There are many types of expats, but there is a class that has landed where ever they are because they cannot succeed (or even plainly exist) anywhere else. Some of this class is basically harmless, exiled by circumstances outside their control, such as in the legions of Americans in China (and elsewhere) who couldn't find employment after graduating into post GFC America. I'm also not talking about those who have found themselves here in Mongolia due to love or family or young adventurers here for a year or two in their twenties. In UB, however, this exiled class runs more towards the end of the expat spectrum populated by degenerates and desperates who must have made such an epic sequence of terrible decisions and ill considered choices to end up in Ulaanbaatar. They're usually relatively unconnected to the mineral resources boom that brings in the other class of more successful, temporary expats.
It's a small town so these are well known figures in UB. Most of them seem to congregate at Millie's, to eat sandwiches and fries at alarmingly regular times, plot their company's next futile manoeuvre, and usually bullshit with other customers, Millie's impresario Danny and anyone who might look like they would listen. One time, a particularly crazy one named K. sat down at my table, asked if I was from Ohio, and, upon finding out about that I was actually from Edmonton, waxed nostalgically and loudly about the merits of Wayne Gretzky. Our Dear Friend Will was once cornered by K. (they're both from Ohio) and suffered through an aimless conversation about home, the sexual exploits of K.'s boss (who later fled the country under less than savoury terms) and why K. ended up in Mongolia. (Why any of us are here is a topic that seems to be a mandatory conversation topic, regardless of your sanity and degeneracy.)
This is not to say that all of this class of expats are bad people. Of course, they're here because they have to support their kids, or pay their alimony, or try to make it rich so they can return home one day in the distant future. But, for me, the more I stay away reinforces my desire to return to the developed world sooner rather than later. The fact that I have an end date to this sojourn is infinitely comforting.
