My father, who was not Mongolian, was a Professor of Mongolian and Tibetan languages and literature here in California. We lived all over the world, from Turkey to Sweden and Costa Rica when I was a child; however, our home base was always in California. When he flew to Ulaanbaatar to receive a special award, I think he flew a Chinese airline for that flight in the late 1960s or early 1970s (?), he loved to tell the story of that flight. I was a young child, but I remember him telling me that people put live chickens in the overhead bins during the flight and one person brought a sheep on the flight! How cool is that? I love Mongolian people and the culture. In fact, my godfather, Unensechen, was Mongolian, and my middle name is a Mongolian name. My father has passed away, and I miss my daddy a lot.
Randomly getting taken to the secure area of the airport for no apparent reason and then just being allowed to leave like that with no action taken was very odd.
Happened to me every time I flew into Newark from Europe; became tiresome after a few years, so eventually spoke to an agent that I had become familiar with. She confided in me, with a warning that she would hunt me down if I let it be known that it was herself that had told me this*, that I had a very similar name to an Irish gangster that they would like to have words with, and that I was always flagged inbound to EWR, and delayed until it could be confirmed that I was not said gangster. The gangster was shot dead in Dublin, and since then I've not been delayed when transiting EWR. (*she said this half-jesting, but tbh, I wouldn't want to put it to the test).
Legend has it that Genghis Khan flew Air Mongolia when he visited Birmingham in 1235, but on the return journey to Ulan Bataar , he flew Air Lufthansa due to the loo review
He was a very angry man, so I would think he flew RyanAir. I think he died in the late 1220s, so must've been the ghost of Genghis Khan. Either or, doesn't really matter. Very angry, he was.
MIAT looked like an splendid airline. Nothing like I would have imagined. The airport looked very nice as well. The things I learn watching your RU-vid channel!
Ulaanbaatar has a population of around 1.4 million and is the coldest capital city in the world. It is home to roughly half of the country's population.
Correct: the coldest capital in the world. And if you happen to stroll into a bar or club: some of the hottest women in the world. Be advised, looking only! Mongolian men tend to drink alot and then think all the women are their girlfriend. So if you chat one up, they will take it that you are trying to steal their woman. And react accordingly. Even if she don't know that guy. Still, a sight for sore eyes.
Good to see you supporting Mongolia's fishing industry Noel. Prawns on the first flight, fish on the second. I may never fly on MIAT but it was nice to see you pleasantly surprised.
@@peterfreeman9369 It has many lakes, infact there is a region called "The great lakes" region which has over 300+ lakes and has a large variety of fish
@@joshmcgregor4839 Interesting point, thanks Josh. We unexpectedly had fish in northern India about 1000 km from the sea. It was river or lake fish but it was very good.
@@rais1953 I know, I had a similar experience in Siberia when I visited Olkhon island. It was caught locally in lake Baikal, very delicious fish. I'm actually quite interested to know what type of fish are in the lakes in Mongolia.
Same flight from FRA to UBN but wildly different experiences 😂 if you are up to it, you should give Economy a go. But I will agree, the cabin crew was fantastic- even dealing with a medical emergency on my flight. Thanks for the review Noel!
Having delivered and trained crews in UB, out of Chingas Hahn airport, on the first B737-800 for MIAT (MEE-YOTT), I spent a lot of time with their government safety personnel. Great experience and great people; albeit cold into the fall. The old airport was one way in and one way out due to a small mountain directly off the departure end of runway 14. The predominant wind was from the west so delay was often encountered. The 738 had a 15-knot tailwind supplement so that helped.
I'm a new subscriber binge watching your videos since I found your channel a week ago. You're definitely one of the best flight reviewers on RU-vid and I really enjoy your honest down to earth style. Keep up the good work and greetings from Miami
I visited Mongolia in 2008. All the yurts I visited had rugs/carpets to cover the ground. Mongolia was/is still a place with a nomadic culture. I suspect this is the reason for the special carpet check. Beautiful place, btw. It’s worth getting out onto the steppe.
@@noelphilips only one thing I would suggest is close your mouth when chewing and do not talk while chewing food. Its rude and frankly gross to watch. The rest of your videos are fantastic.
Mongolia is my favourite country I've been to so far. The geography is stunning, the people are amazing and the culture is fascinating. I took the train in from Putinia and flew Korean Air out so I didn't fly MIAT, but I did fly a private airline Hunnu Air on a domestic flight on an ATR 72 that was 13 years old going on 50. The cabin was in the worst condition of any flight I'd ever been on.
FRA was a hassle for us too, but the tomato and mozzarella sandwiches (on freshly baked bread) we had there were amazing. Remarkably good for anywhere, but an airport?!?! One of the best things I ate during my 2 weeks in Germany.
The bag check may also be random too and it may seem liked you were singled out but since there weren't many people in that part of the airport it may have made it easier for them to just pick you for the "random" check I guess.
I know a friend who works in airline, what she said is that most foreign pilots hate going to Ulaanbaatar because of the very hilly location it is one of the difficult places to land planes.
