Farewell Russia... Hello Mongolia...

As borders go the Russian-Mongolia one is an infuriating experience. It's renowned for being time consuming, a massive delay is even built into the train schedule. We pulled into the Russian border station at 12pm and were informed that nothing would be happening until at least 4:30pm. There wasn't another train in sight so it is hard to see what the delay was. The choice was to sit on the train or to wander around the village. The village proved to be tiny and doable in 15 minutes flat so it was back to the train to play the waiting game. We travelled Kupe class this time sharing a compartment with an English couple Steve and Sarah. Out of boredom we decided to spend the last of our roubles on sweet cakes and some beers and let the hours drift by. It's important to note that during this entire time the toilets are locked, this causes problems even for the most dehydrated traveller let only anyone consuming extra liquids. Steve got handy with his leatherman and managed to let everyone into the toilet whilst Marcus distracted the provodnitsa with a barrage of questions.

Other travellers have warned us about this particular train, it is regularly used to smuggle goods over the border and for this reason custom officers take a long time checking all the nooks and crannys. Our whole carriage was full of western tourists so we missed out on any smuggling action - not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. After a few more hours we pulled away from the Russian border into no-mans-land to be met at the Mongolian border by smiles and female border officiers dressed in short black skirts and knee high boots. We've definitely left Russia behind!!! An overnight journey brought us into the city of Ulaan Baatar and for the first time on this trip we were met by a "Marcus and Dee" idiot board giving us a smooth ride to our guesthouse.

The minute you hit Ulaan Baatar you know you're in Asia. The dusty city bustles with activity, minivans accelerate towards you, accommodation prices drop dramatically and life becomes a little bit more relaxed. Shirking relaxation time we hooked up with old friends Rog and Cindy from Canada and left the very next day for a 10 day trip around the wilds of Mongolia.