Back on the Trans Sib. Next stop Mongolia !

The strong damp musky smell in the cabin reminded us that this train had an even higher number than the 3 night one to Irkutsk. Now pros at this we settled in quickly and attempted communication with our cabin buddy Victor – very sweet old Russian guy – we liked him immediately. Seems he is heading to Ulaanbataar (UB) for work but has a mountain of luggage and a fishing pole. The rest carriage was full mostly with Dutch and other tourists with our connection from the lake (Henk) in the cabin next to us.

Not long after the train started rolling Victor hauled out tomatoes and salami and began feeding us with enthusiasm. Fantastic ! Neither of us were looking forward to cup-a-noodles again. We tried to offer him some fruit that we had with us but we interpreted his gestures and reply as ‘That fruit will give you gyppo guts. Don’t eat it – rather have tea and tomatoes”.

By the morning the final berth was filled by a younger Russian guy who kept to himself. Not even Victor had much to say to him. My poor V barely got any sleep and was looking worse for wear. Before we could get our breakfast organized, Victor had swooped down from the top bunk and started feeding us again. More salami, tomatoes, cheese and hard boiled eggs with lots of tea. We felt pretty bad that the ‘single’ portion food we had would have been difficult to share – all we could offer was gratitude.

We arrived at the Russian border at 13h00 and started the procedure of detaching carriages that were returning to Russia and changing engines for the short hop through no-mans-land. 4 hours later and now stewing in our cabin without an openable window the Russian immigration and customs procedure started. They tossed the cabin – like a scene from a prison movie – but were not really looking. A Dutch couple were fined €50 each for overstaying their visa but other than that it was uneventful.

Between borders the spikey Russian guy was replaced at first by a Mongolian Lady who spoke English and was very helpful and friendly. She and her husband were just hitching a free ride across the border so they could buy tickets on the Mongolian side. I have to admit I was getting nervous at the piles of luggage being added to our cabin and the possiblity of customs nonsense.

On the Mongolian side (10 mins down the track) we were subjected to another customs and immigration procedure. The customs officer blatently stole (after a heated debate) 10% of the cash held by our Russian and Mongolian cabin mates for no apparent reason (except possibly because they did not declare exactly how much cash they had on them). She had a go at some of the tourists further down the carriage as well for not declaring but they got off with a warning. It was such an obvious fleecing that left us and our cabin mates stunned.

Finally !! 9 hrs after stopping we were in Mongolia and on our way again. Once more with a new friendly Russian guy (Alexander). Food was now flowing from both Victor and Alexander we could not go hungry.

This morning at 6:30 we rolled into a cold UB. The outskirts sprawl some distance and look decidedly 3rd world. Mongolia has a population around 2mil, half of which live in UB – many of them still in Gers.

– Posted from my iPhone