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Travel Diary

~Trans-Siberian Railway 2005~

~The 8th Day~

Feb. 13 2005 (Sun)
The 6th day of the Trans-Siberian Railway

Today, we would travel throughout Mongolia for a day then enter China in the evening. Mongolia was a country of desert and grazing. Also because we had recognized that Mongolia was a friendly country by the immigration last night, we were looking forward to see what would happen.

Well, the stops of today would be Darkhan, Salkhit, Dzun-Hara, Ulan-Bator, Choir, Sain-Shanda, Dzamyn-Ude and Erlian.

Ulan-Bator

Kiiii...Gagagagaga...Don!
Unusual shock awoke me as I think this expression is appropriate. I thought what happened and looked at my watch then it was after seven o'clock. We seemed to arrive at Ulan-Bator, the capital of Mongolia. But I wondered if the shock of stopping could be reduced. It was larger though it had been too large in Russia. I almost got thrown off the bed. I brought back memories that we had talked about no-shock-stopping in Japan.

Anyway, because I woke up at Ulan-Bator, the capital of Mongolia, I changed my clothes and went to the platform.
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It was very cold.

But I disregarded it then walked on the platform and took pictures.

Ulan-Bator Ulan-Bator station at the capital of Mongolia. Although it was before eight o'clock, it remained little dark. I couldn't see any big buildings around the station thought here was the capital...
A restaurant car of Mongolian railway. Although this train ran from Moscow to Beijing, restaurant cars were changed from country to country. So we could enjoy three tastes. The restaurant car
PECTOPAH

Letters of Restaurant car. In Mongolia, The Cyrillic is used the same as Russia.

Although I read like nothing but "Pectopah", this was "RESTRAN" if converted to alphabet. Because only letters the same as alphabet were used, it was confusing. If there were Д or Я, we could recognize...

I noticed that it was very cold actually when I was walking on the platform. I had been getting used to the coldness in Siberia but I felt too cold. No, I felt pain from the end of fingures in groves though I protected myself against the cold enough.

It was more than cold. It was deadly cold. I quickly went back to the train. Phew, it was warm. I thought I was going to die. This was the first experience that I felt threat to life by coldness. Though there had been no problem in Siberia, what degrees was it? When I thought about it, here was the center of desert, and it was early morning. Then it may have become cold by nocturnal radiation. Though I often hear it's cold at night in desert, I didn't think it was colder than in Siberia. I regretted there was no thermometer in a station different from Russia. (The minimum temperature in Ulan-Bator on February seems to be -46 degrees C according to my research after the trip...)

When I was relief to enter the warm train from frigid outside, Mr. K and Mr. T also came back as if they were going to die.

Incidentally, number of passengers in this car increased after entry to Mongolia. There had been four railfuns and two conductors for five days from Moscow :P

The horizon
The horizon We felt relieved and had breakfast in our room. There was only desert and the horizon out the window as this picture. This was the first time for me to see the actual horizon and so impressed. Though I was impressed, I got bored in half an hour. Because the horizon was only a line...
This was a toy of a free gift in a strange chocolate pie we bought in Ulan-Bator. There was a culture to add a free gift to sweets in Mongolia... Toy
Choir
After we had stared at the horizon, we arrived at the next station, Choir. This was a small station. There were few buildings around the station. I thought there were many nomads in Mongolia actually when I saw such a view. Choir
The restaurant car

After Choir, we went to the restaurant car for lunch because the restaurant car had changed. Then we entered the Mongolian restaurant car...

The restaurant car Wood. Wooden interior. It looked gorgeous.
And it was very rich! The restaurant car
The restaurant car It was bright and had congenial atmosphere different from Russian.

We started anticipating for meals because of this interior. Though we had been disappointed in Russia, we didn't disappointed because here was a friendly country, Mongolia. The meal was steak set. It was, therefore, a set meal. This was the first time to eat a decent meal after Moscow. This filled me with emotion. So Let's eat!
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This was not steak but hamburger. This was just a nomadic country, Mongolia. Did you say "don't mind such a small thing"? Mongolia seemed to be not only friendly but also mysterious.

The horizon continued for...

Even after Choir, and even if we had lunch, there was desert, desert, and desert out the window... Additionally, we could see only the horizon.

The horizon There was this view for all time. All we could see were the horizon and power lines. We were interested in the horizon at first, but we would climbed the wall if this continued for a whole day.
We could sometimes see animals even in desert. Occasionally, there was a bird as large as a kindergartner then we were surprised. Cow?

I admired that the railway had been built in a place like here. And there were bars around the rail so that animals didn't enter the rail. Furthermore, there were some tunnels under the rail in view of animals divided their life field. The grade crossing of rail and animal trail was a fresh idea.

Incidentally, the above pictures were taken in the restaurant car then the window was clean. It was after all Mongolia, whose cars were maintained well.

Coffee break

On afternoon we got sleepy, I went to the restaurant car because there was a decent restaurant car. Though I asked other two, their answer was undermotivated then I went alone.

