Trans-Mongolian Craziness

Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Current mood: dirty

Wow. I made it. I'm here. In Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar to be exact, the capital of the country of nil, nadda, nothing. No, the lack of anything is actually quite beautiful, although after hours upon hours of staring at it out of a train window it can get just a scosh MONOTONOUS. Ya, I'm REALLY freaking tired and COVERED in dust. (Right as we were entering the Gobi desert the train was stirring up a TON of dust which came right into the train cars coating everything and everyone in a thick layer of dust. You'd think that the train would have a better air filter system...). But I got to see the Great Wall some more as we were leaving China and a lot of the traditional "Gers" (yurts for you Americans) and the Mongolian Steppe horses too.

Crossing the border into Mongolia was CRAZY. Apparently the rail widths between China and Mongolia are different so every time a train enters into either country, they literally have to change THE WHEELS ON THE TRAIN. This takes about FIVE HOURS while they take the train cars apart, jack them up 5 feet in the air and then proceed to switch out the wheels underneath them. UN. BELIEVABLE. And yes, the whole time you're in the train watching them do this. Then there's the matter of the scary customs lady who comes in and stamps your passport (if your lucky) and allows you into the country. This whole process of changing out the wheels and getting admitted into the country took about 5 hours (that seems to be the magical number...) from about 9 at night to 2 in the morning. Ya. It sucked. But waking up the next morning in the Gobi desert was quite awesome. So ya. Not gonna spend any time really in this city. Maybe tomorrow and then I'm heading off into the great beyond! Gonna find me some mountain streams, forests, ponies and yurts! He he!
1:02 AM