The Greatest Train Journey in the World (TM)

Hello!
I just spent 21 days on the Vodkatrain. Wow, you may be thinking, that's a long time to spend on a train, but fear not dear readers, I was only on the train for 3 nights and 3 days at the most in one stretch.
I joined it in Beijing. There were 12 people in our group: 2 Scots (Gemma & Karen); 2 Brits (Elizabeth & moi); 1 Polish/Australian (Michael); 3 Australians (Beck, Christie & Dave); 2 Kiwis (Laura & Mike); 1 American (Greg); & 1 German (Anna). Our first Honcho in Beijing was Mark: a bit of a worrywart and not the most organised person in the world; he delighted us to the culinary treats of a restaurant around the corner: twice. It would have been 3 times if we had not complained...
He was good at writing down tourist destinations in Chinese for taxi drivers (when they could be bothered to take you), so we utilized this skill and took in the Temple of Heaven and The Forbidden City before our departure on Saturday morning (May 5). Mark never joined us on any of the trips - we kind of split off into groups - and he never offered info as to where was good to see, he asked us what we wanted to see - is it not his city?
The Forbidden City was nice, although I didn't really have enough time to see it all. The living quarters of the Emperor's concubines were really picturesque. It would be easy to get locked in after the gates closed at 17.00 - I was tempted! ;)
After yet another failed attempt at grabbing a taxi (they just ignore you or say no - I gues my money is just not good enough!) I ended up in a rickshaw - a Chinese cyclo if you will. It was almost twice the price of a taxi, even though I haggled him down somewhat. He was hellbent on giving me an informative tour of the hutongs though (little historic alleyways), however, I just wanted to get home. I think he was a little disappointed, bless. However, he dropped me off a good 10 minute walk from the hotel and then had the cheek to say I could tip! Not bloody likely mate! ;)
The hotel was really nice. I was in a twin room with Anna (from near Munich) and the bathroom and beds were so comfy. It was certainly one of the nicest rooms I'd stayed in around SEA, and it was a YHA!
The Trans-Monoglian Express train was far more comfortable than I imagined it was going to be. The 4-berth cabins were quite comfortable and we got linen, towels and hot water (at a small price). The only downside were the stern-looking porters - almost as scary as the nuns at the Angkor temples. You didn't want to meet them in a dark corridor late at night, I tell you...
There were 2 toilets (Western-style, hooray!) at either end of the corridor (one male and one female), although no shower. We were only on the train for one night the first trip, so that was not so bad.
The one drawback on the first few legs of the train journey are the border crossings: not because they are long and tedious, but because they lock the toilets... The border crossing from China to Mongolia tookaround 4 and a half hours: they have to change the bogies on the train (no, not someone with a bad cold: the wheels). You can stay on the train for the 2 hours in which they do this or you can sit and wait in the station at Ullan Ude (which has toilets). We did the latter. We all met up with Michael there: he had not managed to obtain a Mongolian visa because the embassy in Beijing was shut as a result of the Golden Week holidays. He had to leave 2 days before us to get to the embassy at Ullan Ude. He was sorted by the time we hooked up, so that was good (there's always one ;)).
After various disturbances once back on the train (fill out forms, let officials search cabins, hand over passports, etc), we finally got some sleep. We woke up to clouds of dust filling the corridors as we passed the Gobi Desert.
We arrived in the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, mid-afternoon and all raced to get some food in the rather nice restaurant next to the hotel, and then it was a race to have showers (hence the hot water did not last long) before we all met up again half an hour later to see a traditional Mongolian show. They have throat singers here. It's fab: rather like a cross between a yodle and gargling, it is a talent (?!) which must take years to master. There were times (especially when the notes that came out of one of the singer's mouths was far lower than we anticipated) when it was funny. The contortionists and the dancers were good.
Then it was off to a club after dinner, which I have to say looked more like a working men's club from the outside! We ended up doing Karaoke, which was excellent fun - they seem to love it all around SEA as much as Japan.
The following day we saw the centre of Buddhism in Mongolia (a temple with a large Buddha that you weren't supposed to turn your back on) and encountered our first brush with the Monoglian criminal underworld when Greg got his wallet stolen. Thankfully they only took his Mongolian money and left his cards and US dollars.
In the afternoon we headed out to the Ger Camp. For those of you who don't know, a ger is a traditional Mongolian tent. They were surprisingly comfortable too: a large tent with 4 beds per tent and a large stove/fire in the middle. And we needed it as it was rather nippy when we got there. Again, there were no showers and toilets were far from Western-style (I thought I'd done well to avoid them up until now... ;)) with a lovely 3 foot drop for you to deposit your 'waste' through the gap in the floor. You have to be particularly alert during the night when you could easily take a wrong-footing and plummet to your demise in a load of crap! Nice...
The food in the restaurant ger was again surprisingly palatable with dumplings and a fair range for vegetarians (which I was for the duration of this trip). While we were there we watched a Mongolian film called The Weeping Camel, it won awards at one of the Cannes Film Festivals I think. It was a sweet tale about this camel who had no bond with its baby so it charted the Mongolian people's attempts to bring them back together. It was very sweet.
While we were at the ger camp we visited a traditional Mongolian farming family and scared them to death (or made ourselves look very stupid, probably the latter) by singing English nursery rhymes to them. We split into girls and boys teams. The girls sang Old MacDonald's Farm (Mongolian-style, ie including camels) and the boys sang Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. They fed us Mongolian food which was very fatty - lots of butter and lard and stuff. Not the nicest food, but you make the most of what you have I guess.
We also did a trek to a deserted monastery and some people did horse riding and camel riding. We also played a game which involved flicking chicken and sheep anklebones together to win: I was teamed with our Honcho OJ and we won! Tiny fingers rule!! ;) OJ was such a kidder and she looked as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. She told one joke too far though and no-one believed her when she said she had a strip card game to teach us. Many people ended up naked - I'm glad to say I left before that moment. ;)
It was back to the city of UlaanBaatar to get the train to Irkutsk on Thursday, May 10. The city is exactly how I imagined it would be thanks to watching Ewan McGregor Charley Boorman on his trip The Long Way Round - thanks Ewan & Charley! ;) They are at it again I think - The Long Way Down this time from Scotland to South Africa - should be interesting. Good luck guys. UlaanBaatar is about 30 years behind the times and full of concrete buildings. And taxis that are just anyone looking to make some extra money - you just flag anyone down! There are no licence laws! Probably rather dodgy if you're on your own - thankfully I never was...
The rest of Mongolia is rather flat, apart from the Terelj National Park where our ger camp was - that had some hills and rocks. We climbed through a hole in a turtle-shaped rock and were 're-born', although I was re-born with a dodgy knee cos I banged it! ;)
So it was back on the train for 2 nights and over the border to Russia... more about that next time.
Dasvidanya (goodbye in Russian). x