Mongolia

It's appalling that it's taken so long to publish this blog but for our amusement and for those who still care, here we go...

After an early AM departure (thankfully we were on time - both Moscow and local as the trains all run on Moscow time which is 5 hours different from Moscow) we were on the train again. The #004 Trans Mongolian train is a shorter journey, only 30 hours to Ulaan Baator (UB) which pales in comparison to the time we spent on the Rossya (which we only took half way) of over 3 days.

Getting on the train took a fair bit of effort. Our beds were already occupied so we woke some sleepy Mongolian traders which were 90% of the travellers on this train. In fact, trying to find any space at all became laughable (well, at the end) as we had boxes in the compartment aisle, corridor, overhead luggage storage, under the beds and on top of one of the bunks which is why bed sharing is big on this train. What could we do? We just laughed and enjoyed a different culture on what had become in essence, a goods train. Getting peace and quiet was a rarity as the traders traded between each other and on the train stops, which is when all hell broke loose. Selling was everywhere, out the door, windows, on the platform. Great to watch.

As we got closer to the Mongolian border, it's amazing how the landscape changes from country to country and is sometimes defined by exact borders, the land became drier and much more arid. We passed Goose Lake (still in Russia) which is a bird paradise during the migration.

We finally made it to the border and then had to suffer the crossing which was time consuming (about 7-8 hours) but painless. Most of the Russian energy was spent on Mongolian traders and their various goods. Fortunately, we were able to get off the train for a fair bit of the time, I just wish I had a footy...

---

Part of trip: Europe & Asia 2007

---