vendeursdereve: Beijing to Ulaan Baatar

Early start – up at 5.30 to be at the station an hour before train departure at 8.05 – the adventure begins! An international crowd awaits departure – quite a number of French including two families with small children, Chinese, Mongolian, Dutch, Russian, us….. Berth 5 and 6, Cabin 2, Carriage 2; we discover my new big bag won’t fit in the under bunk stash but happily there are only us two in the cabin for the time being so bag can sit on seat out of the way.

Departing photoshoot was not only for us tourists but also the cabin crew who seemed to be training up a new staff member. The carriage and, in fact, the train, was not very full so there was plenty of room for hopping up and down and taking pictures. Interspersed with restorative snoozing, obviously. Buffet car food really tasty – despite only being scrambled eggs with tomatoes and plain rice; either we are easily pleased or Chinese cooking is amazing!

Coming into Erlian the sky was lit up with an incredible display of lightning – the longest forks we’ve ever seen and running in all directions concurrently with sheets lighting the whole sky. This station was where the Chinese border guards checked our passports so we could gaze for quite a while until we were shunted into the sheds for the bogie changing. We had a great view from the end of the carriage as we were lifted free of the wheels and then the new sets were run under us (changing from narrow gauge to standard 5ft gauge).

The Mongolian border control was the least strict I have seen – admittedly the lights went on but no one wanted to gaze earnestly at us whilst checking the passports. These things always seem to happen in the dead of night, perhaps for maximum effect. We could eventually get off to sleep long after 1am.

In the morning we awaken to views across the steppes of the Gobi dessert – vast tracts of grass with wildflowers and the odd herd of grazing horses, cattle or goats. Any buildings are brightly painted and slowly we start to spot solitary ger (mongolian yurts).