Dawn brought Lake Baikal on one side and mountains on the other, the lake going on for several hours. Very beautiful and blue with a cloudless sky and edged with the gold of Autumn. Even from the train it was possible to see through the water.
An interesting smell is permeating this end of the carriage. Our carriage attendant is cooking a stew for lunch on the coal fire and although this is Russia, tis a Chinese train so we can listen to the latest hits from Beijing as he cooks.
We are back in a mix of forests and hills and the train is climbing.
In a couple of hours we reach Ulan Ude where we leave the main Trans Siberian line and branch off onto the Trans Mongolian line heading south. The line was built after WW2. Until then it was still a camel track.
Now in Ulan Ude. This is the kind of "frontier" town you expect. A glitzy city centre with new buildings and roads, and the worst third world outskirts. Piles of rubbish at the end of each dusty dirty street. The houses nothing more than shacks. Even the newer areas, while clearly more affluent with new houses being built still have piles of rubbish. Even outside the town the rubbish is strewn everywhere.
At Ulan Ude we became a diesel train. No electricity on the Trans Mongolian. The coal was re-bunkered and the mail and freight unloaded/loaded including some steel roofing for someone along the line. This a twice weekly working train.
Had early lunch/dinner as we lose the Russian dining car at the border, and we had been told there was no more food till we reach Ulaanbaatar, where we get off. So noodles tonight.
Countryside here is very dry, flat grassy plain with high hills surrounding. Occasional herds of horses and near towns some cows and sheep. This all interspersed with industrial sites, mines etc. appearing in the distance.
Heading south to the border.
At 6pm we reached the Russian border station, which is still several kms inside Russia. Passports taken, engine taken away and restaurant car also gone, so now we sit, a collection of carriages in an otherwise deserted station, as the sun sets.
A walk along the platform, visit the only shop in town opposite the station - we only buy
chocolate - (we already have wine to ease down the noodles), and we wait for the authorities to let us go.
We are now in Mongolia, through the customs etc. It has taken us nearly 6 hours since we arrived at the Russian border - 4 hours in Russia. They searched the roof, climbed underneath, brought dogs through twice, and checked the train with troops along the line as we crossed through the electrified barbed wire border fence which came right up to the rail line!
Didn't seem appropriate to take photos!
The Mongolians much easier, gave the train a cursory search, probably figured that if the Russians didm't find it then they wouldn't. Still took two hours though. Six hours to cross 20 kms.
The loos are locked during all this, except for the 15 mins or so it took between the Russian fence and the Mongolian border post. The "healthy option" salad eaters were queing in the isles.
We bought a beer from our friendly carriage attendant for aperitif during this time, and were rewarded with a jug of boiling water for our later noodles from his special stash. The coal bunkers had been sealed during the border crossing, so no hot water for the less favoured.
A large man in colourful costume marched along the train, announcing in English "the Mongolian dining car is now open". Had we known! Our Chinese guard didn't tell the whole truth ..... Too late we cried, already satiated on pot noodles .......
To bed, and up at 5 am. Ulaan Baator at 6.30.
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