Crossing Russia-Mongolia Border

by Philip Deaton
(Harrogate, England, UK)

8 hour border crossing.... nice! People i met here, who contributed to and improved my trip: Juliana (Russia), Ed (England), Harry (England).

We were stuck between Russia and Mongolia for 8 hours with little to do, to pass the time. Luckily this small kid, called Kolya, kept us entertained for a decent period of time! Sukhbaatar was also the start of Asia in my opinion. As we left the train to use the toilet and buy some food, we received so many strange looks and stares.... something i found quite amusing and charming, although Julia was not so enthralled by all the attention!

With the train hooked up to several more Mongolian carriages, rubles changed into togrogs, we were on our way for the last leg of our journey, a poultry 9 hours! The Russian guy in our carriage, Sergei, Julia and I decided that a few beers may help pass a few hours, but to our horror the whole train was dry. We assured ourselves that this would not be a sign of things to come!