Into, then outa Mongolia

Well, I made it to China, and what a train journey. 

6000Ks, 5 time zones, countless stops, -40C temps, 2 border crossings and we pulled into Beijing Central train station just 2 minutes late. Quite unbelivable when you think that the train from Hinton Admiral to Bournemouth is never, ever, on time. 

After sitting at one of the crazy moscow stations I was begining to worry about whom I'm going to be sharing my 'kupe' class cabin with for the next week. It turns out it was a Mongolian footballer and Arsenal supporter named Nick. Unluckily for him, I know nothing at all about football and his only english was football related...still by the end of the week we became friends, and it was quite usual for him to call out my name in a worried tone when I was out at a station and he thought the train was going to pull off without me. He also liked to share his rancid Mongolian 'tea' and thought it was hilarious that it almost made me puke. 

It turned out that the train was swarming with us english speakers, we had at least 5 other english, 2 irish, 2 danes & 2 swedes...and that was only in 'stearage', there we're a couple more brits in first class I think. 

Our carridge became the english hangout, and soon it was endless card games, endless 'instant' noodles and endless hours spent with the nose pressed against the window. The highlight came every 5 hours or so when we pulled into a station, we we're out there before you could say "wait...it's -40 out there!" and usually back in just at fast. 

So anyway, an epic train journey it really was. Siberia really is quite an amazing place, and I can't wait to go back and spend more time in mongolia, that place just looked unbelivable. 

Beijing is ringing...