Advertisement
Published: September 9th 2006
I almost feel like Harry Potter boarding the Hogwarts Express. Traveling by train is not something I grew up with, like the Toronto subway or York Region buses. I’m relatively inexperienced in train travel, save for my experiences in Taiwan and Thailand, and this was the nicest train I’d seen to date! Boarding the train was something of a guessing game: How do I read my ticket? What car am I in? Who will I be sharing a box-sized compartment with for the next two days? And will my pack fit through the door?!
I finally found the right compartment, and low and behold I KNEW the people already inside! When I had purchased my ticket a few days before, the only other people in the ticket office were a French couple. I didn’t talk to them then but there they were! I was relieved that I was in a car with other foreigners, as 30 hours with a Chinese family or Russian business men might have led my trip down a not-so-pleasant path. So Franck & Christelle (who live in Lyon) and I began the ritual of first introductions. Before we were finished we were joined by another Frenchie
named Yafeh, who is actually from Lebanon, but has been living in France for 20 years. Perfect! I would get to practice my French for the next 30 hours!
Living on the train was a riot. Right next to our compartment was the hot water dispenser (all you can drink😉 so as long as you brought your mug, instant coffee packs and noodles, you were golden! Thankfully, Nicky had given me the lowdown on train life the day before I left Japan so I was ready with ‘supplies’.
The train started moving and the four of us talked, talked, talked. I was so genuinely happy to be in such great company. It turned out that Franck and Christelle had actually lived in Grenoble a year ago (the city I’m moving to in France next year) and have already offered to hook me up with friends of theirs to help me find an apartment (I love making International connections!) And Yafeh lives right in Paris with his own ‘Salon de The’ (coffee/tea house) so I’ll be visiting him for sure!
We passed the Great Wall of China (which I hadn’t cared enough to go see while I was
Yafeh & I plus Christelle & Franck
Those 30 hours passed pretty quickly!in Beijing) and the four of us went a little photo crazy. Especially Yafeh and his tripod, he loves that thing!
The scenery changed so quickly and the ride itself went by in an instant! We stopped at the Chinese-Mongolian border late at night to have our passports inspected and stamped and then we also had to disembark the train in Erlian (on the Chinese side) for THREE hours!!! Turns out that the rails on the train don’t match the tracks on the Mongolian side, so each time the train gets to Erlian, they have to change the freakin’ rails!
Once we were back on the train, it was EASY to fall asleep and we all slept for a long time. It wasn’t long before we reached Ulan Bataar.
Once at the station, Franck, Christelle and Yafeh went off to the UB Guesthouse, while I waited for my host Uli to come pick me up.
(Of course we already had plans to meet up in a couple hours)
And now, I’m here! I’m actually IN Mongolia! And the sky is BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Insert overly dramatic heavenly singing here)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.05s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 8; qc: 36; dbt: 0.0228s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Meredith
Meredith
you rock!
I miss you so much my wench! Im so glad youre traveling so I can live vicariously through you!