train to Mongolia

We left the Beijing Hostel at 5:30 a.m. on Wed. morning to catch the Trans-Mongolia train. As all trains in China, this one left exactly on time. Our destination, Ula an Ba tor, Mongolia. We had heard several stories about the trip, some saying that it took as much as 36 hours. We had what is called a "hard sleeper" ticket, this is a bunk in a compartment that has 4 bunks total, 2 lower 2 upper. We had one lower and one upper. We were fortunate to have a couple from New Zealand as our compartment mates, they were very friendly and didn't snore, which would not have made that much difference since not much sleeping takes place on the 30 hour journey.
The train is Russian, the staff is Chinese and the dining car is Chinese. The scenery was beautiful as we wound our way through Northern China, many farms and as we got to the Mountains we crossed many rivers and streams that actually had clear water running in them, rare in central China. Then a long stretch through Inner Mongolia and the beginning of the Gobi desert. There was a thunder storm as well as a sand storm, the latter lasted much of the trip through the Gobi. At about 8:30 p.m. we stopped at the last town in China where they take every one's passport and tell you to get off the train for two hours. There is a duty free shopping store and a lounge but nothing else. When we returned to the platform the train was gone. Not to panic though, as they had to move the train down the track to lift it up to change the under-carriage from Chinese to Russian because the tracks in Mongolia are Russian. At about midnight we started to roll once again but only for about 20 minutes then another stop where the Mongolia security comes aboard and takes every ones passport and says stay on the train, two hours later they bring the passports back and soon we are on our way, this time with a Mongolian dining car.
We traveled through the night and arrived in UB at 1:30p.m.. What a difference. The capital of this country is rough. The first four people we had conversations with told the same story, don't carry anything of value in any of your pockets or purse or packs. The pickpockets or plentiful and proficient.We were both looking forward to a hot shower after the long train ride but it seems that the capital city has a main hot water system that is being repaired this time of year. Better not to have hot water in the summer than in winter. The streets are grubby and the buses are old and beaten. We are going to the natural history museum tomorrow but won't stay here too long.

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