Trans-Mongolian Express/some R&R.

By Astrid | Published January 27, 2011

Finally, an excuse not to move. 33 hours aboard a big, long, old and incredible train. It’s 5am 26th January 2011, Beijing and we’re lugging hefty suitcases to a bus stop to get to Central Station. Apparently the taxis might not have collected us from the hostel, so the advice was to ‘bus’! Considering it was 5am and we’d gone to bed at 1am, we did remarkably well to get to the station for a grand total of 20p each.

Once aboard and in the right cabin (hard sleeper – not THAT hard but definitely not first class), we established who was on top bunk and who got to go bottom, and we were away. The train left 7.47am and was due to arrive in Ulaanbaatar at lunchtime on the 27th.

Once I’d scouted out my new ‘home’ and run the length of the train a couple of times ogling at all the other compartments and feeling very “James Bond” about the whole affair, I settled down with my book, but for the life of me couldn’t stay awake more than 10 minutes. I have now discovered my most favoured method of travel. Plus, no power sockets = no editing. Frustrating at first, but perhaps a blessing in disguise for I was long overdue some serious downtime. Downtime and still in transit…suits me!