Instead of having dinner that night in the hotel resturant with the other travelors I went down to a fruit stand not far down the street and bought some plums. I brought them back and ate a few in the lobby. They were pretty good.

After dinner it was time for us to go to the train station where we were to catch a train that would take us to Russia. We got all our stuff and put it in the van and went to the train station which wasn't far away. After saying goodbye to Baskar we entered the station to wait for the train. After a little while the train came and we got on and soon we were chugging through the now familiar barren landscape of the Mongolian country side. I slept most of the way because I was pretty tired after the days events. The journey took all night and by 0630 the train had stopped at a station in the town of Sukhbaatar near the Russian border. Here we would wait for the custom agents to arrive and check our documents.

By 0800 I was awake and already had a couple glasses of tea to revive my spirits. Outside a few locals had arrived and were waiting around possibly to enter Russia like us. Other then that the station was deserted. The buildings at the station were made of stone.

At one point I went to use the bathroom. There was an attendant at the door collecting the few Chinese coins that they require for you to get in. I paid and was allowed in.


Engineless car



By 0920 the custom people came and stamped some of the passenger's passports and gave them back to them. Then they took mine as well as a few others. They checked under the bottom bed in our cabin to see if there were any stowaways there. Then they left. In about ten minutes they came back and returned our passports. Now we were waiting for an engine so we could get going.

A little after 10 the engine arrived and was hooked up to the car. By 1015 it started raining and we were moving. We entered into a no-mans land which was partly wooded with a river and other nice scenery.