"What, did you take the bus?"

On the train out of Irkutsk I met the Swedish guys, Adam, Victor and Victor, and the Australian guys, Luke and Pete. The first thing we did was to eat. Pete and Luke had planned that everyone should bring a dish, and some beverages for this train ride, so we did. The Australians brought different Russian food, including a salad, some Pelmini, and let me not forget the 18 eggs Luke had so perfectly boiled. (This was the first time he had boiled an egg, and as his brother always says: "It's so funny, because it's true!) Luke made sure that everyone ate his designated three eggs. The Swedes had brought Swedish meatballs, a huge hit. All of them had also brought some bread and fish. I brought chicken. Drumsticks, which turned out to be even more of a hit than the meatballs. To go with the food was beer and of course Vodka.

That train ride turned out to be one of the funniest ones. We were playing cards, and having almost too much fun singing Swedish songs. Great experience!

When we got to Ulan-Ude, which was our destination with the train, we met the woman who our contacts had organized the bus tickets with. She took us to the bus and helped us find our seats. I was actually very surprised the price she had given us was the same as everyone else on the bus. Wonder how she made her money?

The bus ride turned out to be just marvelous. Despite it taking over 12 hours and being very cold, I enjoyed it a lot. The first few hours took us to the border, where I think our passports were checked at least 6 times, and our luggage sent through an x-ray machine. After the last check, the Mongolian immigration office, we got back in the bus to head for Ulaanbaatar. Not even before we left neutral ground, the women in the bus started to offer us food. Luke and me were the lucky ones to get a piece of meat. It was horse, they first signaled by showing a rider on the back on the hand, before one of them said "Horse", several times. It was good, and I got a great photo of Luke while he ate some.

My friends and me ended up in front of the bus, the only place where you can actually see something. In all buses, cars and vans here in Russia and Mongolia, only the windshield is possible to look out through, due to heavy ice on the inside of the windows without heaters right below them. We sat watching the amazing mountains and plains go by, hour after hour with white landscapes, reflecting the sunlight to create almost an ocean of flashlights pointing right at us. There were camels, cows, horses and some riders on horses out there. Right in the middle of nowhere, in freezing weather and winds, these Mongols were riding around, maybe to check on their horses that were eating grass from the frozen ground, which by the wind had been almost cleared for snow in some areas. They were all awesome views!

Almost everyone takes the train to Mongolia, so almost everyone looks really surprised when we said we came by bus. The bus is mainly used by the locals. We had a great trip on it, and were happy we chose this more interesting and beautiful transport. Although, when sitting still in my room at the UB Guesthouse, the first place I lived that was not at a CouchSurfer's place, I actually felt kind of sick. My body was used to constantly be moving, inside a train or a bus. So it was almost weird to be in one place for more than 5 minutes!