Trans-Siberian Railway 1 - To Mongolia and the Gobi Dessert

Greetings from the Trans-Siberian Railway!

Photos: http://transsiberianrailwayexperience.shutterfly.com/

Leaving Beijing was both an exhilarating and incredibly sad affair, and I was so exhausted by the time I got on the train at 7am that I honestly don't remember too much of the journey until we arrived in Erlian (the Chinese border town) at abut 9pm.You have the option of getting off or staying on the train when it goes off to change the 'bogeys' (the train wheels). They do this because the train tracks are different on the Mongolian/Russia side and the whole thing takes about three hours. I thought the train attendant had said we could still see the process from the station (my final example of how-my-mandarin-isn't-up-to-scratch) so I got off with my cabin mates to stockpile food, get some air and have a stretch.

Now, we were warned that the train bathrooms are locked 30 minutes before and after we arrive at the station, which is part of the reason I got off the train. What I didn't realise was that they remained locked throughout the whole border crossing until we pulled away on the Mongolian side, which was another two hours after we were allowed back on. Still in my Chinese habit of constantly drinking green tea, I got back on the train already needing to use the facilities and the wait through two passport checks and customs was, by the end of it, excruciating. Since watching Ewan Macgregor's “The Long Way Round” a few years ago I've been desperate to see Mongolia, but I never thought I'd be quite this as desperate and quite in this way. Luckily, I'd made friends with the Chinese carriage attendant who saw me hopping around and unlocked a lavatory early for me. He earned a bag of sweets off me for that one.

The officialdom of the border crossing was interesting. It was about 2am by the time it was all over, and I needed to be up at 5am for my first stop so my sleep deprivation experiment continued into Day 7. And I thought I would be able to catch up on rest on this trip! But of course it's all been so worth is, and at 05:30 I got off in Sainshand, the town on the edge of the Gobi Desert and my first Trans-Siberian Railway stop.

The Gobi Desert is nothing short of breathtakingly beautiful. Some people would (and have, see next paragraph) say there's nothing to see in a desert but I think its one of the most beautiful vistas Nature has to offer. The Gobi far surpassed all my expectations, though the same cannot be said by my travel companions.

Here I should mention that I made arrangements for this trip through a specialised Trans-Siberian travel company. They arranged all my tickets, transfers, accommodations, visas and the occasional guide to help with travel and language difficulties. I always planned this trip as a sojourn, but I decided to book through this company to avoid all the difficulties I knew could and would arise. I chose Monkey Shrine because they were by far the best value and very specifically differentiate themselves from being a “tour group”. There is no hand holding, shopping trips, and no flags! But, I was informed there were two others traveling on the same schedule as me from Beijing all the way to Moscow, which I was a little apprehensive about. So I emailed my soon-to-be companions and found out that they were a couple in their 70s who had travelled around the world and sounded quite lovely so I thought all would be well. Ha. But I'm not going to waste my time or yours by writing more about their racist, petty negative attitudes. I just ignored them as much as possible, and not a thing in this world was going to ruin my trip.

Anyway! Mongolia: We were met at the train station by the sparkling Orkhon, our Mongolian guide. There isn't much in the town of Sainshand, it's a gateway to the Gobi Desert and an old coal mining town and we drove straight through to where we were staying about 30 mins out of the city. It was properly dawn as we drove and as the sun rose, illuminating the desert, it hit me, 'Oh my god, I'm really here. I'm in Mongolia! I'm in the Gobi Desert!' And I felt all the tiredness of the last few weeks just melt away as we pulled into the ger camp.

Gers are the traditional houses of the Mongolian nomads (similar to 'yurts' in Russia) and the ger in the camp where amazingly comfortable. Certainly comfier than my dinky “studio” apartment in Beijing. I spent many wonderful hours sitting in the shade writing in my journal, and I was constantly taking photos. Actually, doing that on my first evening almost got me in a bit of a pickle.

I went for a walk after dinner because the sunset was so breathtakingly beautiful. I took nearly 90 photos of that one sunset alone! I walked westward, stopping every few minutes to take a few more shots and walked to the power lines I'd thought would be photogenic. I spend ages composing shots, and used the self timer to take a few fun shots of myself. Then (and I have Golo to thank for this), I turned around to see the view behind and saw strange clouds rolling toward me. Typical me, I just think “Wow, cool!” and start taking photos of it. By the time I had taken just one I realised it was gaining on me at a rate of a few hundred meters a second and oh, wait, holy crap it's a ruddy great big sandstorm.

Grabbing my stuff, I headed back to camp and noted I'd gone a little further than I realised and that it was a good five minute walk back. Checking over my shoulder I guessed I had about half that before it hit but I wasn't worried as I was well within view and I wouldn't get lost, just a little dusty. It was just getting a little sandy when I see one of the camp's van come screeching out toward me and lurch to a halt, door flying open. “Michelle!” Orkhon calls, “Come in!” I get in and poor Orkhon was breathing so hard it was like she'd run a marathon. “Oh Michelle!” she pants, laughing “The desert can be very dangerous! Change very fast! I look and look, where is Michelle?”. I couldn't help it, I laughed, and apologised repeatedly to both her and the driver for having to come get me. By the time we got back to camp it'd well and truly hit, so we all retreated to our gers to wait it out. Hilarious! Typical me, talking so many photos I nearly get caught in a sandstorm.

Well, that wasn't our only sandstorm either, we had a fantastic one right as we were leaving to go to our next stop. Just wait til I get the photos up, it'll blow you away. The other driver apparently said to Orkhon that I'd had three good omens (the two sandstorms and seeing the snakes) and so it meant I might marry a Mongolian man. I think he was offering, bless him, though I doubt he'd be so keen if he knew I was close to 30; in Mongolian that's considered to be middle aged!

So the Gobi was the perfect start to my trip and a side of Mongolia not many people see. From there I went to Ulaan Bataar, the capital city, and saw the other side of life in Mongolia...