Moving to Mongolia: what do I need to do? What do I need to know?

October 8, 2018 11:29 AM

So it looks like I'm about to take a job in Mongolia teaching english for a year, starting in November. While I'm looking through all the travel websites about the country, most of them seem to be focused on visiting not LIVING there. So what should I know about: banking, phones, customs, food shopping, internet blocking, stuff that's legal here but illegal there and vice versa, things I should be immunized for, etc. What are the known unknowns of life up there for an American?
posted by rileyray3000 to Travel & Transportation around Mongolia (7 answers total)

Here's a link to the Peace Corps page for Mongolia, it might be helpful. And here is one for US Foreign Service Officers. A quick scan of it shows that it lists the shots you'll need.

I hope someone who is there or has been there recently will come in to give you more info.
posted by mareli at 12:29 PM on October 8, 2018

I kinda had to recommend it because it's kind of a cesspool and I think their activity levels are minimal these days , but the Dave's ESL Cafe Asia forum has some Mongolia-related content from the last couple of years that might be relevant.
posted by wintersweet at 1:37 PM on October 8, 2018

I've never been to Mongolia, but I've managed teams of people who worked there on mid and long-term gigs. I'll put it this way - Mongolia strikes me as the Sahel of Asia. By Sahel, I mean those remote, huge, largely super un-developed countries in northern-sub-Saharan Africa that are not changing any time in the near future. I have been in Nepal, China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, which I imagine are some of harder countries in Asia (if you went in respective order that I mention them - easiest to hardest, I'd guess Mongolia would be second-to-last).

I've spent more years in the Sahel than I care to elaborate on, and here's my take: bad infrastructure, even in the capital cities (UB in your case). Dirt everywhere. Expect electricity to not always be super reliable. Same can go for tap water, which you probably shouldn't ever drink in any case. Super limited choice in restaurants and food types. Maybe one shop in the capital city that imports and sells anything with a hint of the West in it (and even then it's probably European).

Medical care is not something to go unprepared to deal with. You will - if you can afford it - want to have traveling / live abroad health insurance that includes medical evacuation, at least to somewhere like Korea or Malaysia. Security sounded less Sahel-drastic in UB than where I've been, but YMMV depending on current climate, etc..

Everything will be much more expensive than you anticipated. My organization offered huge Cost of Living stipends that didn't nearly cover what I was shelling out. You need to learn how to manage your money well - banking, exchange rates, taxes, etc. - everyone's going to take their cut. Make sure you'll be making enough to actually live there, unless you are getting sponsored somehow.

I don't think UB gets very hot, or the horrible humidity of the Sahel, but winters are brutal there. You'll want to prepare accordingly.

I didn't get the impression that there were nearly the restrictions on internet content that China has, but you can buy one of the various VPNs to get around stuff pretty easy if you need to. This should help get you started with local laws / customs. I'd add to make a color photocopy of your passport and carry that with you (not your passport, which can be held hostage for ransom by the police) at all times. Keep your passport and other important info locked safely away somewhere.

I hope that begins to help. I don't mean to be discouraging, but you are considering going to one of the "harder" places in Asia. If this is your first sojourn overseas, you might want to pick somewhere a bit softer to land and see how you handle it before going to the extreme. My story gave me this option and it was a lot easier to handle it in steps, I don't think I would have lasted all the years I did had I dove right into the really hard places.
posted by allkindsoftime at 4:14 PM on October 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

It tends to be focused on USG employees and FSOs, but Talesmag is a great resource for country-specific expat info.
posted by photo guy at 5:33 PM on October 8, 2018

Will you be located in Ulaanbaatar or somewhere more rural? Because there is a world of difference. If in UB, the air pollution in winter is dreadful and way more difficult to deal with than the -30C weather. I don't have any living tips per se but one thing that surprised me when I went to UB for work was that the Russian influence was a lot more pronounced than I expected in terms of food, language, and culture. I got along well with my Mongolian colleagues, and the countryside is stunning. But the pollution and housing in UB is the big downside. There are a fair amount of expats in UB so maybe hunt around for an "Americans in Mongolia" (or similar) Facebook group as a resource for your practical questions. Good luck! If you get totally stuck send me a memail and I'll put you in touch with my cousin who lived in UB for a couple of years. There's a lot of money in the country from the mining industry and the health system is decent (I worked with the Ministry of Health in UB) so I don't think the Sahel comparison above is very accurate.
posted by emd3737 at 1:00 PM on October 9, 2018

As a US citizen living abroad, my number one must-do step for you is sign up for STEP, the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program!
You’ll get alerts about your destination country, and when you move there your embassy will also know where you are in an emergency! After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, my being registered meant I got communiques about special buses for people who wanted to go back home, and advisories on the radiation situation. Even now I get the odd mail about a particularly bad typhoon going through.
Super useful, highly recommended.
posted by sacchan at 12:36 AM on October 10, 2018

I just visited Ulaanbaatar for work - my work puts people into about 30 developing countries and I wouldn't rate UB as one of the hardest at all based on my visit (but cannot comment on being outside UB). By all accounts, the winter pollution is terrible (we issue masks) but it is seasonal - it wasn't a problem when I was there.

UB has a feel of Russia or Eastern Europe. The people we put there have quite nice apartments for around $400-500/month - my colleague there described them as 'better than Australian apartments', which is to say that I think there are new apartments of pretty good quality. Nobody I spoke to complained about internet (unlike almost everywhere else I visit for work). There is a bit of pickpocketing going on. Can't say what opening a bank account might be like, but credit cards were accepted at many places and there were heaps of banks and ATMs around.

There was plenty of decent coffee, some craft beers, lots of variety in restaurants (and contrary to what you might hear, plenty of vegetarian options), great cashmere clothing. Lots of Russian groceries available, colleagues said that they do tend to buy up in quantity if they find something they like before it disappears, but there seemed decent variety at the small supermarket I visited.
posted by AnnaRat at 6:43 PM on October 18, 2018