Mongolia

Leaving Irkutsk, we took a train to Mongolia. Or maybe I should say we took a train to the border with Mongolia. Arrival time at Russian border town - 12.50pm. Departure time from Mongolian border town - 9.30pm (with an extra hour given the different time zone) So that was 10 hours hanging out at the border. Why? Good question... The "foreigners carriage" was the only one on the train on the Russian side, and it apparently required 3 hours of cleaning, with all passengers required to get off and sit in the train station. (there was nothing in the "town" either - no restaurants, cafes, etc.)

Then it was all aboard the train while they locked it down for passport control and customs on the Russian side. Another 3 hours sat around while the border guards checked for illegal items and stamped the passports. During this time, the toilets were locked!!! So most of us hadn't had a sip of any liquid since the morning, just in case.

Finally the Russians let us leave, and it was a short ride over to Mongolia, where the authorities there spent another 2.5 hours checking the carriage and doing the passport checks. Finally, we rolled out of the station, almost 10 hours after arriving. So... next time I take the Trans-Mongolian train - I'm flying!!!!!


We finally arrived into the capital of Mongolia, Ulan Batar, the next morning, and went for a tour of the city.

In the afternoon, we went into the "ger district" - which is where the poor people from the countryside come to live when they give up on trying to earn a living with livestock, etc. We spent about an hour teaching English to some local kids, and another hour "digging a hole", helping a local family prepare an outhouse.

The next day we went off to a national park, to spend a night in a "ger" (a kind of tent). Beautiful scenery, and a ride on horseback with a group of horses that had no intention of following the instructions of any rider, however experienced or otherwise. So that was a bit silly, but still enjoyable enough.



And now it's back to Ulan Batar, where tomorrow we get on the train to Beijing. It's quite interesting how, before this trip, I would have thought that 6-7 hours on a train would be a LONG JOURNEY!! Now... the 28 hours from Ulan Batar to Beijing seems like a SHORT TRIP!! Which after a 4 day and 36-hour train journey, it is...

Anyhow, this is probably the last post from the road, so I'll upload some photos later, and add some bits about China...