I drank decent coffee after a long interval. An instant coffee Mr. K had bought in Russia included suger and milk in the form of powder. It had been no thank you.

If I drink coffee, there's nothing like black coffee. Before then, I don't drink any instant coffee.

I spent an afternoon to see the horizon out the window and drink delicious coffee. Then when I intended to go back and asked for the check, a staff said " This coffee is free because you had a lunch". The nomadic country Mongolia, it was not only friendly and mysterious but also service-minded fully.

Sain-Shanda

After coffee break, we arrived at the next station, Sain-Shanda.

Sain-Shanda Sain-Shanda station. I stretched and relaxed. Though the station was bleak, some sellers were selling something. Though I didn't know what Mongolian currency was, we could use US dollar then it was no problem for us. Though it would be better to use Ruble.
The downtown of Sain-Shanda. It seemed a small town. Here was Mongolia but there seemed not to be yurts in town. Sain-Shanda
Bogie I took a bogie of our train. It seemed to be heavy and have hard springs.
Leaving Mongolia

After dinner, we arrived at Dzamyn-Ude, the border station in Mongolia on the border between Mongolia and China. The border control would ride on our train and perform passport control the same as in Russia. Anyway, Mr. T who was usually cool became suspicious when we approached the border. He carefully reviewed his embarkation card and passport and read "Chikyuu no arukikata" (the travel guide book) thoroughly. It had been the same when leaving Russia. He seemed to be a boederphobe. we could see his new face.

No event happened as the immigration, and the passport control finished easily. The train departed after an hour stop and left for China. Bye-bye Mongolia, until the day we would come again.

Entry to China

Just after leaving Mongolia, we intended to write the immigration card of China given by a fat middle aged man...but the card was written in only Chinese. Though we could read almost because Chinese characters are similar to Japanese, there were some Chinese original characters. The english man, my roommate, seemed not to understand at all.

When we were in trouble, the middle aged man came back and brought English cards, saying "sorry, sorry". We seemed to be able to write this.

We arrived at Erlian, the border station in China, 30 minutes later after Dzamyn-Ude without any other trouble except the boederphobe of Mr. T. This time, a woman, the passport control of China, rode on. We were relieved that she could speak Japanese. However, she said "Dont' you have the visa?". We explained that the Japanese didn't need the visa, then she went out our room with our passports. Though we couldn't understand the unexpected situation, she could understand. Then we could enter China... It was no surprise that Mr. T had become the boederphobe.

Bogie exchange

The train was shaking while the passport control. What happened was decoupling of the train. The couplers may have been frozen because the train had run in the frigid environment for a long time, then the decoupling may have caused shocks.

The train was moved in the railroad yard some times and divided to each car. And each car was moved to a factory near the station. All passengers were left on the train, of cource.

What did they do by that? It's "bogie exchange". The track gauge in Russia and Mongolia is a broad gauge of 1524 mm. On the other hand, it in China is the standard gauge, 1435 mm. That is, the train can't pass between Mongolia and China because the gauges are different. Though the free-gauge train are being developed to pass between both gauges in Japan, there can't be such a technology in China or Russia. They should exchange bogies themselves if so. Then "bogie exchange"! That's an aggressive idea.

bogie exchangebogie exchange
bogie exchangebogie exchange

Entering the factory, each car was removed bolts between the bogie and the car body and so on as above. Then the car body was lifted and removed its bogies, and bogies were moved from under car body. At last, new bogies came, the car body was brought down, they were bolted. Though the bottom-right picture isn't clear, the new bogie was waiting outside.

Incidentally, a conductor seemed to understand what we asked him though he couldn't understand English then he opened a door and allowed us to take pictures. It was when our car was lifted, of cource. If in Japan, it would be impossible by the safety standard. Looking back, we got alongh with this conductor who couldn't understand English.( the other conductor could speak English) Well, I thought he often brought hot water and threw out our garbage. We should appreciate him.

When I thought how to make the connection of the train after the bogie exchange, unbelievalbe shock hit our train. I almost fell over. Though I thought what happend, our train moved. A locomotive was connected at the back of cars (actually, struke) and may have pushed cars. When I thought so, the second impact hit us. This time, we may have crashed into the front car. We remained to move. Then we crashed into the next car...They may have intended to make the connection just like billiard. If a car crashed into another car with the momentum, the car was connected to another car and moved to the next car by the law of conservation of momentum. Then the next car... They may have done such a thing. It was horrendous!

They should have considered passengers, or there were no problems on cars? The passenger cars might have been strong as these were heavier than Japanese electric cars...

After some more impacts had hit us, the train went back to the station as making connection may have finished. When we felt relieved, the train was connected to another group of cars. Of cource, with shock XD. A little time after the connection, we departed at the station slowly on time. This train made large shock when it stopped but departed smoothly...

We finished one day trip in Mongolia then entered China. We understood Mongolia was generally friendly, mysterious and quite service-minded*.

We would arrive at the final destination, Beijing, in less than a day. Finally, it was the last spurt.

This is only auther's arbitrary imagination. It might be different from actual Mongolia :P

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