Because Mongolia is such a big country but has so few people, it's important to have a form of transportation that can go long distances through rough weather easily - like a car. In that way, Mongolians are pretty similar to Americans, in that they love their cars. The cars in Mongolia come here from all over the world - America, China, Japan, Korea, you name it - so it's not uncommon to see the steering wheel on the left side in one car and on the right side in another. Driving is a big part of modern Mongolian life. People use cars to get to work, to visit family and to transport their animals and homes to different places if they are nomadic. However, especially in Ulaanbaatar, driving is dangerous. Many of the streets of Ulaanbaatar were not built to be used by so many cars, and traffic is so terrible that not everyone is allowed to drive at the same time. Depending on your license plate number, you can only drive on particular days of the week. Because of this, people have to rely on others to get around, and ninja taxis offer a great way for someone to pick up a little extra money on their way home while helping other people who don't or can't use cars. The easiest way to get a ninja taxi is to stand on the side of the road and stick your hand out until someone stops. Then, you tell them the location that you want to go to, and they can either say yes or no. Once you arrive at your destination, you pay them some money, usually between 1000 - 6000 tugrugs (about 50 cents to 3 dollars).
