Mongolia
Customs…one of those great equalizers. To leave Russia you have
to entertain a half-dozen officials representing various agencies. We had the
taciturn passport man with his electronic passport reader. Then the stone-faced
customs lady who wanted to see the luggage, which we had to pull out from under
our seats. Then some guy in military camouflage who looked like he just wanted
to nap popped in. Then the dog ran through our cabin and you hoped it was not
food motivated. It was like the Marx Brothers with all the people in our
compartment and in the hallway. After about 90 minutes the train left to cross
the border – pulling into Mongolian Customs about 20 minutes later.
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| Yurt and Cattle Enclosure - Mongolia |
The Mongolians also came as
a group. The first lady was from Customs and she dazzled in a pair of yak-skin
fur boots with fancy trim facing the front. She was very proud of her boots and
they were only 10 years old; we were told. Next came the immigration guy in
his nifty green uniform. He had us fill in a form which we marked for transit and he took away our passports. About an hour later he returned them with a
green “Mongolia” entry stamp. A cute border guard then sternly came in, clad in
camouflage, and made a cursory look about the compartment. Another 90 minutes
and we were off, compliments of the Mongolian Railroad, which hooked up a
diesel locomotive. The engineer was quickly dubbed “Joltin’ Joe” for obvious
reasons. We almost vacated our bunks involuntarily when the train severely
lurched as we began to leave the station.
We arrived at Ulanbataar, the capital and major city of
Mongolia, around 0630. We were now running on local time, finally freed from
the clutches of Moscow. This is the home stretch, about 1054 miles to Beijing.
Just one more night on the road in “hard sleeper” class. Seems these bunks get
less comfortable with each passing night.
We left the city after about an hour layover. Soon, we were in the country, with fair snow
on the ground and looking cold. In the distance we could see snow covered
mountains. It was a beautiful sight.
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| Snow on the Mountains - Westeren Mongolia |
The train climbed into the mountains where the whiteness
surrounded us. The view was worth the trip. As we began to drop into the valley
the snow lessened and the vegetation disappeared. We were entering the Gobi
Desert, second only to the Sahara in size.
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| Ponies Grazing in the Gobi Desert |
There was some snow, but
generally the ground was bare. Small patches of vegetation were evident,
grasses and weeds, but nothing of consequence. We soon saw groups of gazelles,
about the size of a goat, wandering around. They seemed to be always around when
you looked out a window. Here and there were villages and settlements, with
permanent homes and many fenced lots with yurts inside the enclosure. Some
enclosures had animals, mostly horses and cattle. Along the way we saw complexes
like small ranches, with wide open range land around them.
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| Cattle and Gazelles Grazing in the Gobi Desert |
One of the unusual sights of the day was a monument in honor of the first Mongolian cosmonaut. It is located in Choyr, a small town southeast of Ulanbattar. The train stopped just long enough to get a picture.
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| Mongolian Cosmonaut Monument - Choyr |
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