The Execution
Of course, there are plans, and then there is what happened. Here's how we did the trip the "fun" way.
In the end, while the experience was challenging, we did it our own way. We made it with a sense of achievement, great memories, and having met good people (one of whom I almost poisoned with some disgusting Chinese rice wine) and for a significantly lower cost than buying direct train tickets through CITS.
The Bus Station - Muxiyuan
Starting by getting lost lost on the way to Muxiyuan Long Distance Bus Station in Beijing, we engaged help of a lady out shopping and a street cleaner who entered into a 5-10 minute debate on which way is the fastest way to the bus terminal.
The Bus
Due to the fact you cannot book the bus and they don't formally sell tickets for this trip from the actual ticket windows at Muxiyuan, we wandered about the back bus park trying to find a red bus and match up the characters on the business card we picked up from 365 Inn.
Upon finding the bus a dramatic scene ensued where for about 5 minutes, I was trying to speak basic levels of incomprehensible Mandarin to the driver until I realised that he was a Mongolian at which point in time I switched to Mongolian which was so bad he got a passenger to start talking to me in Mon-glish. With many hand gestures, shouts and good natured laughs we discovered that the bus was full.
With hands up in an "I surrender" gesture, the driver told us to wait; what for we had no idea, but wait we did. Within 10 minutes, a new Mongolian man arrived and escorted us to strange new bus park hidden behind a warehouse, as we wondered the whole time, "should we be doing this?", we desperately tried to track our location using the GPS in Kat's iPhone.
Despite the new Mongolian man assuring us that the bus would go to Zamin-Uud, we learned from the new driver that the bus was not going to Zamin-Uud but to Erlian. Upon receiving multiple assurances via hand gesture that we would truly be able to get to Zamin-Uud one way or another, we bought tickets to Erlian (for a little cheaper than we had expected for Zamin-Uud).
Told that the bus was leaving at 4.30pm, we grabbed lunch and patiently waited. At about 5pm, it became apparent that the passengers were not the most important cargo but instead the black plastic bags with duct tape were; and boy is duct tape a hot commodity. Not only can it be used for taping things up, but for security, patching holes and for making handles!
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| Comfy bus cots (assuming you are no taller than 5 feet) |
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| Settling in for a long night on the bus |
At 6pm, the packing continued, and in such a way as to make any holiday maker cringe. We never got to the bottom of why it took them so long but it seemed to have something to do with the guy doing the packing waiting for instructions, and the guy giving the instructions not knowing that was his role. By 6.30pm we were definitely on our way (to a traffic jam). A plus was driving right past different sections of the Great Wall as the sun went down. It isn't every day that you get a surprise Great Wall at sunset moment!
Never far from a misunderstanding, our dinner consisted of a hot chocolate (and not the expected instant noodles!) and some sugary buns.
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| When noodles become hot chocolate! |
At 3.30am, I woke up to discover that the bus is parked on the side of the highway and the driver was asleep in one of the cots! With no one else surprised or seemingly disturbed, I rolled over and went back to sleep. Kat later confirmed that the bus had been parked since around 1am. At 6.30 we pushed on for arrival at Erlian by 7am. Determined not to be influenced by touts, and yet quickly realising that's the only choice we had to get anywhere, we accepted the services of a man who would take us to Zamin-Uud. At 7.10am we arrived at his hotel where we would "rest" until 10am when the jeep would come to take us over the border. Haha, for a small 10 yuan, we didn't complain as it presented the opportunity to have a shower and a coffee.
The Jeep
On the jeep journey to Zamin-Uud, we again realised that we were not the most important cargo, with the team taking at least an hour to pack more black plastic bags secured with duct tape into the ancient Russian jeep. "Stacking" four passengers into a space for one brought its own laughs, and we came to know some new travel companions, Ocka and her brother Perov, Mongolians who had been holidaying in China.
Passing through some Chinese armed guard checkpoints, we were instructed to get out and walk through Chinese border control. The driver kept our bags and promised (I suppose) to meet us on the other side. Luckily we had Ocka to help as she spoke English pretty well.
Now was time for the old switcheroo. In order to avoid paying for an additional visa, I was leaving China on my Australian passport but entering Mongolia on my British one (there's a HUGE list of nationalities from which Mongolia does not require a visa until 1 Jan 2016, Australian is not one of them). I had been quite nervous about the switch, but there was no reason to be, there's a big space between China and Mongolia, and the Mongolian border official took no time at all and didn't even blink at the fact my British passport had zero stamps in it.
BIG TIP! If you are doing this trip, the driver takes much longer at Mongolian border control than China, there's a cafe/lounge area upstairs where you can buy lunch, snacks and drinks and go to the toilet - you would never know because it is not signposted. We spent a half an hour here sharing some food and a coffee with Ocka and Perov, and learned a little more about them.
With a bit more shoving and pushing amongst the black plastic bags, we were dropped nearby the Zamin-Uud train station. This wikiTravel post gives good instructions on where to go to buy train tickets. We bought ourselves tickets in the same berth/cabin/koupe as Ocka and Perov and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon doing some grocery shopping and picking up a SIM card, until train departure time.
The Train
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| All aboard! |
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| Inside the train - hard sleeper car |
Our hard sleeper berth was tight but not uncomfortable and you could securely store bags underneath the bottom bunk (someone would have to lift you off it to get at them!) with space above for less valuable things. Ocka was fairly quickly asleep, but we took the opportunity to take in the VERY late sunset while Perov played cards with the boys in the berth adjacent.
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| Settling in for a(nother) long journey |
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| Our stewardesses, in two minds about being photographed |
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| Wood powered boiling water |
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| Perov, Ocka and Kat in our shared "hard sleeper" |
Just after I had rocked off to sleep amidst the clackity-clack, I was woken to insistent tapping on my hip. All I could think was "it's finally happened! I'm being mugged!", I turned to see Perov's smiling face. With a tray in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other he said "HORSE!" and rubbed his belly. He had bought some horse-meat with potato and 3 slices of carrot at the last stop and wanted to share it with me. Perov and I shared in a midnight indulgence of horse-meat washed down with vodka ("makes inside good," Perov says).
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| HORSE! Rob and Perov enjoying a moment |
The views we enjoyed in the morning were amazing, and I don't think we could have enjoyed the trip any more had we taken the train all the way from Beijing. It was a really enjoyable (although slightly hair-raising) way of making the journey! This was our very own brand of Trans-Mongolian!
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| Our first Bactrian camel |
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| Sunset from the train |
Travel dream uniquely realised!
