On board - Beijing to Ulaanbaatar

August 29th 2017

Our carriage attendant for the next 24+ hours took us to our berth; it is a first class, 2 person berth with private toilet/shower. It sounds really luxurious, and it is compared to second class, but there is no hot water and the long seat along one side of the carriage also doubles as one of the beds. Aside from the fact that you have to be super tidy and stow all your luggage away, it feels pretty comfortable; I have now taken up residence in the little armchair beside the table.




We left Beijing on time (11.22am) and ready for the journey ahead.....

At first, we spent our time staring out of the window at the numerous apartment blocks; it is kind of hypnotising going past block after block knowing that the population of Scotland could fit into Beijing 3 times! It only took an hour or so to get out into the countryside and this gave me time to reflect on the last few days.

I loved Beijing! The people, food, culture, parks, subway, the list goes on....Roll on next year as I can't wait to return to China!

I was completely shattered and fell asleep for an hour or so while Iain watched the final episode of Game of Thrones; unfortunately we missed the Great Wall but will see it next year anyway. It was around 2.30pm when I woke and we decided to have a wander down the train to find beer. All the guide books warn you about the price of the restaurant car, so we were prepared; it was only 10 Yuan for a bottle of bud, that's around £1.20 so we were extremely happy! It's good to note that each country has its own restaurant car as they don't cross borders!

We had one beer then headed back to our berth to have some noodles, which we had bought in Beijing. The reusable Starbucks cups that we brought with us are perfect as they hold exactly one packet. Each carriage has a "samovar" which has a constant supply of free hot water. I opted for some beef concoction which was incredibly tasty, either that, or I was starving! After we had finished our lunch, we decided to have a cup of tea as we had brought teabags and coffee mate with us from Scotland...this is where we realised our mistake......Tea that tasted of spicy noodles! Top tip - bring 2 Starbucks cups, one for drinking out of and one for noodles! They fit perfectly into each other so wont take up anymore space. Another top tip - bring a few carrier bags for putting your rubbish in; there is a bin at the end of each carriage but that can be a bit of a pain at times!

We passed more little towns and I decided to catch up on my blog while Iain went to the bar to get us a few beers for the cabin.

It was around 7.30pm when we went to the restaurant car; it was just the carriage beside us and it was jam packed! The waiter put us beside 2 Chinese girls, turns out they were actually from Perth, Australia but had Chinese parents! Caroline and Dee were great fun to talk to and they showed us how to eat sticky rice with chopsticks; I'm now a pro! It was also really useful that they could speak Chinese so anything we wanted, they shouted loudly for us! We had left it pretty late to go for food and unfortunately most of the food was sold out; I ended up having chicken and green peppers which was actually delicious! We also bought a bottle of wine, they only had red left but it was a Chinese Cabernet and was beautiful; it cost us 45 Yuan, around £5.50, bargain! 

By the time we left the dining car, around 9pm, everything, including alcohol, was sold out. We took the remainder of our wine back to the berth and sat down to relax before the anticipated border crossing at 10pm.....





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