The Trans-Siberian Railway – from Russia via Mongolia to China

Mongolia – The 4th country on our journey round the world.

Irkutsk to Ulan Bataar
2nd class, sleeper

We met some nice people on the train. We shared our compartment with two young women from Iceland and met a nice couple from the Netherlands. Everyone was excited finally to have somebody to talk to on the train ride, because everybody had made the experience of sharing the compartment with someone and not having a shared language to communicate. Tom was especially happy, because he could practice his Dutch language skills again.

During the first stop of the boarder crossing process (Russian border / Nauschki) someone looked at our passports. After that we could leave the train. It was a hot day but unfortunately nobody sold ice cream or something to drink on the platform The railway personal rearranged the couches, so we were connected to the Mongolian train. After that we had to get back in again. Than the “real” controls started. Toms experience: “Get up” she ordered me and looked at my picture in the passport. Than her eyes lay on me, sharp and professional. I looked back but had a hard time not to laugh because – I have to admit – with my beard growing since Argentina it was for sure not easy for her to see the same person as on the passport picture After about 5 hrs we all got our stamp in the passport and the train moved further to the Mongolian border (Ulan Suche) were we had to fill out two forms and our passports were collected again. After a while our passports were given back to us, with the entry stamp on the last page?! Controls were not over before they searched all compartments again.

Tip
Have a look at the station clock on the Mongolian side of the boarder. Our phones showed a time two hours different from this clock.

Ulan Bataar

Hostel Golden Gobi
We were picked up from the train station by one of the hostel and had a nice simple breakfast at the hostel. In the morning Ogie (one of the owners) planed our trip with us and tailored it exactly to our behave. The first night we slept in a dorm. Returning from our tour we stayed here as well, this time in a double room with shared bathroom.

Tip:
If you have a light sleep you need ear plugs in the dorms, because the wooden beds make squeaking sounds.
After 7 days in the outback of Mongolia, a private room is the best choice 😉

As we went to the big Sukhbataar Square in the afternoon we saw bus loads of very well dressed boys and girls, with flowers at their hands and cocades at their skirts and jackets and a lot of really, really high heels. They all took a photograph in front of the big Khan statue at the Parliament and some opened a bottle of sparkling wine – although public drinking of alcohol is prohibited in Mongolia. It was the day of the end of school or graduation for many.

In the late afternoon we met with Bas and Laya from the train ride and drank a beer at the nearby Irish Pub and went from there to a The Bull a Hot Pot Restaurant. It was such a very nice evening, so uncomplicated and easygoing. We talked about so many different topics, even serious ones and had fun together. We hope, that we will meet them again!

The Bull Hot Pot
We ordered for 4 persons:
Beef broth, tomato soup, spicy soup, Mongolian beef bone soup, sesame sauce, hoisin sauce, chilly oil, seasoned cucumber, prawn balls and fish balls, tender lamb, chicken meat, beef and pork rolls, vegetable combo big, sea kelp rolls (out unfortunately), homemade noodles, fried rice, dumplings, 3 beer, 1 red wine, 2 bottles of water and the bill all together was 104.000 MNT = 52 €

Souvenirs
For a nice wide choice of fair traded and not expensive souvenirs go to “Mary and Martha”. They are located in a side street of Peace Street (look out for the hugh sign at Peace Avenue that guides you the way).

Golden Gobi Tour

Our driver: Nima a man of maybe around 50 years, married, 3 sons. He had such a calm deep voice, although we didn’t understood what he said, we liked to listen to him talking. He had all the ways, even the cross country ones, in his head. His head was a GPS by itself. In his van he had a NASA sticker, because he drove two times for them. For us he would be the best driver for a manned mission to Mars!

Our guide: Ogy, a Mongolian woman of 41 years, married, with a son serving his year in the military. Always a smile on her face and a joke on her lips. She cooked tasty lunches in the back of the van for us. Her great dream is to have her own fruit garden with golden berries and make a business out of it.

