Mongolia and MIAT OM KIX-ULN-KIX

[fumitani]

I recently had to travel to Mongolia for a business trip. The only options for me was to fly Air China (required an overnight in PEK), Korean Air (Crazy arrival and departure times), or Mongolian Airlines (Price was insane, but convinent times) This was a business trip so naturally MIAT was chosen, but I didn't know what to expect in terms of service & seats & product.

On Monday, A week before my trip to Mongolia, is when I was notified to go. I had to go to the Mongolian Honorary Consulate in Osaka that morning. Visa (was going to take a week) check done, but no ticket yet (I was put on the waiting list). So three days later I cleared the waiting list four days before departure. On Monday I go pick my visa. Then finally Tuesday came around. Time to depart to KIX airport. My sister and mom was nice enough to drop me off at the airport.

More to come....Pictures of Mongolia and MIAT airlines

[milehighj]

can't wait.

[Dent@SUB]

Another rare report on another exotic airlines...
Can't wait to read it...

[fumitani]

Let me apologize first. All pictures are taken with iPhone 4. So quality is not the best.

During the summer MIAT Mongolian Airlines has seasonal nonstop flights from KIX to ULN. They fly this route on Tuesday and Friday. Our business trip was projected to last only 4 days, but since OM only flights 2 flights a week we had no choice, but to stay for a full week.

So I left my house around 9.15am because I was meeting a business partner at the airport at 10am. Of course me being a speed demon got to the airport in 45 minutes! Arrival at 10:00am our business partner was already in line. The checkin lines were insane!!!!!! He was in line since 9.45am, but the line was at least 100 people long! I asked the queue organizer if some Gold card or something will work. The answer came back as negative no mileage service no priority service unless you flew in C.

This is the checkin area at KIX airport. They were using Island A to the far left of the airport.


After finally checkin at 11.30am we were notified that our flight would be delayed by 40 minutes. ETD is 12.20pm, but changed to 1pm. After checkin I was hungry so went down to the thrid floor to have Takoyaki and Yakisoba. I wasn't sure if MIAT was going to serve food onboard, but even if they did serve food was it going to be edible? I love airplane food (my family thinks I'm crazy), but I wasn't going to starve during a 4 hour flight.

Takoyaki and Yakisoba! Let's call this breakfast


After lunch I went to take a look at the departures board.


Still 12pm and I have one hour to clear security and immigration. I went to the fourth floor and cleared security. I love security in Japan shoes never have to come off, but for some reason my belt always sets of the buzzer. After that I cleared immigration which all took less than 5 minutes.

Photo of the newly renovated KIX International Airside right after immigration.


After clearinng immigration I went to my gate area and used a lounge which was accessable with my AMEX Gold card. I just went in grabbed a drink and came out. It was crowded and I needed to do some last minute phone calls. No telephone calls allowed in the lounge.

After that i went to the departues lounge and waited for boarding to start. It was about a 20 minute wait.

Gate 2 OM506 to ULN!


Our 737-800 with winglets. First time I saw an OM plane in person.


My boarding pass. Ground Agent is ANA. I wish I got *G perks


They called boarding for business class passengers first and then economy. No rows or whatever. They checked boarding pass with passport. While on the boarding bridge.

[fumitani]

First when I entered MIAT airlines I didn't know what to expect. They greeted me with Hello in Mongolian. Of course since I don't know anything I just smiled back

First walking past the empty business class cabin



While walking to my seat I snapped a few photo's.




Once I sat in my seat then I realized this was going to be a LONG flight. Daytime flight with no PTV, no audio, no overhead screen. This flight was get on SLEEP!!!!!!! and SLEEP only flight. I otherwise didn't bring any other entertainment with me. All that needs to keep me entertained is the flight map, but none of this was to be found

First thing I see when I sit down. No PTV

[fumitani]

Followed by SQFG trademark leg shot (sorry for not crossing my legs )


My view from the wing


Picture of the boarding


Seats across from where I was sitting. Still unoccupied


Inflight magazine.


Doors closed at 1pm sharp, but after the door closed the captain came and announced that since we missed our departure slot we would have to wait for 30 minutes. UGH can't you keep us in the terminal then?

At 1.30pm we push back and the usual bye bye from Japanese tug drivers

[SQflyergirl]

Niiiiice. Miat looks a LOT better than Nepal Airlines I can tell you Great TR!

[fumitani]

Annoucements are made in Mongolian & English or Japanese depending on the purser. So translation service to some people were necessary. Flight time was expected to be 4 hours and 15 minutes. Also the flight was about 80% full. Not sure about the load in C because I was too far away.

So we finally got to the runway and took off at 1.45pm after waiting for another 10 minutes while taxiing.

