A map
showing where we visited can be found by clicking
here.
Remember to come back to
see the rest
of our trip after you look around Goggle maps.
One of the
stops we wanted to
make in
Ulaanbataar was the International Intellectual Museum (aka. The IQ
Museum or The International Puzzle Museum).
Other members weren't
sure what we
had gotten them in for when it was added to our itinerary.
I had written to the son
of the
founder Tulmen-Ulzii ?? before we began the trip.
He wasn't going to be in
town but
said his brother would meet us and make sure we had a special tour of
the museum.
Imagine our surprise
when the founder
appeared and conducted part of the tour himself.
One of his reasons for
creating this
collection was to encourage the use of mechanical puzzles as
educational tools.
No one is too young or
too old to
enjoy the mental stimulation they provide.
Here is our group with
Mr.
Tulmen-Ulzii in front of a ger that is in the museum.
Everyone in the group
was happy about
our addition to our visit.
Everyone now has puzzles
and an
appreciation for them as a challenge, as art and even as jewelry.
During the tour several
puzzles were
demonstrated and he did some magic tricks/manipulations that relied on
puzzle like thinking to understand.
That gave me the notion
that he might
like to see one of my rope tricks.
I showed him one that he
hadn't seen
before so I taught him how to do it and left the rope with him.
He couldn't have honored
me more than
when he offered to put it in his collection.
We saw it in one of the
display cases
when we returned to his museum on our last day in Mongolia.
Here we are with one of
the larger
puzzles (but by no means the largest) that are on display.
If you want to see more
about the
museum go to the International
Intellectual Museum's
own
web page, but don't
forget to come back here to see more of our travels.
Many thanks to our
friends from the
trip for sharing their good company, videos, and pictures with us and
with you.
Thanks again Alice, Lee, Eleanor, Michael, Joyce, David, Juliana, Tom,
Stu, and Tanner.