transsib II

written by Rudi

01 a settlement in the Goby dessert

13-05-2004

The trainride from Ulaan Bator is completly different from the first part of the Transmongolia Express! There are no Traders in the train. Instead its full with tourists. We share our cabin with a very quite chinese man. Valentin and Caroline share there cabin with a celebrity. De 75 year old with huge glasses is the royal painter from the president. yeah...sure! we think Bet then he gets this poster out off his bag with the president and all the ministers. And he is in the picture! He is on his way to Beijing to buy some new paint. He likes the duthc artists like Vermeer and Rembrandt And the musea in Amsterdam and Paris. His french is much better than ours!

02 the dining carriage in the chinese train

The train slides trough the Gobi dessert. For hours and hours ( 10 hours to be pricise). Its flat and barren. But not sandy! more hard soil. Every know and then we see a wild camel or horse.

The border takes again a few hours with the changing off the wheels. Exchanging money is supposed to be possible here but its not. We are told we can change our Togrog in Beijing too ( well, when you want to be laughed at...give it a try!)

after a good nights rest we open our eyes in China and one off the first things we see are parts off the Great Wall!!!!

When in mongolia only a small percentage of land is being used, here in China it looks like every inch is used! What a huge difference!

03 a train station in the middle off the Goby

usseless info

we travelled 7865 km ( since Moscow!!)

04 wild camels!

05 the Great Wall !!