Ulan-Ude, Siberia, Russian Federation
October 20, 2013
I have a decent night’s sleep and don’t wake until about 12 local time, feeling much better for it. Diogo a Brazilian lad in my cabin has some coffee so I pull myself together and have a decent chat with him. He’s a presidential journalist back in Brazil and taken a month off to travel from Moscow to Hong Kong then back via Amsterdam for a few days to relax. His job sounds interesting. He follows the Brazilian President around and covers their election campaigns and such like for an online media company. He’s a nice lad and we chat the usual small talk of football, travel etc.
Headed towards the border there is a dramatic change in the scenery. For a start it’s no longer flat. Hills and mountains start to grow around us as we rattle along, we weave around lakes and rivers and start to see cattle and people riding across the plains on horseback. We streak past blazing orange and red patches of flowers and you can tell we are getting closer and closer to Mongolia. We pass what must have been a covert Airbase near the border. There are literally hundreds of individual camouflaged hangers able to hold one aircraft each which have been covered in soil and grassed over, most likely to remain hidden away from satellites above. As well as the hangers the other clue that this was once an airbase is the old 60’s MIG jet fighter that has been put on a stand in the nearby village we pass. A grim reminder of the cold war era, but interesting non the less.
Eventually we arrive at border control and once our passports are collected in to an old worn leather briefcase by the border guards we are allowed off the train to stretch our legs and have a cigarette. It is freezing! I have heard the temperature we are headed towards in Ulan Bator is now -10o and it’s easy to believe it given the difference from when we left Irkutsk in Siberia the previous night to where we are now. It takes about an hour for our passports to be returned. Followed by a few burly guards who inspect our rooms and luggage and like to throw a few things about just for the sake of it. That’s followed by another guard who comes around asking if we have anything to declare, who again likes to inspect things and throw a few things around for added effect. Finally this is followed by the sniffer dog team. The Russian border guards like to look menacing and like to throw your stuff around the train, they seem to think this will intimidate you and for the life of me I can’t work out why. Eventually after they have satisfied their bag kicking fetish we are good to go and we sit waiting ready to head off to the Mongolian side and through their immigration. The whole Russian side of things takes around 3 hours, so not too bad I guess. I’m just happy to get through it incident free and move on. Mongolian border control is the same routine of passports, customs and sniffer dogs however the people are way more friendly and relaxed in the way they go about their job. Nice big smiles and hello’s all round is a welcome relief from Russia.
Another 3 hours later we finally move on again towards Ulan-Bator. It’s time to try and catch up on more sleep ahead of our 6:30am arrival so after a couple of chapters of my book I get my head down again and look forward to what tomorrow brings.
