After a short sleep, we got up at about 6am, packing up what we hadn’t last night, and with one last double check of our room, headed to the Beijing Railroad Station, located conveniently and intentionally across the road from our hotel. We were on the cusp of beginning our Trans-Mongolian railway journey.
Our experience with Rail stations in China could be described simply as erratic and hectic. Beijing Rail Station, even at six in the morning was no different, but with both of us a bit more seasoned in Chinese rail stations, we were able to make our way through confidently. Enough time for Anna to have a Taiwanese breakfast (wonton soup with youtiao), and myself shamelessly indulging in a sausage egg mcmuffin. Just a few minutes later, it was boarding time.
We dropped our bags in our two bunk room with our very own private bathroom, a perk of being in first class, and spent a bit of time figuring out what knobs did what, and how to keep our space somewhat uncluttered.
At just before a quarter past 7, we felt a slight bump in our compartment, and like a ball rolling down a hill we were off. Our journey has begun. First order of business, take a nap.
Leaving Beijing the landscape was filled with dramatic cliffs and mountains eventually turning into endless green fields and the power line that would hug us in parallel all the way to when we reached the border.
We had our first of what would be many instant noodles during our trip, meanwhile our conductors were busy making dumplings, stir fries and various other delicious looking foods that would be unavailable to us on the less than appetizing dining cart menu.
Most of our train ride involved a lot of relaxing. With free hot water for our trip we indulged in cups of hot tea (the Trans-Mongolian was in fact originally a caravan that brought tea from China into Russia) while reading books and watching movies, and of course staring out the window.
With our door open we eventually made some friends, an older Canadian couple who were also doing the Trans-Mongolian, but were going to be in Mongolia for nearly two weeks doing the whole big trip to the Gobi desert via small propeller plane (which as our blog title suggests me and Anna were not keen for). They were a lovely couple and were nice to have some other English speakers to grumble for our upcoming long delay.
At 8pm we reached Erlian, where a Chinese immigration officer came by and added our passports to a stack on her sleeve and walked off leaving us passport less through the changeover. This would turn out to be a long, long process due to the fact that the rails on Mongolia’s side are exactly 85mm wider than the rails we sat on. This meant that we would all be locked in our train cars with no access to facilities for the duration of the change, where each car would be individually lifted and a cohort of questionable competency changed the wheels to the wider gauge. It wouldn’t be until close to midnight before this was done and the officers politely returned our passports.
Of course once we coasted for about 30 minutes into Mongolia, another passport check was necessary, and a now Mongolian officer would come by and just like her Chinese contemporary would add our passports to her sleeve, and spend the next two hours examining whether we were who we claimed to be. The process went smoothly but we would not be free and clear until after 2am. The both of us exhausted, but relieved, finally went to sleep.
We would wake up the next morning to a dramatically different landscape in a new country. Endless rolling hills spattered with the occasional ger accompanied with flocks of sheeps, and lazy cow herds, not to mention a significant drop in temps from 31C to 20C, quite a relief for both of us.
