Blogs from Ulan-Ude, Siberia, Russia, Europe - page 2

6th August 2010 Russia- 1st Stop; Ulan Ude The train stopped at the Mongolian / Russian boarder at 7.45am and again we were asked to fill out copious amounts of paperwork. Our lovely Russian lady attendant gestured that the train would be at the station for the next 4 hours- so we got off for another adventure walk. We walked along the road for a while and checked out the supermarket. All of the buildings around were old Siberian wooden structures and were quaint in a run down sort of way. The supermarket had a long counter spanning the whole shop and everything was on the shelves behind, so you had to ask / point at what you needed. We stocked up on some interesting looking sausage meat and cheese for sandwiches….. and there is always ... read more

Ulan Ude wasn't somewhere I'd always wanted to visit. In fact I probably wouldn't have chosen to stop here but all the guide books say its one of the 3 must-see place on the Trans-Siberian route so I thought I better stop and find out why. Good decision. From the train Ulan Ude seems like an enormous metropolis, its by far the biggest city we have seen since leaving Vladivostok and comes complete with tower blocks and industry – quite a shock after all the little wooden villages. But once we are down in the centre there's a really relaxed, friendly, small town feels to the place. Its a pleasant place to wander round with plenty to see: the old wooden houses in the back streets with wonderfully ornate fretwork windows, the grand mansions and Opera ... read more

The nightmare began on 5th July when I caught the 11.30am train for Ulan-Ude. There were some things about this trip that were better than expected and some that were definately not. First of all, the toilet myth was not correct. Though they were tiny, at least you could go there without having to work yourself up to it. In fact, I think they must have been cleaned and bins emptied quite regularly. I only saw two westerners on the train; they did speak English but I don't think it was their first language and they didn't seem too interested in chatting. Even the Russians seemed very stand-offish amonst themselves. In my compartment were a young couple and a young lady with a little boy. They didn't even seem to speak amongst themselves. So I found ... read more

Hello again, now from Beijing. Apparently this site is not blocked, but facebook is.... But ok, this posting should have been done in Ulaanbaatar (UB) - Mongolia, but this didn't happen due to a lack of time. So this posting is just a copy-paste from a e-mail draft that lingered in Agi's mail box for ~2 weeks.... Enjoy. Ulaan Ude - Ulaanbaatar After 13 hours on the bus we arrived to UB yesterday at local time 7.30 pm. The trip was OK except for the border crossing which took 3.5 hours. I love the European Union, just so easy. Here the procedure is the following: at Russian border exit customs guy enters the bus and checks all passports for Russian visas. After this the bus pulls to the customs building where everybody has to leave the ... read more

So at 6am we arrived in Ulan Ude. This is the capital of Siberia and Ulan means Red in Buryat. We were staying at Baikal Ethnic Hostel for 1080r for 2 in a private room. It was well out of town but in a really peaceful area. We were staying with the French dudes (Charles, Xavier and Evrard). After a quick power nap we headed into town to sort out our bus for the next day to Mongolia. This turned out to be a nightmare. After 2 hours of trying we came to the conclusion that the direct bus wasn't happening (fully booked) and we would have to get more than one bus. So off we went for a potter around UU. There wasn't actually much to see apart from the massive Lenin Head so we ... read more