Aboard the Trans-Mongolian

First off, sorry for the lack of updates last week. China blocks Blogger along with many other websites like Facebook and Youtube. Every so often I would try to visit a website only to be told that the server did not exist. Even certain search terms on Google were blocked. A few years ago I remember seeing a comparison between Google search results in China and the rest of the world for Tiananmen Square. Well I wasn't even allowed to search the term Tiananmen Square while in Beijing.

I'll update on Beijing soon, but first....my journey to Mongolia!

On Wednesday morning at 7:47 AM, Mercedes and I took off on the Trans-Mongolian train which runs from Beijing through Mongolia before continuing all the way to Moscow. We got off in Ulaan Baatar, the capital of Mongolia.

It took over 12 hours for the train to make its way through China to the Mongolian-Chinese border. The first few hours the train alternated between spectacular views of the mountains and long periods of darkness as we tunneled through the mountains.

Eventually the mountains flattened and the land began to stretch on to eternity. From the outer edges of China (in the appropriately named province of Inner Mongolia) all the way to UB the land did not change. It is big, the Gobi Desert. Vast expanses of arid land with little more than the occasional ger (polite Mongolian term for a yurt, which is the Mongolian nomadic tent) and random herds of horses, sheep, cows, camels or even yaks to break up the scenery.

The train arrived at the Chinese border city of Erlian around 8:30 PM. We finally left the Mongolian border city of Zamid Uud over FIVE HOURS later at 1:47 AM. That time was used to emigrate all passengers out of China, change the wheels on the train cars as Mongolia and China use different tracks, change the restaurant car (Chinese food in Mongolia would simply be unacceptable), immigrate all passengers into Mongolia and who knows what else. It really seems as though a more efficient system should be possible, especially considering this happens multiple times each week, and has been happening for many, many years. But I suppose that it is all part of the adventure.

We finally arrived in UB at around 1:20 PM making the total trip just under 30h. That time passed surprisingly quickly. The ability to get up and walk around, stretch out on my berth and the novelty of it all made for a comfortable journey. I don't know if I'd be saying the same thing had I spent another 3 or 4 days taking the train all the way to China, but I quite enjoyed the journey I did make.

That being said, beers were necessary once we finally made it to the city.

Alright, that is all for that journey, but I will definitely update more on Beijing and what I've seen so far in Mongolia (it includes horsehead fiddles, throat singing and more!)