April 16th - 17th 2008
Total Miles 7000
Trip Miles 4500
The train to Ulan Bator was a bit of a shock. We left a chilly minus 6 degrees in Irkutsk and boarded another Russian train. Now Julian likes a bit of luxury and this did not fit the bill. The train was very old, not that clean, and the toilets... The Provodnitsas had come in from Moscow and looked like it. Nevertheless we managed. The pine forest scenery and the lake helped. The shanty towns we saw were at a new level of poverty in this remote corner of the world.
As night fell we approached the Russian/Mongolian border. Many interruptions to our sleep occurred as various customs, immigration and train officials visited us. Julian did a bewildering transaction with some shady characters at two a.m. - we exchanged Russian Roubles for Mongolian Togrog - at some exchange rate or other.
We entered Mongolia around dawn. The darkness had taken away pine trees and replaced them with rolling Mongolian steppe. No trees, barren and ten thousand acres of sky. The climate became very dry and dusty. Mongolia sits in the middle of a weather system called the Siberian High. This is an incredibly stable mass of air that gives hot summers and cold winters. People told us that minus thirty to plus forty degrees were normal.
We checked into our hotel - The Continental - a splendid little place. The mock Rococo dining room with a slap up breakfast was a genuine shock after the train. We felt like royalty as we sat down and were served fried eggs, orange juice and tea with milk. There is absolutely nothing like being deprived of something and then appreciating it anew. The kids went Bananas - additives in the cereal.
