North to Siberia

Our train left just after 1:00 the next day, and this was the long train: five days, Ulaanbaatar to Moscow. Our compartment was not lovely, no ac, not even a fan. This train was the local train, not the fancy foreigner train that runs from Beijing. But at least we had cozy blankets! It was cool at night. We were the only Caucasians on board, except for an English couple 9 cars ahead of us. Our car was filled with Mongolian traders who had purchased piles of things from China and were on their way to sell them in Russia. They didn’t speak much Chinese, and our Mongolian was up to one word: “barlachha” – which is approximately the way to say thank you.

The first night, we hit Russia. First we had to change the bogies of the train, the undercarriage has to fit the tracks, and Russia, with their superior engineering, decided to space the rails farther apart. This is a four-hour procedure, and we were shuffled off the train to go inside and shop. An entire train full of people in a small grocery filled up on food for five days. Their was a dining car, but it wasn’t as tasty as instant ramen noodles. We bought as much as we could carry.