Woke up at 6am and got showered etc ready for breakfast at 7am as we were being picked up by Jenny at 7:20 to get the 8am train. We all did our usual trick at breakfast and wore combats with lots of pockets to fill with stuff from breakfast to do us for lunch.
The transfer to the station was only 15 minutes and the train was already in so it was straight on board. We were sharing a coupe with Haiden and Tracy, while Jason was next door with 3 strangers. There was a bit of a hoo haa when he first got there as there were already 4 people in the coupe but we just told him to show them his tickets with the number. They then all left and 3 others came so none of them should have been there. He was sharing with a Chinese guy and 2 Mongolian ladies. Luckily they could speak a little English.
The train seems a lot more rickety than the last ones we had been on and it was constantly swaying back and forth like a ship in rough water (hope I don’t get see sick lol). We got to the Mongolian border after a few hours traveling and had to go through the usual routine while they boarded the train and gave out forms etc. Me and Phil were a bit worried as we hadn’t completed a customs form to enter Mongolia as she didn’t have any left in English. They usually ask for this with your passport. Anyway we explained and they didn’t seem particularly bothered and just took our passport like the rest. It was about 2 hours before we left Mongolia and they gave a quick look in the Coupe under the seats but that was about it.
We went down to the buffet carriage and had a few beers and then played a few games of cards back at our coupe.
We then traveled through no-man’s land to the Chinese Border. After handing our passports in the train had to be reversed into a large building where all the carriages were separated. We had already been warned about this in advance that it would take some time. Due to Mongolian and Chinese track widths being different, all the bottom half of the trains had to be swapped for other wheels with the right width. This was an experience in itself. All the carriages were placed under fancy electronic Jacks and hoisted about 4 foot in the air. Once all the carriages were up, the new wheels were shunted in which pushed out the old ones at the other end. Once in place, we were lowered back down onto our new wheels and then back to customs to collect our passports. All told to clear Mongolian and Chinese customs took from 7.30pm till about 12.50pm.
Pretty much as soon as we set off again we went to bed as we wanted to be up for about 8am in case there was anything interesting to see as we crossed China into Beijing.
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