Beijing, China to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia 24/06/08 to 25/06/08

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Got up at 5:30 struggling more so than yesterday. Dan came and woke me up for this one😊 Got ready to roll and I got my breakfast - thats right dumplings near Leos for 5RMB oh yeah. At 7:10am we boarded the train and it left at 7:45am. I met Yeshukhei this 12 year old Mongolian boy who spoke english traveling with his grandparent. They had just gone to China to stay with Yeshukhei's mum and dad. Grandad spoke Russian but unfortunately I could only communicate with Grandma through Yushukhei or Grandad (Timir). I slept for about 4 hours shortly thereafter and dreamed of Emma and Nadia. Dan came by and told me how he met a cool Mongolian dude. He brought peanut butter and jam (jelly) for Timir, Yeshukhei and grandma to try. Timir gave us some caviar and bread to have. At passport control had some ice cream and then some beer and managed to get through to home and wake them up at the same time😊 Sorry!
Oh and yes the mongolians are quite and attractive nationality with really nice features.

Woke up at about 10:30am and had some breakfast. Dan came for a chat and then Yeshukhei gave me his contact details and Timir told me to come stay with them in Ulaanbaatar if I liked. After getting of the train I was met by Bobby from UB guest house. I met Kate again (the Aussie lass from Leo's). We had some lunch at Mongolian fast food nearby UB guest house for about 2,200T (slightly over 2AUD). Kate was vegetarian and we tried to order a vegetarian dish - we said no mah (which is meat in Mongolian). The guy brought out a dish which we were pretty sure had pork in it. We asked him if it had meat in it and he said no meat only pork! I then went looking for the Golden Gobi to ask about thier tours (I met an English couple in our hostel Dan and Clair who seemed pretty cool and were doing one to the Gobi for 12 days). I ended up booking the 12 day tour as I was tired and sick of hearing about tours but wanted to get on the road asap as I wanted to be in UB for Nadaam. Getting back to the UB guesthouse I got told off by Bobby who thought I would take a tour through her and was disappointed I had gone with Golden Gobi saying thier tours were rubbish. Me and Kate went for a beer later that evening when we were reunited again - hooray! Some boys came in to the bar we were at in animal masks - turned out to be english there for a bucks going away trip across the trans-mongolian. The groom was getting married in Shanghai. We had another beer then headed home to make it back for the 12am curfew!

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Photos

Bejiing 24/06/08
Before boarding the train.

China 24/06/08
The landscape quickly began to change.

China 24/06/08
As we passed through inner Monogolia.

China 24/06/08
On the train through inner Monolia

China 24/06/08
As the sunset the landscape became very barren.

The boarder 25/06/08
Me, Dan and the Mongolian guy Dan was sharing the carriage with have a beer at the boarder line.

Mongolia 25/06/08
First glimpses of.

Mongolia 25/06/08
As we approached Ulaanbataar.

Mongolia 25/06/08
Ulanbaatar

Mongolia 25/06/08
Ulanbaatar station.

Mongolia 25/06/08
Ulanbaatar station.

Comments

[ak]

mongolia
mongolian train looks like russian 2me also checkout ulanbaatar @ railway station: it's in cyrillic! ;^)

[jared]

WOW
mongolia looks like the bloody moon or something darsha!!! where are you now??COME BACK ALREADY hope you're having fun =) xo

[Krunch]

Re wow
Hey jawed my love. How are you? How is Nat? How is everything. How is work. Well at the moment im trying to sort out work in amsterdam. Well see how that goes. But i am having fun. Ill see you before u no it and ull be wishing im gone. xx

[Krunch]

mongolia
yeah they rite in cryllic they took on that alphabet after the russain occupation. Before the shrift they used looked like arabic but was actually written downward. Check out http://www.krysstal.com/writing_mongolian.html for an example of what I mean. The boy Yeshuki I met on the train could read this type of writing - though the grandad could not.