This morning is just a case of sitting around playing the waiting game. The train for UB (UlaanBaatar) is at 11:22 but we need to take at least an hour to clear the security check before getting on board. As such, we spent the morning sitting around in our room reading, updating blogs/Facebook or reading. I took the opportunity to download most of the Belgariad audio book to have something to listen to other than Todd’s snoring on the train. Or simply to listen to while watching the scenery. Once we got to the train station, it was remarkably simple to get through the security checks and into the waiting room. We still had an hour so picked up some coffees and continued to wait. Boarding the train was again extremely easy, walk down the platform and find our car and hand our ticket (and koala toy) to our carriage conductor and he guided us to our cabin. The train left precisely on time and we spent the next two hours admiring the scenery of mountain passes and gorges, dams and orchards as we moved towards UB. We walked down to the dining car at lunch and met a group of 4 English who were also travelling to Moscow, although on alternative trains after UB. A lot of the menu items were ‘no, sorry’. Anything with Beef was off the menu. We laughed about what our choices were; pretty much everything had green capsicum with it.
We continued on, as the scenery became flatter and the snow built up on the sides of the train; firstly on the tops of the hills, then on some of the house roofs, and finally during a dinner of green capsicum with some shreds of chicken and pork, it started snowing.
We pulled into Erlien about 9:50 and were met with Chinese customs and security who checked our faces against our passports and then walked off with them.