Mongolia – in and out of the State Department Store or Fountain Pens

Market and State Department Store

The State Department Store in Ulaanbaatar lies within the 1 km radius around Sükhbaatar / Chinggis Square and I went there on my last day just to have had a look at this store. Mighty fine department store! On the uppermost story they had a large show on school utensils as school was going to start soon again.

They may sparkle in sunlight, but the points are dull

I looked at ballpoint pens, rollerball [1] pens, gel pens, marker pens, stylus pens, felt pens, lead pencils, crayons and … no fountain pens. I was looking for a fountain pen. I had been searching in Cologne, but you won't get a simple pen, you may buy a high end fountain pen, which is useless unless you are CEO and want to impress when you sign a contract, or you find fountain pens for pupils, which are ergonomically adapted to the young writer's hand. I had bought fountain pens, which suit me well, before while travelling through China, though people use fountain pens less frequently nowadays due to the use of electronic devices and people loose their ability of actively writing Chinese characters [2]. So I was looking for a fountain pen in the State Department Store in Ulaanbaatar and didn't find one!

 

Poor Mongolian kids! Maybe they could sing along with Adele:
"We've could have had it all"

I had entered the department store by a side entrance, but was leaving via the front entrance. Across Peace Avenue you find another avenue with a broad middle portion where there was some kind of market. The market featured the same topic as the uppermost story in the department store: equipping school kids, from school uniforms to bag, caps and of course stationery. I went through all of the pens. And then luck struck! I was able to buy three fountain pens. The whole stock of the market! I admit I acted totally without scruples.

It isn't the "Ork Empire"!

Links and Annotations:
[1] Just a short deviation from the tracks: James Caan in „Rollerball“.
[2] https://www.facebook.com/asianboss/videos/1791405304228612
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYEDA3JcQqw

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