Trans Mongolian (Irkutsk to Ulan Baataar)

Trip Start Oct 07, 2007
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Trip End ??? ??, 2008


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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

This time round we shared our compartment with the backpacking pensioners, Ian & Sheila from the UK. He was the livewire of the two and kept up a constant stream of chatter whilst continually taking photos of everything and anything. Perhaps it was a result of his background in the navy but he was particularly keen to get a few holiday snaps of the Russian military at the border crossing! This, as you might guess from Russia's history is an absolute no-no. They needn't worry unduly though for as Ian was trying to hide the camera the resulting photos were grainy, out-of-focus shots of barely distinguishable figures, feet, trees and sky.

We were lucky to have good company for this section of the journey for even though the scenery was beautiful the train was slow and the customs control procedures even slower. We spent about 7 hours at the Russian border town where there was nothing more than houses, apartments and a couple of small shops to while away the time. The Mongolian border town procedure was a lot more efficient but still took over an hour.

Once we were through with the official sutff we rewarded ourselves by breaking out the vodka and spent an enjoyable evening drinking and chatting. Sheila and Ian had plenty of tales to tell and travel advice to give - they've even been approached to do a documentary for TV on travelling pensioners - think it could be a good one!
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