After take off drink carts came around. They had beer, juice, water, coke, and sprite.


I ordered an Apple Juice and it came with peanuts.


Then 10 minutes later. Beef or Seafood. I choose Beef. Taste was terrible.


Then after lunch service, which was complete 1 hour after takeoff, There was nothing to do, but sleep. So I did my best to sleep, but instead had a hard time sleeping. MIAT crew are ultra sensative to turbulance also. Any turbulance the seat belt sign comes on. Then about 1 hour prior to landing I went to the bathroom and there was a surprise for me waiting. I had to wait about 5 minutes in line.

Am I flying MIAT?! okay I'm flying Aeroflot now


Let's say that service on MIAT is bare minimum. If you use the call button they will provide service otherwise they are at the back chatting away.

After landing in ULN airport 1.5 hours late. Here is the first picture of the maintenance facility.


Chinggis Khan Airport! Only three boarding gates, but the airport is completely desserted


Walking to immigration was less than 50 meters from the airplane door. It was right around the corner. There was 4 counters open for our flight. Waiting time was about 5 minutes. After clearing immigration this is the sign we see when walking down stairs.


Only one luggage belt.


After waiting for luggage and going outside.


While waiting for our pick up at the airport we saw this Russian Made Ambulance. Just make sure when you are in Mongolia to NOT get sick.


Coming up pictures of mongolia and the return flight

[SliverKris]

Wow! Excellent material! Looking forward for the rest of the report.

[fumitani]

From now I'm mostly going to just post pictures. If you want more details just let me know.

Our Hotel for the night Palace Hotel. It's a 4 star hotel, but in World Wide Standard terms, I'll give it maybe 2.5 or 3 star at most. The room had three beds. So it's a triple.



Beds






One of my first meals in Mongolia and we are greeted with? Of course many of the lamb dishes to come


Then the next morning bright and early. We eat breakfast and leave our hotel by 7.30am

Gotta get gas first.


Our trusty Japanese Cars Land Cruiser and Prado


Scenery around the gas station

[fumitani]

Who needs to buy a Mercedes in Mongolia? The only dealer along the road to the airport.


One of the couple power plants in ULN. They all operate with Coal. They really don't care about polution here


Mongolia safety praying. Before the start of a trip you walk around this three times, but our translators said new generation people are lazy so they just drive around it three times Also everytime we came across one of these along our long road trip our driver honked three times.


While walking around. This is only 10 minutes away from ULN airport, about 40 minutes from the city.



Most of our trip consisted of roads like this. This was the view for HOURS. No matter how many mountains we crossed or went over.




Before going on a road trip each car must have 2 sparetires and 20liters of gasoline. Luckily we never had to use any sparetires or gasoline. Gas stations can be easily 2-3 hours apart or 100-150km apart.

[fumitani]

Finally after driving (or me sitting) for 6 hours we finally arrive at a town. We only travelled half way for the day 250km. If you want free rollercoasters nonstop Mongolia offroading is the way to go. I hit my head once during the whole trip because our driver warned us to wear seatbelts. If I didn't wear my seatbelt I would have probably hit my head over 100 times .

So this is a city in middle of nowhere where we stopped for lunch.





We stopped for lunch at this place


While waiting for food we went out and asked a Russian Bus Driver to show us. Food took roughly 30 minutes!
They can fit up to 30 people in this car or van!!



Lunch of course is local food, but Lamb again. The white drink is Salt Tea, it was okay.

[fumitani]

After lunch it was time to gas up as we still had another 300km to go.
First gas station we go to had no gas. So we had to go to another one across the street.



Pictures of scenery around the gas station.



Some pictures while driving. We went through sand storms. It was interesting.






Finally around 7.30pm we arrived at our destination. We stopped by one of the local stores to buy some water and supplies and ask directions.

[fumitani]

Finally arriving at our destination tonight. This is where we stayed for the night.





Let's just say once you are in middle of nowhere and you come to Mongolia. You are forced to drink Vodka. All 7 of us were pretty drunk. We went through 3 bottles of vodka between 10 people.

The local people showed us their shoes.


I put them on and tried to walk, but let me say it's really hard! I almost fell a couple of times!



Next morning after finishing up business we head out. Let's just say we got lost and had an extra 250km worth of driving.

You see these along the way.


We did some major offroading to get to our camp for the night. It's probably somewhere Toyota might want to use to produce their Land Cruiser Commercials.



After 30 minutes of major offroading on rocks and mountains. We see our camp for the night.

[fumitani]

Our room for the night.


Pictures of the inside




We haven't showered for 36 hours so it was nice to get one. We waited 2 hours for dinner to come out. We arrived at the camp at 8pm, but we started eating dinner at 10pm! This is what was served, of course Lamb again.