Days 27-28, train to Ulaanbaatar & crossing the border
The most comfortable train of our trip so far. We are in a compartment with a Japanese guy. There are still 4 bunks to a compartment, but the bottom bunks are behind the benches. One can pull the back of a bench down to transform it into a bed.
The people in the next compartment get off at Ulan-Ude, before the border. They were a French couple with 4 australian kids aged 6 to 15, who have been travelling for 3 years, funded by the rent of their newly acquired house.
At Ulan-Ude, a Mongolian joins us in our compartment. At one point he speaks to the Japanese in Mongolian, who simply answers “I’m Japanese”. Funny.
The border crossing takes a long time. The train stops for 2 hours in a Russian town just before the border, and again for 2 hours in a Mongolian town just after the border.
On the Russian side, the officials are very serious and thorough. They come in, tell us to “sit down”, and one by one to “stand up” to look the official in the eyes while he compares our passport picture with our face for a good minute. Then another guy comes in, gestures us to leave the compartment and then proceeds to checking for stowaways I guess. A third official makes us open our bags to show what’s in them. Oh yeah, the first one left with our passports, we get them back an hour later.
The Mongols are more laid back. The first immigration officer checks our passports, we don’t need to stand up. He chuckles, noticing my hair and beard has considerably grown compared to my photo. At the next compartment, we hear him “ah, Koreans! How many Koreans?” “Oh, ten Koreans!” Again, a second and third official come to check our customs forms and luggage, but we don’t need to open our bags.
We then go to sleep and are woken up at 06:00 by the crew since the trains arrives at 06:50 at our destination.
We pack up our things and enjoy the view: we are finally in Mongolia!
Of course, you can trust me to find a pub anywhere.
Everytime we have arrived in a town so far, it has been early morning. As usual, we hunt for a café to have breakfast and wait for a response from our couch surfing host.
You know China isn't far when you see this over the toilets.
Oops, she's on a tour and cannot host us, so we find a hostel nearby.
