Trans-Mongolian Day 5

Mongolia is definately more interesting than Russia. Massive plains as far as you can see, and really friendly people at the stations. Everyone in my carriage got out at Ulaanbaatar, but then I got 3 new room-mates. 2 English guys - P.E. teachers from the same school in London (i'd always had suspicions about P.E. teachers) who'd had to bribe their way onto the train, and a crazy Chinese guy, who was going to be the prime source of entertainment for the rest of the journey.

This chap was clearly a smuggler. Bag after bag was brought on and stuffed away in various compartments. He tried to hide some contraband underneath my backpack, which was swiftly thrown back in his direction (we'd heard that the customs officials on the Chinese border were pretty unforgiving.) He laughed. "You're a sneaky little bastard aren't you?" He nodded appreciatively.

The Gobi Desert

Passed through the Gobi Desert in the afternoon. Stupidly, I'd left the window open as we all had a nap, and we woke up coughing as our cabin was now full of dust and none of us could breath. I did the only decent thing, and blamed the guy that couldn't speak English.

Mongolian customs and Chinese customs followed late at night, through which our sneaky little companion passed without a hitch.

One day away from getting off the train!

written by

olliejohnson on August 13, 2006 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

from the travel blog: A man from Cockshutt.

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