Our van: Uyz Porgan, a Russian 4WD. Simply the best!!!!

Day 1
We drove first to Ulan Bator’s war memorial from where you have a good view over the city. Ulan Bator today is a modern city with many skyscrapers, at least in the center. Ogy explained a lot about Mongolian life today.
From here we drove to Gorkh-Terelj National Park with nice stone formations but further more unspectacular. At a sight called the cave of the 100 we climbed to see the cave with about a hundred school kids – total chaos because the stones were slippery.
The evening we spend with a Kazah family. They had a new born daughter and we prepared dinner with them. In the process we learned how to make noodles. After dinner the family had still some work to do. They had to catch their cows and give them some medicine. The night we slept in a ger (yurt), which was very colorful and cozy. We slept on the floor.

Day 2
We had breakfast (fried bread, butter and fresh cooked butter with milk, dried cheese and dried yoghurt) and went of to the giant Chinggis Khan Monument. As we arrived there was a black out in the power system – Ulan Bator itself had no power – which meant that there was no light inside and so the two small museums were closed.
From the outside we saw how difficult it must be for a state like Mongolia to maintain such a monument, because finished in 2010 today the main staircase has many broken parts already. Seems there is no money for maintenance left.
In the afternoon, after a little rain shower, we made a walk to a sight were two square pillars with Turk encryptions stand from around 700 A.D. They are only protected by a little fence, that was open the time we visited.
The second night, the second Kazah family. As the first they generated power from the sun and wind. And as the first they had to vaccinate their cows. They had 3 young children between 1 – 5 and grandma and grandpa. A tasty noodle soup was our dinner and for desert the dad and his 5 year old son sang and danced for us some traditional Kazah and Mongolian songs. During the night they took care of the fire in our ger and refilled it with dung.

Day 3
After fresh pancake stripes with butter, marmalade and hot milk tea we were again on our way but not without leaving some cookies for the kids. We drove to Baga Gazriin Chuluu, a fascinating granite rock formation in the middle of the dusty plain. This easy to climb rocks look as if they crumble to dust for ages. They are in layers and we were wondering all the time how this formations were formed. Not far from here was our next home stay for the night. We were welcomed with a cup of fresh made yoghurt. The tradition wants it, that you have to clean the cup with your tongue, not to waste anything. The Buddhist family had a 3 year old sun, tied at one side of the ger. They do this to protect him i.e. from the oven, because they have leave the ger often.
For Dinner Ogy cooked a Mongolian Hot Stone BBQ, which turned out to be a little bit different to what we had expected. After the mutton meat was cooked with some vegetables she put the still glowing stones out of the dung fired oven into the pot. Some time later we had a very tasty meal that we ate with bare hands.
In the middle of the night I (Tom) had to go to the pit latrine. It was pitch black outside and the wind swirled up the dust. On my way a saw suddenly to eyes staring at me. Some wild animal, or maybe just the house cat? The house dog however ran left from me into the dark, because he didn’t give a bark I did what I had to do and was glad to be in the ger again.
The pit latrines are a chapter for themselves to write about. Only holes in the ground with huts around it, some even didn’t have a roof or a door. By using them sometimes you have a great view while “sitting on the toilette’, but sometimes it feels strange if your hosts walk by while herding the sheep…

Day 4
For breakfast we had fresh made yogurt with fruits, bread with sweet butter and hot milk tea. Again we drove threw an area that looked like Mars after the first terra forming effort.
We picked up two Suisse guys from the bus station that joined us for the next days and travelled on.
After a time on the highway we took a short cut and drove for hours cross country. Here the landscape looked even more like Mars. As we made our first stop a camel looked curious in our direction. A bit further Ogy shouted “Gazelles”. Over the hills a herd fled us in an enormous tempo until only the wind carried the dust that they whirled up away. The day ended at Bayanzag, the Flaming Cliffs. 65 million years before this area was an ocean. Standing on top of the cliffs we only heard the wind and saw the red glowing sandstone. We were reminded on our tour the year before to the Ichityosaurus State Park (Belin, Nevada, USA), were 65 million years ago was an ocean as well. At this place also the first dinosaur eggs were found!
We spend the night in a ger, but this time without the family connection.

