The Hi-Fi Music Store

I love this music store.  It's on Seoul Street.  Remember the post in which I talked about finding Time and Newsweek in English and then said that I thought the Mongolian porn was much more interesting and bought some for my brother as a Christmas gift?  Well, this is the same store.  Only, every time I've gone back, they haven't had any more Time or Newsweek in English.  Too bad.  But I still really like this store for some reason.  One day, as I was walking down Seoul Street, I heard Arcade Fire blasting down the street.  What do you suppose was the source of this musical delight?  You guessed it!  Hi-Fi Music Store!  I'm in love.

The Buskers

They may not look like much to you, but they are two of the most amazing buskers I have ever seen in my life.  And I saw them in Naran Tull (Ulaanbaatar's black market), of all places!  Most of the time, I'm able to walk right past a busker, but these two stopped me in my tracks.  And held my attention.  Their singing was mesmerizing.  And it was all a capella.  I don't know much about singing, or about music in general, but I thing what they were doing was throat singing.  Whatever it was, it was truly beautiful.  They deserved so much more than the 200 Tugrug (less than 20cents) which I put in their box, but I have myself on a strict budget these days.

A Moron Whore

I developed a crush on Mongolia's national traditional instrument before I even knew what it looked like.  My older brother is a musician (did a two year jazz programme at a community college in Edmonton and got a degree in classical music from McGill), so I've got a little think about buying him cool, traditional instruments if I ever find something really unique in one of the countries I'm visiting.  He plays the double bass (contrabass, stand-up bass, whatever you want to call it), so I'm always on the lookout for interesting string instruments.  Naturally, when I read about the morin khuur, pronounced roughly like "moron whore" or "more in whore", but whichever way you choose to say it, you must pronounce the /h/ the way a Montrealais waitress would pronounce the /h/ on "eggs" when she asks you, "Ow do you like your hhhhhheggs?" (I'm not kidding-- I couldn't make this up!), I decided that I needed to buy one for my brother for Christmas (the porn is just an extra bonus).  So, when I arrived in UB, I went on a search for where I can buy really nice morin khuurs.  Lonely Planet (it's my bible and I have entire sections of it memorised) mentioned two stores where I could buy a morin khuur.  The first store I went to was astronomically expensive, about 200USD for their most simple, plain, unadorned morin khuur, plus an extra 200USD for a hardcase, but the man who works there sat down and started to play the morin khuur (my prospective morin khuur), and I was so taken, I nearly dropped the cash right then and there (which is amazing, because music doesn't usually move me like that).  I'm glad I didn't.  I went to the other music store LP listed, and I found that they had a much wider range of morin khuurs and, morin khuur importantly (if you think I'm punny, you should meet my dad), their morin khuurs were cheaper!  And so were their hardcases!  And I don't just mean cheaper by a bit.  Their morin khuurs are nicer, more ornate, and cheaper by quite a lot.  Also, in this music shop, I could hear someone practicing the morin khuur in one of the backrooms, so I asked the lady at the counter if they also gave lessons (good ol' LP only gives information about language, yoga, and meditation lessons, so I hadn't even considered learning how to play one of these horsey fiddles), and the lady said yes, they do.  I asked the price.  She told me it was 60,000 Tugrugs.  At first, I thought she meant 60,000 Tugrugs for one lesson.  I told her she was killing me.  Then we established that she meant 60,000 Tugrugs for eight lessons!  I told her I loved her.  I'm considering going back with my next paycheque and buying two morin khuurs, one for my bro for Christmas and one for me so I can learn how to play the damn thing, as well (out of me and my two brothers, I'm the only one who can't play an instrument).  Can't wait..