’t it? Kidding, of course people with experience of living in a communist system always curse it. But there was something very interesting about the hospital. Firstly, the structure of the building is like any intelligence-underground centre, with complex rooms and ways. Also, there was two portrait photos on the wall of main office of the hospital. One I could easily recognize was Kim Jong il, and the other don’t know.

I have also been to the North Korean restaurant right next to the Cultural Palace near Parliament House. The waitresses there are very cute and of course they have good menu and cuisine, but the television there sucks. It has that old-looking background with communist programs showing Kim Jong il-stuff.

Last week i was watching interview of Robert Part, the Korean-American missionary who was detained in North Korea a couple of months ago. I was shocked to hear that he was tortured sexually. Before the interview, BBC anchor informed the viewers about emotional content of the interview. I thought sexual torture might have been some punishment or rape, but it was really distressing to hear Robert Park saying ”i will not be able to have a sexual relationship with any girl any more”.

Thanks to someone, his interview with BBC is on Youtube.

This is a crime much worst than extreme torture. Being from Afghanistan I have stories of Taliban beheading people, but what has happened to Robert Park is even scarier than that. This is a lifetime torture that deeply gives pain in every second of your life and being. What is more shameful is the silence of world on this brutality.

So now before I conclude this post, let me tell why I had that damn numbness in my finger? It was because i use computer for more than 8 hours a day!, mostly surfing and writing. While doing this, i keep my arms on the desk, which brought this damn numbness to my finger. The acupuncture did bring some better feeling, but not cured yet. And its understandable as the doctor said it will take long to get completely cured.