Last Friday was a totally pathetic student activity day.
Generally student activity days consist of me (an antisocial, awkward person) trying to organize something for 10 - 20 adults to do. I find the days exhausting, though they've been getting much better and attendance has picked up.
For last Friday's activity day, someone suggested we go to a museum. Up until now all the activities have been inside the school: movies, cooking / eating pizza, playing cards, sitting around and chatting etc. I put it to a vote and most people who could come were very much in favor of it.
So.
On Friday I hurriedly flipped through my Mongolian language book, wrote down the words for "natural history museum" and "Chinese embassy" (embassy for getting a visa for my upcoming trip), then headed out the door to grab a taxi.
I got to the museum about 10 minutes early and sat down to wait. After about 20 minutes, one of the students came through the entrance and patiently explained to me that I'd gone to the wrong museum.
Oh the joys of a language barrier.
We went to the correct museum. He then explained that he was, in fact, the only person who had decided to show up that day out of the 15 or so people who had said they wanted to. This was ok though, because he and I are buds (so to speak). We bought tickets.
The sign above the ticket window was in Mongolian and English. I read it, and paused at an interesting entry.
Picture cameras: T5,000
Video cameras: T10,000
I checked the Mongolian section of the sign to make sure it said the same thing. It did, but if you think about it the fee is still pretty much just a tax on tourists. Who takes pictures in a museum that's 10 minutes away from their house?
I fingered the camera in my pocket, thought of all the amazing fossils that had been unearthed in the Gobi Desert, and decided to pay the fee.
My friend and I started making our way through the museum, looking at all the preserved specimens. Though the mounted taimen (Mongolian fish that can exceed 5 feet in length) were interesting, on the whole I didn't think the thing was worth the $7.50 I had paid.
And so we went, chatting and occasionally taking pictures. Finally we found our way to the dinosaur exhibit. It was, how shall I say this? Abysmal. I'm not sure who's fault it was, but it was abysmal. Considering the fact that many of the world's greatest fossils (including the first dinosaur eggs) were found in Mongolia, the exhibit was just awful.
It consisted of one room with a large skeleton in the center. Large skeletons are all well and good, but there are supposed to be lots of interesting things in other places. There really weren't, and some of the things that WERE there weren't even from Mongolia. Still, I snapped a few pictures, glad that for once things weren't in dark rooms behind glass (which is why there is so much glare in the photo I posted).
There were three women in the corner of the room drinking tea. When I began taking pictures they asked me if I had paid to take pictures. I took out my two tickets, one for entry and one for taking pictures in the museum. The women started yammering away at the student who was with me. He had been of the opinion that I shouldn't have paid $5 to take pictures in the first place, and when he translated his voice was dripping with disgust.
"They said you need pay five thousand again, because this.... dinosaurs".
I looked at the fossils. True, they were the remains of dinosaurs. Careful inspection did not, however, show the logic in the statement "Dinosaurs = pay us more money". I tried glaring at the women. This was ineffective, as the women were quite practiced in the art of glaring. They continued badgering my friend. Finally I held up the camera as I methodically deleted the photos. I then walked out the door, half wishing they would continue to hassle me so that I could get truly mad at them.
They didn't, preferring instead to return to their tea.
The student (who works with computers) came up behind me. "I can get deleted pictures back!" he said with an obvious sense of pride. "No, it's ok" I told him. "It really was a pathetic exhibit".
We went down to the front entrance, where we found another person who claimed she had waited for "an hour", though that was technically impossible.
We all decided to go to the Cultural History Museum, which was quite interesting, informative, and well lit. It was great.
Unfortunately they too charge for pictures, so I don't have any. Instead, here's someone else's picture from the hall of national costumes (for each tribe / ethnic group). Chances are that when they took it an old man walked up to them and demanded $5. Honestly, why don't they say on the signs that the charge is per picture? My guess is that it isn't supposed to be.
I'll talk more about the upcoming trip to China when there's more to say. 'Till then!
No comments:
Post a Comment