Day 5
After breakfast at 8 o’clock we went on cross country driving. Again we saw gazelles. As we drove through a valley flanked by mountain ranges on the right and left we saw a light green carpet covering the bottom. We drove over a pass to come into the next valley. As we were on top we could see Khongoryn Els, the “Singing Dunes”. Actually more like a mountain range of sand. We drove to our camp for the night, had lunch and some rest. Camel riding was next. It reminded me (Tom) of a book of my childhood: Karl May, Through The Desert. It was great! The quietness, only the wind howling and than the girl riding the lead camel started singing and old traditional song. I would have loved riding on, but after an hour we returned.
For me (Claudia) 1 hour was enough. If you are not used to this movements on the camelback your bud can start aching 😉 But all in all I enjoyed it very much. It was a very contemplating walk. I also remembered my first camel ride in 1992 in Tunisia. That time I was really scared the camel could bite my feet… This time I only thought it’s funny when the camel started to scratch its nose on my knees 😀
Off from the camel back in the van: We drove to Khongoryn Els (the dunes) to climb them. 2600 feet can be very high in these temperatures and it felt like climbing in deep snow. So, Claudia and I only made it half way, but the view was even great from there. Of course the Suisse guys made it to the top and said that is was worth the effort.
In the evening we played with Ogy a Mongolian game we sheep ankle bones. That was fun!

Day 6
As we went for brushing our teeth the family was already busy to scheren the camels. Ogy and Nima helped them.
We drove east along Khongoryn Els. For more than an hour on a light green carpet where horses grazing with their new born foals. A little further we saw camels standing in between dots of little violet flowers. As the dunes vanished another even bigger sand plane opened up before us.
To reach Yolyn Am (Yol Canyon), Eagle Canyon, we wanted to drive through another canyon but ice still blocked the way. We could walk through and Nima picked us up on the other side. After a short drive we reached Yolyn Am and walked along and over ice. Although about 10 years ago 5 m thick, today much thinner it is still beautiful. We were lucky as well, because we saw wild mountain goats on a mountain top and three eagles in the sky.
For the night we stayed in Dalanzadgad. A small city with some brick houses but more gers behind wooden fences… times change – even in Mongolia. Ogy made “lazy dumplings” for dinner, yummy! We (mother and son, The Swiss guys and us) slept all together – except for Nima and Ogy who slept in the van – in the ger.

Day 7
We returned to Ulan Bataar not by local bus as planed, but with another tourist guide & driver who had to go to the capital and otherwise would have driven alone.

Tips for such a tour

Bring some wipes, because there will be no shower!

Bring your own toilet paper – there is none available.

The stay with nomadic families is much more interesting than staying in a tourist camp.

Bring something to treat yourself. Pit latrines and long bumpy rides can be tough sometimes. As well your driver and guide deserve a little thank you after a long day.

Think about how much water you need. The tour offered 1,5 liters which was a bit sparse for Tom who needs 3 liters on a warm day.

Bring a loaded power bank for your electric device(s) and think about how much power your camera needs. Better pack an additional battery. Some gers have electric power, but they have to generate it by solar or wind power.

We spend one more day in Ulan Bataar. At breakfast we had a nice conversation with a woman from Seattle and a woman from India. Zoe from Seattle gave us good tips afterwards for the south-west of China. After that we talked to Christine from Switzerland about her work for a kids camp. We talked about our experience at our short tour in Mongolia. We had dinner with a guy from Argentina and a Dutch guy. We love these multi national days!!!

The following day we boarded our train to Beijing, China.

Thank you for reading so far. If you like to find out how the last part of our Trans Siberian Railway journey turned out and how we travelled on from Beijing to the south-west of China on our trip around the world, you can read it  here.

Safe travels
Claudia & Tom