Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to Irkutsk, Russia 13/07/08 to 15/07/08

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"No photo!"
Provodnitcha at the boarder crossing 14/07/08

13/07/08 So once I got to my cabin on the train I me this Australian tour guide, he was from sundowners from Melbourne and he had been running tours for about 8 to 10 years to russia. I don't think he really liked me much especially when i said I thought their tours were alittle bit pricey. He left to talk to the members in his entourage and while he was gone two more people arrived that would be sharing our 4 bed half sleeper (or 3rd class Mongolian train).

They turned out to be polish and were a married couple, Wojtek and Beata. They were from an area of Poznan in Poland. They invited me to visit and me likewise invited them to Australia whenever I would be there though I was not so sure. In the evening we spoke alot and drank about a litre of whisky and about 300 ml of vodka between the three of us. It was good whiskey but Dan (the Australian tourist guide sharing our wagon) was annoyed cause we were talking too much it was 12:30am and he wanted to sleep. We weren't that loud but decided to be fair so we went to bed.

14/07/08 Woke up around 7am for the border crossing. It took about 4 hours of passport exchanging which also meant we couldn't use the toilet for this amount of time. That wasnt the best. I took a photo of the border crossing which the provodnitcha was not so happy about. There were some good looking army boys at the border which made me think of Courtneil. This Mongolian customs official asked me to act as a translator so she could get peoples customs forms. If they didn't have one they got a $20USD fine. I didn't have one but since I helped her translate she excused me of the fine. I helped her translate about 3 carriage loads of people which was alittle amusing as I had no uniform or no real official feeling about me.
After completing my secretarial duties I went back to our Kupe style carriage for some lunch and some sleep. I ended up getting a good 2 hours nap time in and then I had some dinner with my polish commarades. We had a few shots of vodka as well

"Panimnoshka" (Just alittle bit) "Peripadslinediyu" (The last one before the last one)
Wojtek kept saying about the vodka. I wrote some of my journal and had a look at some of the photos on Wojtek's laptop. Went to brush my teeth and got distracted by some aussies on the train from Tweed Heads - who were drinking all sorts of booze including fire whisky from China. They invited me to join but I was still feeling seedy from the night before so I just spoke with them whilst they drank.

15/07/08 Woke up around 7am got my stuff ready and had some noodles for breakfast. Said good bye to Wojtek and Beata and the six funny Aussies on the train (that were trying to get me to be thier tour guide saying thier guide was crap).

ps email me if you are interested in more pictures from this journey.

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Photos

14/07/08
Me and our train. Waking up after a bottle of Mongolian vodka and the best whiskey ive ever had.

14/07/08
A dog at our morning toilet stop.

14/07/08
Mongolian customs

14/07/08
Crossing into Russia (the asian part) and my first glimpse of Siberia.

14/07/08
The rail road zone appears to be a place of danger!
- walking on the railroad is strictly forbidden
- It is dangerous to run onto the tracks infront of an oncoming train
- please dont climb under train wagons, at any time they can come to motion
- walking closer then 5 metres to the rail road is strictly forbidden
- dont play active games while the train has stopped at a platform or is in motion
- be safe and obey the rules of the railroad transport system
Look after your life!

14/07/08
The Siberian landscape. Initially its like Mongolia.

14/07/08
Beata and her husband Wsitek my awesome train companions and drinking buddies haha! They were great to travel with.

14/07/08
The Siberian landscape.

14/07/08
The Siberian landscape.

14/07/08
The Siberian landscape.

14/07/08
The Siberian landscape.

14/07/08
The Siberian landscape.

14/07/08
The Siberian landscape.

14/07/08
The Siberian landscape.

14/07/08
The Siberian landscape.

14/07/08
A grandma walks along the street.

14/07/08
Ahh what would your life be without a Moskvitch.

14/07/08
Beata, Wsitek and me in front of our train. I will miss these guys!