The absolute best thing about travelling by train is the fabulous people that you meet. From Ulanbaatar to Beijing we are delighted to find that we are sharing with a Mongolian family - lovely, friendly (and french-speaking!) mum and her 2 gorgeous, smart kids - on their way to met their father who is working in Beijing. We have hours of fun playing with matrushka dolls with Anuka, age 4 and discussing football with Altai, who is 12 and speaks good conversational English - amazing - but unfortunately has something against the French team (crisis avoided by dripfeeding sulking and outraged Nico with spicy noodles and beer). Their mum also speaks some English so we chat away and time passes nicely in our cosy biscuit and laughter-filled cabin as we chug through the seemingly million miles
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