Goodbye Mongolia

We left the camp, passing a place where men had eagles and vultures tethered to poles. It’s horrible to see these noble birds in that situation. We got back to Ulaan Bataar in the late morning. We had time to stock up with provisions for the train to Irkutsk, and dash into town to the cashmere shop - apparently Mongolia has the best - we’ll see!

By the time we got to the station it was suddenly really cold and started to snow, though it had been quite hot an hour esrlier.

The new train is Russian, and though very clean, the compartments are a bit smaller so it is a squash, esp to get the big bags in the bins under the seats. We are sharing with young Norwegians Stig and Rebecca.

The scenery was lovely - high pastures and snowy mountains. Mark, an Englishman from Norfolk, came calling. They’d anticipated a convivial evening in the restaurant car BpBut there is no restaurant car. So we shared our crisps and vodka. It was a party, till the provonistsa (Russian woman in charge of the compartment) told us no alcohol was allowed. We shut the door!

. The border crossing took ages. First the Mongolian exit procedure. It started at 10.10 pm, toilets closed for hours. Then a 20 minute window with a queue to the loo. By midnight the loos were closed again and the Russians were aboard. A chap came to the compartment. “Stand up,” so in turn we got up while he looked at our passports and photographed stuff and had a red light on some of it, and gave us a good hard stare. After him came a sniffer dog, then customs people opened Rebecca’s rucksack. By now it was 1.30 am and I made up my bed and fell asleep. 45 minutes later the train started. It was so nice to sleep with the train rolling along. Lake Baikal in the morning.