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Published: March 19th 2006
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Gulags Stewardess
a friendly welcoming smile FROM HONG KONG TO ULAAN BATAAR --
I had a choice to fly from Hong Kong to Ulaan Bataar (Mongolia's capitol), a daily flight that takes about 4 hours, or to take the train through Beijing. Since I'm in for adventure and knew I was heading to a country with open sky and fresh empty lands I had to get a last deep breath of thick smoggy Chinese air an went through Beijing.
Tue Aug. 13Th 2 PM.
** Hong Kong Train station - Nice cool and super modern train station, passport check in a civilized line.
** Then 24 hours non stop to Beijing in a "hard sleeper" - train berths with 2 triple bunk beds on each side. 6 people sharing small space with no door to the corridor.
** In my berth, A Chinese woman with two young hyperactive kids (I should have packed a syringe with high octane Ritalin before i left the States) and a Chinese college student that exchanges bootlegged palm pilot software with me. One empty bed in case you did the math and wonder.
** Relatively good night sleep.
Wed. Aug 14Th 15:00 (that is 3Pm in case you're
not sure)
** Beijing west station, working out the first sweat as i find out the train to Mongolia leaves from another station.
** On Bus #9 with big backpack on my back and small one, like a reserve parachute, on my chest. I'm Drenched. No deodorant can dam this flood.
** 16:15 I manage to find the right ticket window in the right station for the train to Mongolia - good news. The bad news is that there are only two trains a week and they depart Mondays and Tuesdays. Who was the brilliant Party official who picked these two days?
** Option #2 is a 14 hours sleeper bus with bunk beds (Oy Vey - not this again) to the Mongolian border then wait half a day then 18 hours train to UlaanBataar. I'm told to make sure and be on time at the station the next day - 2pm sharp because the bus leaves at 4pm!
** 18:30 I find a dorm bed in a youth hostel near the station - rooms shared by ten people in bunk beds. Haven't done this since I was 16.5 while traveling Europe by myself. Why not try it again -
Train to Ulaan Baatar
nice day on The Chinese / Mongolian border it'll be fun.
** 00:30 Two English girls and one guy are waken up, in my shared room, for a trip to watch the sunrise from the Great wall. Who's idea was it to sleep with strangers? and what's wrong with sunset instead?
** 01:15 A guy with similar hair cut to mine comes into the room and crush on his bed drunk. Let me ask it again - who's idea?
Thur.Aug 15Th 08:30
** I get up totally refreshed and tip toe out of the dorm room to a shared bathroom. The Polish guy shaving next to me looked like he had a rough night with a bottle of cheap vodka, and the young woman carefully studying the mirror on his other side expertly explodes a pimple. I'll skip breakfast.
** 14:00 I present myself promptly at the counter reluctantly looking forwards to the night bus ride - the one that leaves at 4pm on the dot.
** at 6:24pm the bus leaves. So glad I was there at 2pm, I hate cutting it too short.
** This time the bed in the bus was designed with an anorexic 12 years old in mind.
** I have
Train to Ulaan Baatar #2
Same nice day on The Chinese / Mongolian border an interesting long talk with a young and radical Polish backpacking couple. He - an unemployed journalist with some very interesting theories that blamed the Jews for almost anything in the world - excluding the Tsunami. I purposely didn't reviled my origin in order not restrict his creative flow.
** 10:13 We get to Erlianhot, a border town that will not be missed by it's own Mayor if it blow out in a tornado.
** 11:50 I watch a woman skinning a dead sheep, soon to become mutton, on the side walk in main street. Thanks, that was mouth watering. I'll skip lunch.
** I kill the next few hours, and eagerly go through passport check as i enter the train station. The train is there. Looks like a good candidate for a role in a 50's flick on Russian espionage.
** 17:30 The train conductors show up and line up, two to a train car, next to the doors. My alert level goes up. They are only women and wear sort of sixties TWA stewardess outfits with hats scarfs and high hills. Sounds good, for a sec. They also look like they used to do runway work. Sounds even
Erlianhot 11:50
hmm... lunch anyone? better. The only two "not-so-good" components are that they used to do it in the 60's and probably in fashion shows in Siberian gulags.
** 17:45 I notice the lake of connection between the train stewardess's vermilion line and her thick red lipstick. Very creative.
** 18:10 I'm on the train sharing a berth with two Chinese businessmen that live in Mongolia and David, a Chinese con artist that lives in Australia and has a Republic of Marshall Islands passport as well.
** 18:45 We get the first taste of our Gulags stewardess rough hands as she shoves us from corridor into our berth for second passport check. Little drops of sweat trickle their way down our fearful foreheads as we seat quietly waiting for inspection.
** 19:01 The Chinese passport and custom officials visit us. They are very nice and polite. Are they afraid of the stewardess as well?
** 19:20 The train moves.
** 19:25 The train stops, then 15 minutes later we move and then stop. Then finally we cross the Mongolian border.
** 19:38 We stop in a Mongolian train station and do Mongolian passport check.
** I watch Mongolian soldiers with high thick leather boots
Night Bus
bus beds designed with an anorexic 12 years old in mind
stationed along the train sweating it under the rays of the late afternoon sun.
** 20:15. In the first two hours on the train we covered estimated 20 miles. My head is spinning from the speed.
** 11:00 We fall asleep and spend the next few hours in various stages of dormancy. One of the Chinese businessmen talks in his sleep - it's all Chinese to me.
Fri. Aug 16Th 08:30
** We are waken by our warden. No sleep for the wicked. A fresh layer of fire-engine- red lipstick decorates her thin lips in a new design following an unseen curve. Did she study hair & makeup for the winter month while we sleep?
** The next few hours I spend getting the first impressions of the Mongolian vastness.
** I see my first herd of wild horses.
** I see, briefly, a ground hog lazily watching the passing train from the top of his mound.
** I take a very deep breath of refreshing cool crisp and clean air.
** A huge hawk fly over as i watch countless horses and white Gers, on thinly covered grassy plains.
** I feel in my elements.
** I find it odd, but natural, to "feel in my elements" in land so remote and foreign.
** The train stewardess walks by carrying wood for the samovar. (yes, they have a wood burning stove for hot water on the train - no OSHA in Mongolia.)
** She smile at me with a face that meant for bare knuckle bar fights in Ireland. I shrivel.
Fri. Aug 16Th 16:35
** I'm in Ualaan Bataar main (and only) train station.
73 hours after i left the small travelers hotel in Hong Kong.
Love peace and stuffed cabbage,
Zeev
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