MONGOLIA - Ulaanbaatar

The train to Mongolia took us through some remarkable scenery, roaming hills accentuated by the occasional mountain.

For a while the route followed a river in which were thousands of floating "ice lily pads." Around corners ice was forming changing the shape of the river.

We had heard rumours about the Russian/Mongolia border control but nothing really prepared us for the rediculousness of the whole situation. We got to the border station and remained there for 4.5 hours, starting with 10 carriages which, in that time turned into 1, ours, with 4 people on! After toing and froing we eventually got away from the station in one carriage now full! We went through no mans land and got to the other side. We would remain there for 3 hours! All in all a large proportion of the 1.5 day journey was spent doing nothing at a station, red tape is rediculous!

We woke early in the morning to arrive in at Ulaanbaatar station, it was very cold, but when we got there there was no one waiting for us! After a couple of hours another train arrived and we found our guide along with 2 couples, Eric and Kathryn from Melbourne and Graham and Sue from England. We had breakfast with our guide in a brilliant local eatery and were then shown around the city including Buddhist temple, and "Eyes Wisdom" Buddha Statue. Naki, our guide, took us for lunch at a local restaurant cafe, the food was very nice and then proceeded to tell us how he wanted to sing for us! Ominous. We got taken into a side room where he proceeded to select "let it be," Beatles. I can tell you now, that i don't think any of us thought we would be sitting in a room with a Mongolian guy singing Let it be to us, but its a true story. After a couple of more traditional songs we left in the mini bus towards our Ger camp in the Mongolian Countryside.!

The little minibus took us for a bout 45 mins down some very bumping roads after exiting the craziness of the city, suddenly we veered off the road onto mud, was this intentional? Of course it was, we started travelling over icy hills, past Nomad Ger camps and while heading down hill we caught glimpse of our camp in the distance, beautiful.

We got out of the mini bus, it was bloody cold! We got shown our Ger inside it was beautiful, not what we had expected. All the wood had be decorated with traditional patterns and the stove in the middle made the whole space very very warm, almost too much so! Later we had a gorgeous diner as a group and had a quick walk in the below freezing landscape. The stars were out in force, only obscured by the brightness of the moon which kept the whole landscape light enough to walk around without a torch. We slept well that night.

Next morning after a typically gorgeous Mongolian breakfast we went Mongolian horseback riding! A friendly Nomad brought some very calm horses and took us into the landscape. After half an hour or so i lost all feeling in my feet despite the two pairs of warm winter socks! Later i tried my very cold hand at Mongolia Archery.

Final full day we went to see a local Nomad who kindly invited us into his Ger, gave us tea and anything else he had to eat, traditional cakes, sweets etc. They are such generous people. After dinner that evening we had a couple for beers. Then the beers ran out, only one thing for it, onto the Mongolian Vodka. I brought my Ipod into the Ger, which had a stereo, and put some Beatles on for Naki. After 4 bottles of vodka between the 6 of us, air guitar to Led Zepplin and more we were a little merry, some of us more than others! Not to mention any names but Clem and Katheryn were wasted! lol. Night in a Ger lasted until about 1.30 or 2.


The next day we got on the mini bus back to Ulaanbaatar, a little later than planned. Naki looked like he had enjoyed himself the night before! We made a few unscheduled stops on the way back for Clem, but eventually got to our hotel. Looking around Ulaanbaatar for the afternoon it became clear that one day there would be enough, not my favorite place on the trip. That night we met up to have dinner together once more. The food was gorgeous, Uzbek cuisine.

Next morning we all headed to the station and boarded the train that would take us to Beijing. As it turned out almost everyone in our carriage was English speaking, the Western carriage as it became known. We were in the next cabin to Katheryn and Eric who were sharing with an Irish couple, we were sharing with a guy from Hong Kong, elsewhere in the carriage were Americans, Australians, more Irish and more English. The two Mongolian families on board must have felt a little out of place!

The train journey through the rest of Mongolia was very interesting, highlights including Brown Camels in the wild and the sparce undulating landscape of the Gobi desert. After most of the day on the train we arrived at the next border. The usual immigration and customs procedures followed and then the less usual happenings on the Chinese side of the border. We were told that it would take 3 hours on that side which we all groaned at the prospect of, but the time past quickly as we experience the changing of the train wheels first hand. Carriages get pushed into a train shed where huge jacks lift up individual carriages and new wheels are put in position. This was interesting at first but took a long time, luckily we were entertained by a Chinese Policeman who decided the best way to keep warm was by practicing his martial arts and Michael Jackson moves. The whole western carriage witnessed the highlight, the moonwalk back to his position! Legend! Karl got some of it on video.