All aboard! I confess I am excited to board the TSR. This trip has been months in the planning. As we roll out of Beijing we begin to see the deep gorges formed by the Yellow River give way to rolling hills planted mostly with corn then more arid land that stretches as far as the eye can see. The Gobi Desert. It lies between Mongolia and China and is the most northern desert in the world. According to Lonely Planet the Mongolians say that there are 33 different types of Gobi, but only 2% is Lawrence of Arabia style sand dunes. Most of the land is dry gravel and sandstone cliffs. The Great Wall can be seen in the distance near the town of Zhangjiakou where ancient tea caravans crossed the Great Wall.
more on that later…
The first people we meet on the train live 2 berths down and are a family including a Kiwi and an Irishman and their twelve year old daughter who is fluent in Mandarin and attends an international school in Malaysia where her parents teach. They are on holiday and are traveling the TSR and on to London via train. We talked of travel adventures, prejudice, Brexit and international schools. No problem.
When we arrive at the Mongolian-Chinese border about 12 hrs after boarding in Beijing much happens…we jump out to stretch our legs and are soon herded back inside so the Chinese could check our passports and customs forms (keeping the passports for hrs). Mongolian and Russian trains run on a 5ft (1.5m) train track in contrast to much of the rest of the world. They actually changed the bogies (a structure underneath a coach to which axles and wheels are attached through bearings) at the border, a process that lasted 3 or so hours. Next the Mongolians checked our passports and customs forms also keeping them awhile. All in all on our way 5 or so hours after stopping.
We wake early and watch the scenery but soon head to the dining car for exercise and conversation. We meet Justin, a young finance guy from Singapore traveling to Moscow on business but combining that with pleasure aboard the TSR. We talked of his country and ours, standards of living, education (Singapore leading the world) and the cost of living (Singapore is also among the highest in this category but with low taxes) and politics.
The provodnista or should I say your provodnista controls everything; the stops, the water, the cleanliness of the cabin and the bathroom. We are traveling 2nd class and have a 4 berth sleeper to ourselves. The bathroom that is down the hall is locked more often than not by the provodnista and before and after stops. No shower! All are women on this train and let’s just say some are happier than others.
