Boots made for (Mongolian) walking

Last night I went on a mission. Shoes. It quickly became apparent that I had made a poor decision with my packing - snow boots were soooo 3 weeks ago, sneakers just wouldn't cut it with the modern Mongol fashionistas, and heels were never going to survive the dusty, rocky, non-existant footpath. Boots it was to be. I haven't yet figured out how to get a handmade pair, and so the next best place is the State Department Store. A multi-storey, "stately" building west of the square, and one-stop-shop in the city for anything from potatoes, to perfume, to bikes...and my purpose for the evening, boots. It's also handy that the store is open until 10pm - even Mongolia is more progressive than Australia in terms of shopping hours!

I quickly found the shoe section (women's intuition) and was delighted to see about 50m2 of boots. Apparently the only footwear available here. Fine with me. I soon set about assessing the range and trying things on. For about 40min I bustled around, taking shoes from the stand, destroying displays. Knee length or ankle? Bling for buckles or cowgirl style? Interestingly, most were imported from Europe. How odd would it be to travel all the way to Mongolia to buy Italian boots?

A promising scene

No matter how much mess I made, somehow, I remained completely non-existant to the sales staff. Not even a eye glimpse of acknowledgement. It was quite unsettling, and I wasn't sure what to do. It took a bit of courage, but after much deliberation I had selected a particularly attractive option - black leather, practical flat heel, and complete with fluffly lining - and approached the sales staff. To my surprise, once I'd started the conversation (well, interaction since she didn't speak English) she was really lovely, and helpful. But this is also where the commotion began.

The girl started hunting amongst the piles of boxes. Then her friend joined her. Then another. Sure enough, soon there were 4 of us searching around. After about 20min, I was very happy to accept any pair of shoes, that comprised a left and a right component, and were approximately in my size. Luckily, I was able to make a joke of it with the girls, and it worked out ok. After another 10min we finally found something that matched and fit my criteria.

The hunt - two of the sales staff rummage around for a matching pair

 

It's a bit hard to describe the moment here, but I think it revealed a couple of important things to me. Firstly, what you see on the surface here clearly isn't what lies beneath. The apparently orderly department store-esque looks are meerly camoflague for a system that doesn't exist at all. And perhaps people are just a bit shy around me. Unfortunately, I'm shy too! But hopefully nice and not difficult to approach! Anyway, I feel they are two good things to recognise, and I’ll keep them in mind on future missions.