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| cars and ice-fishers on frozen river |
10. April
We pass one more frozen river and then the snow is gone. Suddenly it's stony desert out there. First with hills, then completely flat.
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| Ulan Bator- Ute was here |
At 7am we stop in Ulan Bataar where most of the backpackers get off the train.
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| ghers in a suburban environment |
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| UB city limits |
We are glad to carry on. The city now houses almost half of Mongolia's population. The aesthetics is urban sprawl.
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| picket fence Mongolian style |
A fence runs along both sides of the train tracks. We see wild horses and camels. And then it's the Gobi.
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| the Gobi desert, all this emptiness makes us hungry |
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| happy dining car experience |
The Mongolian dining car is ornately decorated and serves a 5-course set meal: potato salad, soup, meatballs, Mars bar and -as digestif- a cigarette.
We skip the last course but enjoy the rest very much.
Two pairs of camel hair socks join our souvenir collection.
As it turns out Craig would have preferred a Mongol hat.
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| camel hair socks and Mongol hats |
In the evening we reach the border and have to go for a pit stop.The Chinese rail gauge is narrower. The process takes quite a while because all the carriages have to be separated to be lifted on to new wheels. We stay in our compartment, so we get a lift, too. Farewell Mongolia.
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| new set of wheels |
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| lift operator |
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