The Gobi and Vast Grass Plains..... and Vast Grass Plains

August 30th 2017

The title of this next blog just about sums up Mongolia so far....




The Gobi stretches along the border between Mongolia and China whereas the rest of the countryside is made up of vast grass plains stretching as far as the eye can see! Most of the Gobi is not actually true desert and is made up of rolling steppe. There is the occasional little village with 4 or 5 houses and Ger encampments dotted around the landscape. Gers are nomadic dwellings where people still lead traditional lives, herding cattle and hunting with eagles. 

We are still on-board the train and it is now 3pm; it appears we are also way behind schedule due to the border crossing on the Chinese side; not sure what the hold up was but we think we are delayed by about 3-4 hours.

I slept pretty badly, but even so, I am up and looking forward to a shower; that was until I actually turned it on.... I knew there was no hot water from the toilet washbasin tap but I hoped the shower may have been at least luke warm. I managed to wash my hair which was the main concern and as the berth is so warm, it dried pretty quickly. The travel towel from Mountain Warehouse has earned its keep already!

After my cold wash, we decided to check out breakfast. As I said earlier, restaurant cars do not cross borders so I was looking forward to a Mongolian style breakfast. The carriage was beautiful and ornate compared to the Chinese one. It was a set menu, priced in US dollars and consisted of coffee with creamer and sugar cubes, crusty bread with butter and jam, an omelette, some very pungent orange juice and believe it or not, a mini piece of Mars confectionary (I chose a bounty!).  We asked if we could pay in Yuan or Roubles as we only had a few dollars with us; it was no problem but the exchange rate was terrible. Breakfast cost 200 Yuan for both of us, that's about £12; I know it sounds cheap but not compared to the Chinese restaurant car. The waiter was a cheery Mongolian who shook hands with everyone and smiled like a loony, he was great, although the wait for the omelette was about 30 minutes! Never mind, it was just what we needed to fill our growling stomachs!

We then returned to our berth to pack and see out the rest of the journey to Ulaanbaatar. That lasted a few hours before we decided to go and buy a few beers; it was significantly dearer than before! 25 Yuan a beer rather than 10 Yuan, although these are 500ml and 5% rather than 330ml and 3.6%...yup, I know, what's the point of having a 3.6% beer?!

So I seem to be up to date now; we are still on the train, drinking beer and currently behind schedule by 1hour with 90km to go to the capital.....until then.....

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