Mongolia - 10-11 June 2014

Hi Blogettes, I am back online in the first person, many thanks to "Billy Boy" for being my surrogate and keeping the blog postings active whilst in China for the past 3 weeks. Now that I am in Mongolia, Internet seems to be all OK again. The exception is that the Hostel limits access to the wi-fi to between 8am and 11pm, but I can live with that.

I arrived in Ulan Bator, capital of Mongolia this afternoon about 2.30pm, the train was 1 hour late, making it a 31 hour trip. More about that in a moment. The Hostel (Golden Gobi) kindly collected me and other guests from the train and transported us back to the Hostel, which seems fairly centrally located to the main area of the city. It is small, but nice hostel, with a Kitchen and some lounge rooms. It is a family run place, by "Bob" and his 4 sisters. I had a little walk around town this afternoon and got cashed up with local currency, the Minget which is 1735 minget to 1A$. Needless to say, every price seems to be in very high numbers, but it is surprisingly cheap. I had a nice but small meal of dumplings, soup, and salad with a coke tonight for about $3. I looking forward to a good sleep tonight as did not get much sleep on the train.

The first thing I noticed about Mongolia is that the written language use Cyrillic Russian letters, which are easier than Chinese symbols. Once you learn a few rules, it is possibly to read a lot more. The second thing I noticed is that the Mongolians are bigger people than Chinese, have higher cheekbones and more almond eyes. The woman look fierce (without being unkind). I have been warned several times here, watch out for pickpockets, they are apparently very common here, and whilst they exist in China and Beijing, you rarely felt the need in Beijing to be extra careful, it felt a very safe and friendly place. I will learn more tomorrow about what there is to see and do here. It is not anywhere nearly as big and as full of impressive stuff as Beijing was.

The Train Trip, it was not as bad as the Lhasa -Xinning journey, but still a doozy at 31 hrs, some of which could have been avoided. We left Beijing at 8.05 am and arrived at Erlian , the Chinese border at about 8.30pm. We spent several hours at Erlian, the border of China and Mongolia. They stopped the train for about 1/2 hour and took all our passports away, we then were told to get back on the train and we then went off to a Bogie Exchange shed for another 3 hours whilst they changed all the wheels to Russian/Mongolian gauge tracks, then back to Erlian for another hour to wait for passports and other stuff. The annoying thing, some passengers, mostly those in second class, seemed to get advised that whilst the train was getting its wheels changed, they could wait in the station building with a shop and food and drink available. Whilst us mugs in 1st class waited in the train whilst they changed the wheels.

Overall, the train seemed empty, in my carriage, which I had the twin bunk compartment all to myself, was two other Aussie guys in the compartment next to me and no one else. (apart from what seemed like about 3 staff per carriage). In the only other 1st class carriage, there seemed to be only one other guy, which we figured was a railway bigwig, because he was delivered right to the train door, on the platform, with his luggage driven in a black Audi. The rest of us had to go through waiting halls, ticket an security checks and then wait for the platform to open. The other carriages were similar, one Polish girl I spoke to said she had all 4 bunks in her cabin to herself and she was the only passenger in her whole carriage.

Here are some pics of the train at Beijing station , my cabin and the dining car. The scenery was good just outside Beijing, very mountainous and near where the Great wall is, as we got closer the the Mongolian border, the landscape changed to being mostly a flat treeless plain, It was the same when In Mongolia, they should have called this place Nullabor. I saw Yaks, Camels, Horses, Sheep but no trees, as we got closer to Ulan Bator, the grass became greener and lusher. Overall, I am glad  took the train, the scenery was good. It just would have made it a little better if the staff on the train just had a little better english and kept you informed. That was the frustrating part. The dining car was OK, but One cut out just before we reached the border and the Mongolian replacement didn't open up until 8.30 the following morning. Also, after  leaving Erlian about midnight, we proceeded to Zamn Uud, the first Mongolian town across the border where we had another unexpected 2-3 wait for immigration and customs and we were not allowed off the train and the toilets were locked whilst at the platform (its a simple flow through system) where we aired till after  2.30 am before moving again. Making us an hour late for the rest of the trip.

P.s Pic of new bag for Billy

There is also some video of the Mongolian plains taken from the train this morning, before it turned green.