Rail adventure begins

All aboard!

We woke at 0545 for check-out at 0630, in order to check-in for our rail adventure at Beijing West station across the road.  We had some muesli in the room for breakfast before setting off.  At the impressive-looking station, our luggage were x-rayed before we entered and turned left into the international waiting area.  The decor was a little old communist era with the light fittings and red leather sofas.

Shortly after 0700 we boarded our very long train, bound for Ulaanbaatar.  We thought we’d treat ourselves to First Class for this leg and then Second Class for the subsequent.  Our private cabin was nice, finished in dark formica wood.  It shared a shower with the next cabin.  As for the toilet, there was only one for the entire carriage.  It was clean and came with toilet seat covers.

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The cabin would be our home for the 1356km journey from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, taking 30h40.

We took breakfast in the dining car.  They only had omelette, which we agreed to.  I later thought we would have been better off getting stuck into  the instant noodles we had brought along.

We rested in our cabin until a very early lunch at 1030.  Our journey came with vouchers for lunch and dinner.  For lunch we got rice with a good vegetable stirfry, stewed beef brisket with potatoes and chopped chicken with potatoes.

Along the way, we saw sections of the Great Wall.  The scenery was dry and dusty in parts and wooded in others.  It was rather littered in parts as well.  Getting to the flat dusty steppes of the Gobi Desert it was sandy with a hint of green.

For dinner we had chicken and cucumber stirfry plus vegetables, washed down with beer.

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Gauge change

It got dark after 2000 when we got to Erlian (Erenhot).  The train pulled into the station and let some people off.  We had to disembark to have our passports stamped out of China.

From there, our train pulled into the sheds to have their bogies changed from Chinese/standard 1435mm gauge to Russian 1520mm gauge.   It’s amazing how that 85mm creates so much work.

Our train was lifted slowly, very slowly, by huge jacks.  In fact we couldn’t even feel it.  We were able to stay onboard.  While we couldn’t see very well what was being done to our carriage, we could see another carriage undergoing the change.  It was all highly mechanised.

Our carriage was done in about 90 mins.  It felt quick as we watched everything with interest.

Next we had to sit and wait while the work was repeated for all the other carriages.  That’s when it felt tedious.

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Crossing into Mongolia

Once done, the train returned to the station to allow joining passengers to board.  Chinese immigration officials came onboard to check that our passports had indeed been stamped.

Chinese official also opened ceiling panels and checked under the beds.  Someone was led away into the darkness.  He must have been naughty.

I was pleased to get going finally after about 3h in Erlian.  The toilets had been locked the whole time and I was bursting to go wees.

Crossing into Mongolia, immigration was effortless.  As a Malaysian, I get visa-free entry into the country.  But I didn’t expect officials to know that and had even asked Kim to prepare some money in case (wink wink).

With the border crossing out of the way, we climbed into bed around 0130.

Why the Trans-Mongolian?

Some readers may wonder why we have chosen to do the Trans-Mongolian Express starting in Beijing and then through to Mongolia. Why not the Trans-Siberian from Vladivostok through to Siberia?

Because Vladivostok is too hard and expensive to get to. It is served by very few international airlines. For example, the short hop from Seoul to Vladivostok on Korean Air, as part of a ticket from New Zealand costs the same as a longhaul flight from Seoul to London. In comparison, Beijing is easily and cheaply accessible.

Our train ticket and fare

The fare for the ride from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar was shown on the ticket as CNY981 (NZD163) per person. We paid NZD252 per person through a New Zealand travel agent who worked through a host of intermediaries in Australia and Mongolia I suppose. [Edit: Travel in the days before the internet revolutionised the industry.]

The second class fare was only about NZD20 less through the agent so I was pleased we went for first class. It gave us a soft introduction into longhaul rail journeys in the region.