Photography

There a few photography outlets in UB although they’re a little thin on the ground as far as range and quality are concerned. The MCS plaza building, located on Seoul Street, is now stocking a few Canon products although digital SLR’s are hard to come by, alot of the compact cameras available are over priced and a little grey as well.

Mon Nip is perhaps the best place to find new or replacement gear and if they don’t have it they can find it for you. Mon nip is located on Peace Avenue approximately 3 block west of the department store.

The state department store stocks some DSLR cameras but these are mainly Pentax who don’t even make camera’s anymore, and again range and quality are let down and are generally over priced. There’s talk of Mac opening a store in UB this summer, which remains to be seen so keep your eyes open for that. although I suspect like any of the other more exotic technology available in Mongolia, it might be a little pricey.

Computer land, again on Peace avenue, on the opposite side of the road from Mon Nip is worth checking out, the store consists of three floors of stall selling PC’s Laptops, camera’s and other multi – media equipment and spares. A few of the stores also offer repair services for computers and mobile phones if your feeling brave.

Most people don’t mind having their pictures taken, although be sure to ask first, don’t take your camera to Naran Tuul, it WILL get nicked. Alot of Mongolians are pretty ashamed of the state that Ulanbaatar is in and so think that anyone foreigner taking pictures might be a press photographer writing bad things about their country, be prepared to take the rough with the smooth, it’s only the same as any other country.