Nigel: Our final destination in Russia was a place called Ulan Ude (UU) which is the biggest city before crossing the border into Mongolia. The appeal of UU was that it has a very Asian feel even though you are still in Russia. To get get to UU you have to take "another train journey" from Irkutsk which takes 7 hours in total. As it is easier to put all foreigners in one carriage (for border crossing purposes) we were with a large German tour group who seemed to enjoy passing the time by walking past our compartment and staring in at us. Maybe they were looking to put their beach towel down on our seats!!! We were fortunate though, as we had our own compartment for the whole journey. For part of the journey, you run parallel with the lake and you see some impressive and unspoilt views from the east side.

UU is not very big in size and can easily be covered in a coupe of days. Since we had 3 days there we decided to use the stop to rest and recuperate before our next overnight journey into Mongolia. Although our budget is very tight, we thought we would splash out and get a "fully equipped" apartment, which was meant to have all the necessary kitchen facilities and also WIFI throughout....it didn't. At first it had neither and it was only on the last day that we finally got internet. The kitchen utensils consisted of.... 3 spoons (on a positive note, at least one spoon each and a spare one just in case Uri Geller popped in).

Although the city was nice, it had little in the way of attractions and the main feature was the massive Lenin's head monument which was displayed in the main city square. Locals are divided over the statue, as some say that he looks cross eyed. We couldn't see it but then it was difficult to see his eyes properly based on its size.

After recharging in our luxury apartment, our next train journey was to take us over the border into Mongolia. We were very fortunate to get the train, as there was some confusion about the train number and we were still strolling around the train station shops thinking how we can spend our remaining Russian Rubles when the train was preparing to depart. We just managed to catch the train (after running and jumping on only minutes before it started moving off!).

Alison: We again had a cabin to ourselves on this train which was very nice, especially since we potentially had a long night ahead of us. We were due to reach the Russian border around 8.30pm and we would need to clear this border before moving onto the Mongolian border. The arrival time into Ulaanbataar allows for around a 3 hour period to clear both sets of customs but we had heard that there can be delays of up to 10 hours.

On arriving at the Russian border, customs officials come on board and check your cabin for anyone hiding in any nooks or crannies and then collect your passports/documents. You then just wait on the train and eventually your passports are returned to you. The next bit involves crossing the section of land which separates Russia and Mongolia. There is absolutely nothing on this land and it is considered no mans land but despite this and it being pitch black, there were still a lot of tourists snapping away!

At the Mongolian border, it was much the same drill as the Russian border. The train was checked and passports and documents taken. The only difference was that this time the train moved up and down the same platform several times before finally stopping for our passports to be returned. Not sure what this was in aid of but at least it passed 5 or 10 minutes speculating what was going on! We finally got into our bunks about 12.30am ready for a very early start the next day.