Today Wendel and I arrived in Mongolia after a 30-hour train ride. We took train K23 from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar. We left Beijing at the crack of dawn right on time. The train was full of sleeper cars and we were in a compartment with four beds. An Australian named Kate joined us for the journey. From Beijing we headed north through China’s Inner Mongolia. The smoggy air of Beijing finally started to clear up a bit as we neared the Mongolian border.
Just before midnight we arrived at the border town of Erlian in China. There, the train had to change wheels to accommodate for the different track gauge of Mongolia. It took forever but was cool because each car was lifted up so the Chinese wheels could be rolled out and the Mongolia wheels attached.
As we rode the train we noticed that the sky is bigger here. Everything is of a larger scale. The mountains looked huge and far away. Animals grazing in the distance looked like ants against the wild grassland. Overnight we passed through the northeastern Gobi Desert. By daylight we were on the vast Mongolian steppe. Yurts huddled around small buildings dotted the hillsides as the train weaved its way through the lowest spots.
Ulaanbaatar is a small and pretty run down place. It only seems that way to us because we’re not used to sidewalks with potholes all over them. Our guesthouse is small but comfortable. A Mongolian dude named Bolod who is fluent in English, French, Russian and Italian runs the place. As soon as he realized we were American he sat us down at the kitchen table and asked us about the Presidential Election. We immediately voiced out support for Obama but he was skeptacle. We thinks McCain will win in November and quizzed us on why we like Obama.
We walked around town for a bit. I found the Chinese Embassy and inquired about my visa. (I’ll have to apply in July.) Then we walked around Sukhbaatar Square where the capital buildings are. They follow the communist monumentalism that is common in Beijing.
We booked plane tickets to Irkutsk for next week. That gives us only a few days in Russia but from what we’ve been told that will be alright. Now we get to plan a several night trek through the Mongolian wilderness.
