Days 276 to 278 - Wed Aug 5 to Fri Aug 7 - The Trans-Mangolian Railway: Beijing to Ulan Ude

We arrive at the train station at around 6:45 am for train K3 from Beijing to Ulan Ude via Mongolia.


Our cabin is small and cozy with 4 beds, a fan and a table. There's enough room in the cabin to stand up, turn around, play the guitar and stretch. The first day, we receive two meal vouchers each. When we arrive at the restaurant wagon to use our lunch vouchers, we are served a a simple lunch of rice, fried celery and mystery-meatballs. We try to identify the meat.

"Canned flakes of ham?" says Pierre.

We share a table with a young couple from Luxembourg who are part of a larger party of Luxembourgers on their way to Ulan Battar for a colleagues' wedding. We run into the couple again several times, once at dinner ("Mystery meatballs again") and once again at the China-Mongolia border crossing at around 8:30 pm. Everyone is ushered off the train while it's taken into the shop to undergo a few adjustments to be compatible with Russian and Mongolian train tracks. The Luxembourgers and the rest of the wedding attendees invite us over to their part of the platform to take part in their trainside vodka party. Pierre plays a bit of guitar while we visit and wait to be let back on the train. We're let back on around 1:30 am.


Pierre and I sleep soundly and have a breakfast of instant oatmeal and fruit in our cabin (no meal vouchers for the Mongolian leg of the journey). The countryside has changed drastically since the previous night, and we are already past the Gobi desert and into the wide, green, rolling Mongolian steppes. The train rolls through small towns and settlements, past groups of children and adults riding across the plain on horseback or motorcycle, past muddy fenced yards that surround either simple wood houses or the white circular shapes of low, cloth-covered traditional gers.


At every stop of the train, Pierre and I wait for another passenger to come and occupy the upper bunks of our cabin, but eventually we realize that we may have the cabin to ourselves for our whole trip. It's a comfortable way to travel, and though I've never travelled much on trains, the experience feels nostalgic. It reminds me of travelling in the back of an old camper while driving across Canada.

We close our cabin door and fix most of our meals in the cabin - simple snacks of fruit, cups of soup and peanut butter sandwiches. At the end of Day 227 we break down and head to the food cart. We are surprised that the run-down comfort of the Chinese restaurant wagon has been swapped for a gorgeous Mongolia restaurant wagon. The walls, tables and doors are all carved from a warm, golden wood and there are traditional weapons (bow and arrow), saddles and clothing hanging on the walls. We have a quick meal of Mongolian noodle soup, fried roast beef and fries, and then disappear back into our cabin to enjoy the sunset.

Crossing the Mongolian-Russian border is a long tedious process that starts just after sunset at around 8:30 pm, with border guards collecting our passports and visas. This is followed by customs forms (filled out in duplicate), more passport checks and several hours of waiting. When we finally get our passports back at 2:00 am, we're finally allowed off the train to use the bathroom. (The train bathrooms are locked during any stop.) We brush our teeth, wash our faces, go back to the wagon to sleep and barely notice when the train finally starts moving again a few hours later.