The morning after

It was a difficult night, with various officials tramping up and down the corridor, the door to which I had left open to avoid the trauma of pounding on the door mid-dream. Alas, not much dreaming anyway. But I got by easily this time, didn’t even have my bags searched. Some were visited multiple times, four Europeans were made to leave the train with their luggage, and the man from Malaysia spent the same night hours standing/sitting in the station house, not being allowed to re-enter the train until after the wheels had been changed.

Our passports were returned a little after 4 am, and we left Erlian 6 hours after arriving, bound for the Mongolian side of the border. They made much quicker work of it, but we are still way behind schedule now.

I had booked a ticket in a four person sleeping compartment (soft-sleeper) to avoid ending up alone in a two person compartment with a man as a precaution - feeling that might be awkward, and knowing that gender is not a consideration in assigning bunks. So I’m in a four person compartment, alone with one other passenger, a man. I have to laugh at how that worked out. He’s very much a gentleman though, so it’s fine. All the foreign passengers have been trading itineraries. I stopped in to see Laizsu and Tony on my way down to the dining car just now, and they showed me their printed itinerary. They’ll be on to Russia by the time I return to Ulaan Bataar so I won’t likely see them again.

We are three hours behind schedule due to the border delays, which takes away the afternoon I meant to spend getting the lay of the land in UB. I fly out at 6 am tomorrow, so not much will get done this evening.