Interestingly enough, I flew this route in the end of June this year and our plane did not fly over Russia but took the route across Turkey and Kazahstan. However, I have the thought that it maybe did because of the Prigozhin coup, which happened two days before my flight. Also, my flight was operated by an aircraft from "Omni Air International" with a rather old Boeing 767. I actually used this route to get into Russia, as my final destination was Ulan-Ude, Buryatia, which is roughly about one flight hour from Ulaanbaatar. On the flight back in the end of July I flew with the same Boeing 767 as you, operated by MIAT. Sitting in economy, I, however, had to deal with very tight leg room(my knees were literally touching the other seat) and a cold air conditioneer. It was not the best experience, still for me it was fine as I slept during most of the flight and it was the nearly the only option to get to my destination without having to stay overnight in Moscow or Novosibirsk. Actually, this route was not even that much longer the the route I took before the war, namely Düsseldorf/Frankfurt-Moscow-Ulan-Ude, which is kind of surprising, considering the increased time you have to spend to go to Moscow or any other city in Russia. Despite all this, I highly doubt that I will be taking this route again, with the possibility of having to serve military duty there increasing and restrictions tightening.
Great video. I love being able to see places and airlines that I never will be able to visit or fly through your videos. Wow didn't even realize it was a 40 minute video, time flew watching it.
Speaking of flying over Russia: I had a flight to China from US flying over Russia that had to be diverted over N. Korea due to a volcano spewing dust in our flight path. We circled and circled waiting to get clearance to fly over N. Korea (as an American was on board).
The problem is you didn't follow Capt Borat's instructions to have a safe, enjoyable flight. If your chickens are not in the stowed baggage, they MUST be in the overhead compartment. NO EXCEPTIONS!
Airports give me anxiety overall.. I'm still a reasonably new flyer and of course my connecting airport is a HUGE one.. I'm always nervous trying to find my gate in the large airport. I can't imagine flying internationally.. Thats a whole new level of anxiety. 😬🤯😂
You can go on-line & look up a map of an airport. You could look at that to get familiar with where you have to go. Maybe even print it out so when you find out what gate you will arrive in you can see where you need to go for your next flight. Preperation & research will go a long way in lowering anxiety.
@noelphilips I wonder if the carpet is for prayers? I remember a man asking if it was alright to pray on the side of a building I worked at, and he brought his own personal-size carpet to kneel on.
Frankfurt airport is terrible when you have to make a connection. Security takes forever and the running between terminals can be a challenge if time is tight.
I used to love flying but airport experience a horrible and exhausting. Now I only fly if I really have to. If I flew to Mongolia I would like to stop off and meet some people. I understand Mongolians are really lovely people. Met a few Mongolians in my country and they are really nice.
Put it this way, at least they picked up a potential issue two hours before departure rather than minutes prior and they didn't nick whatever was inside for "security purposes".
After watching more of this video, Noel comments the taxi drivers are good saying walk to your hotel, just maybe the reason for wanting this reply Is that they would rather take a long-distance passenger NOW that the plane has disembarked. When the wheels are turning the taxis earn eh.
I would be so stressed by your check-in experience, that I'd be just one look away from a meltdown. I'd have got my things from the desk and would have gone home.
I would actually fly in the day before for a connecting flight makes it less stressful yes a bit more expensive to get accommodation but it's worth it.
Was that the Embraer 190 from BHX to Frankfurt Flughafen? I've taken that a few times. If you're ever on a stop over in Frankfurt, there's a lovely steak House not far from the airport 👌🏻 Corner steakhouse, Kelsterbacher Str. 1, 65479 Raunheim, Germany. Its just up the road from the Holiday Inn express 🤞🏻
Hmmm when you said "e-visa" I was like, wait a minute.... South Korea is visa exempt, did Brexit caused you need Visa? But then upon further check, it is obviously not a visa, but an ESTA/ETIAS/etc. like pre-authorization. South Korea is still visa free in general for western countries.
Long waits and extended queues at check-ins and at security checks at FRA airport became just common, and this is not Mongolian Airlines who is to blame. These are all COVID-19 consequences, because first the authorities in various countries prohibited people from flying and then, after all the airport staff was dismissed and had disappeared, now there is an overall lack of staff. But German airports suffer from that very hardly.
I remember flew MIAT from Beijing - Ulaanbataar - Beijing back in 2019, I almost miss my flight because there is a loooong check point & imigration queue in PEK.
Check-in process is always a nightmare with MIAT as it always takes about an hour just to check in at Tokyo. Seems like they just don't deploy enough people and are inefficient.
There are funny abbreviation explanation for all airlines. MIAT stands for Maybe I Arrive Today. ALITALIA - Always Late In Takeoff Always Late In Arrival, Lufthansa stands for Lazy, Unable for ???help(forgot the word for letter T, Absolutely No Service Available. Etc. forgot others. 😂
Yeah, I am kind of done drinking in the lounge or on flights. It keeps me up if I want to sleep on flights. Only flights I will drink are evening flights going west that aren't overnight. Discovered this when BA were flying the A350 over to TLV in Jan 2020 😬. I was in Club suites and could not sleep a jot on an overnight flight. I think I have Covid on that flight. It was a cold to me.
