Day 288 - All the way to Outer Mongolia

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Up at 3:30am and then some nervous moments hoping that driver Sasha would appear on time. He was a little late but we were glad to see him as we had no contingency options to make our train. The drive took under an hour back to Irkutsk station and the 2 Sashas helped us find our train and carriage. They have been excellent, the guide having extremely good English and being very thoughtful, and the driver being probably the only safe driver we’ve had in the past 9 months. He was also very courteous and eager to be driving us around despite being a qualified doctor - that’s compared to plenty of others with zero education and an attitude that suggests they find driving below them. We would highly recommend them.

The train was roasting hot with no prospect of a reduction in heat since all the windows were locked. We slept lots, watched the scenery change and ate birthday cake. All good fun, and then we reached the border. We must have crossed about 40 borders so far on this trip but this was by far our longest crossing - over 6 hours! It seems the Russian and Mongolian authorities just try to outdo each other with how long they can take to let the train through, but many forms and checks later the train started chugging its way through Mongolia, with new engine and without the dining car, and we went to bed.

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