Mongolia – Getting there is half the battle

I left for Mongolia with the plan to fly to Beijing, use public transportation to get to my hotel for an overnight and then walk to the train station for the 30 hour train ride to Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Ulan Bator will be referred to as UB from now on.
The flight was no problem; I collected my bags and headed for the express train to downtown Beijing. There was little help in determining which stop to get off, so I guessed (wrong) and proceeded to a subway train to get to my hotel. The subways are very crowded and people have decided that others take up too much space so they just push and shove their way onto the train. (Unlike Japan where there are people who actually shove passengers on, this is an individual choice born of necessity where people shove their way on board.) I allowed myself to be pushed for the first two stops as the train continued to get more crowded. At the third stop, whoever began pushing me was instantly expelled from the train by the force of my backside and very heavy camera bag. (I actually took out two as they fell like bowling pins.) Two stops later, I got off and had to transfer to a 2nd subway. This was even more crowded than the first. It was so jammed walking between the trains that many in the crowd were taking photos of how crowded it was. I finally got to the track, found an Expat who spoke English and confirmed my belief on which stop to exit and boarded this train. Again, the pushing started so a few more bowling pins went flying and I finally got to my correct stop. (My old hockey buddies would have been pretty proud of me, but I didn't do much for East-West relations.)
Happy to be walking, I went where I was directed and found myself facing a 50 stair climb to street level which is not usually an issue but with a 20 lb backpack, having to also hoist my 55 lb duffel made for a fun experience. I was instantly repelled by the rain that settled in forcing me to get my rain-gear on, and climb. At street level, I again made a mistake and proceeded quickly in the wrong direction. The issue was compounded by the unwillingness of taxis to stop for a Westerner with luggage. Finally, I took one of those small gas powered chariots that move people in the bike lanes. Despite having someone explain to the driver where we were going, he had no clue so he kept stopping and asking for directions (when he wasn’t making left turns in front of oncoming traffic). I eventually found the hotel and settled in.
I went out for some last minute shopping, went to sleep and got up early to head for the train. In the AM, I walked to the train station in a downpour and headed for my track. I was there early and chatted with others in line and waited to board the train. The train boarding process was pretty straightforward. You go to your car and then an assistant shows you to your cabin. When I dragged my backpack and full duffle in this cabin for two, I realized there wasn’t enough room left in there for you to change your mind, never mind having a 2nd person you weren’t married to being present. Fortunately, no one else was assigned to my cabin, in fact, in the entire rail-car that would fit 24 people; there were only 3 of us. That was nice but a bad sign that the train would not be too full of the types of characters I figured I might encounter.
The train starts rolling out of Beijing and into the countryside while I’m singing the Arlo Guthrie song, “Riding on the City of New Orleans”. As we go through the countryside I begin to wander around the train looking to see who is around. There were five people from Seattle. I could have guessed that since one of the guys was wearing a Jay Buhner Mariners jersey. Three of the young people were taking a trip as a break from teaching English in South Korea, joined by the brother and mother of the Jay Buhner fan. All four young people were Cougars from Wazzou, that’s Washington State graduates for you East Coast people, who promptly razzed me for having a Duck (Michael) and a Wildcat (Jeffrey) in my family. They also were out until 6 AM in Beijing and floated back to their hotel in time to go over to the station and catch the train. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of other interesting people on board. A couple from Alaska who have traveled to almost every country in the world were very fascinating to speak with plus a Canadian teacher on break who was bothered that Americans didn’t need a visa to go to Mongolia but Canadians did. (When I saw him later, he seemed even more bothered that his Canadian traveler’s checks were not honored in any bank in UB. Who travels with traveler’s checks anymore? Don’t they have ATMs in Canada?)The other couple in my rail-car was making a move from London to Adelaide, Australia, where she is from, while the man was a Kiwi. They had a one year old daughter and have also traveled a lot throughout Europe, Asia and the Western Hemisphere, with interesting tales to tell.
One person on board lost their train ticket before we got going. They misplaced it somewhere and here in the 3rd world, paper is everything. A lost ticket is the same as no ticket. If you want to go you can buy another ticket but otherwise, get off. No computer system to look you up by name. But, get this, if you have your ticket number, they can print you another ticket. No, it wasn’t me because I had my ticket and my ticket number. The Canadian teacher was pretty upset but had no choice except to pay again. ($273)
The train itself was a Mongolian train, with Chinese crew for the trip through China and then switching to a Mongolian crew at the border. The attendants were all Mongolian so they stayed with us for the entire trip. Here is what they looked like in their uniforms.



In the portions of China and Mongolia, we passed through some areas of natural beauty and also areas of non-natural blight as depicted in some of the included photos.



This is a ger (pronounced gair, rhymes with hair) like what I will be sleeping in for three nights.


We had a spectacular sunset, which is hopefully captured in the photos below.





Food on board was not appetizing, so I ate what I brought. The Chinese crew spent most of the trip sitting in the dining car, smoking cigarettes and drinking tea. This made the dining car a much less desirable place to be. The other westerners on board, seemingly never left their cabins. The people I chatted with on line waiting for the train were never seen again until the train station in UB.
The train information is very clear that the bathrooms will remain locked during all stops including the three hour stop to change the bogies. It seems there is very little technology in the flushing system. You flush and out of the train it goes!
So as day settled into night, we awaited the 9 PM stop at the border in Erlian, China to go through customs and change the bogies (wheels) on the trains to accommodate different size rails in Mongolia. You have the choice to stay on board and watch or go to the small town area to shop, eat or drink. I stayed. Changing the bogies required the following steps. Push the train to a covered area with the proper equipment to perform the change and onto tracks that have capability to handle both sizes of bogies, separate the rail cars so each one was an individual car with no others attached. Then, there are large pins holding the wheels onto the train structure that are removed, the train is lifted, and the bogies from all the cars are pushed away so the rail car is suspended (jacked up) with no wheels underneath. Then the new bogies are pushed into place, the train is lowered and after some adjustments for the correct position, set on top of the new bogies and the pins for these put in place. This is followed by a recollection of cars into one long group except now we had a Mongolian engine (running on coal) and a Mongolian dining car, sans the Mongolian workers who drink tea and smoke somewhere else.
Here are some photos and links to a video I shot from the train.


This is a video, there are two more on the smugmug site. You may need to start it and then hit pause so the movie downloads and it is not like I'm stuttering.



So we get moving again around midnight and everyone falls asleep, only to be awakened 30 minutes later by the Mongolian border and customs people who now want your passport to allow you to enter the country. Another 30 minute wait, everyone gets their passports back and we begin rolling again and all begin sleeping. I wake up at 6 AM and we’re in the Gobi desert, lots of sand some random buildings and not much else. Eventually, we spot some horses and camels, but no big deal. Back to bed and then off to breakfast in the amazingly clean and smoke free dining car. Almost all of the Westerners show up for breakfast and we are now getting excited about finally reaching our goal.

These were some quick grab shots taken from the train on our way in.



Up next is the day in UB with some interesting findings about life here. Jerry Seinfeld and Bruce Willis make cameo appearances in the upcoming days.