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16:30 Ulanbaatar –> Beijing

By June 26, 2014July 19th, 2014No Comments

We felt a twinge of sadness as we boarded the overnight sleeper from UlanBaatar to Beijing. This was the final leg of the Trans Mongolian Railway, which had safely carried us almost 3,000 miles. That night we were bunked up with Heinrich and Jan, two cheery Germans from somewhere unpronounceable who were both studying engineering and far more interested in the hideous iron structures we passed than the beautiful landscape.

“Bridge porn” Elliot called it, a joke they found worthy of actual tears of laughter and several rounds of high fives. Subsequently, the three of them took turns to make various lewd gestures out of the window each time we passed underneath one. Despite the high calibre of the chat, I retired to the top bunk to read and was only persuaded down after El decided it was high time to crack open a bottle of ‘Milk Filtered’ Ghengis vodka which we’d hastily purchased from a nearby supermarket. Turns out the Germans had had the same idea, along with the four Irish guys next door.

With eight people, three bottles of Ghengis and more than a few beers all squeezed into our tiny Kupe, the party lasted several hours only to be bought to a terrifyingly abrupt halt by the sight of a surly Chinese customs officer telling us to immediately return to our own bunks as they were coming through to check passports and visas. Welcome to China.

On the bright side we got to watch the changing of the bogeys. Turns out the Russians decided to lay their tracks just a teeny weeny bit wider than the Chinese (and most of Europe), which means the entire train needs to be lifted up carriage by carriage and placed on new rails at the Chinese border. The German lads were in engineering heaven but for the Irish, it was a less joyous occasion. The operation requires engineers to work beneath the train, so (quite understandably) the toilets remain locked for over three hours. It didn’t take long to regret the beers.

I headed to bed soon after but the following morning was told a few hazy details of the rest of the night, involving an elderly Brazilian woman in the next carriage and some inappropriate dancing. Finally, nursing some astonishing hangovers, we arrived in Beijing Railway Station. Our Trans-Mongolian adventure was over…but a new one had just begun.

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