Goodbye Beijing, Hello Railway

Today it was adios Beijing, and hola to our first train ride of our journey.

I woke up early for some reason, and couldn’t fall back asleep so I enjoyed an early breakfast in my room while I FaceTimed with my mom ... I mainly want to check in on my dogs to be honest. I miss them so much when I’m away, and it’s nice that technology allows me to virtually be there.

I decided I wanted to check the bakery by the hotel to see if they had any Coconut Cookies I have become addicted to, and sure enough they had them this morning. I bought a couple containers for the train trip, I’m hoping I can at least bring one home, but who knows. Also I finally found some postcards so I could send Samantha & Co. one.

Once back at the hotel I FaceTimed with Samantha and the kids, which was a nice treat for me. I like being able to see people when I’m talking to them, but it also is nice to be able to show the kids where I am and what China looks like. I did have to cut it short though because we were leaving pretty soon.

I packed on my gear and headed downstairs, I checked out and waited for the rest of the group. Soon we were all assembled and walking to the train station, it was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel, so it wasn’t bad at all, especially with us carrying our bags and food.

At the train station one of our group members did run into a problem with her passport, her passport number and her tickets ... the end result was her having to purchase another ticket on the train. The Chinese are very particular on things, and sadly this thing was one of them.

We barely made the train, as we were all waiting with baited breath on whether she was going to make it or not. When we saw her come into the station, Alex yelled to grab bags, and we were running to the train. We made it through the ticket check with time to spare so we quickly grabbed a group photo together in front of the train. After Alex told us our cabin numbers and we were boarding rail car #6.

The cabin is modest, nothing fancy but it’s comfy/cosy, and it’s to be our home for the next 30-ish hours. Once we got everything set up and put away we all relaxed and got to enjoy another side of China. The landscapes did rapidly change, and it was quite interesting so see ... And of course I stuck my head our the train window to get a view whenever possible.

We did get lucky in the fact that we received both lunch and dinner free on the train. Don’t get me wrong they weren’t the greatest meals, but they did satisfy and they were free. Apparently dinner for free on the train doesn’t happen ever, but we got lucky.

I saw an amazing sunset, a cool looking moon, which I finally saw the man on the moon, and just a different side of China than the hustle and bustle of the last few days.

Everyone has bunked down for the night, and I probably will join them soon. Let’s hope I can get some sleep tonight, cross my fingers the train lulls me to sleep.

10 pm Update:
We’ve arrive at the China-Mongolian border, the border guards have come and taken our passports, checked our identities and the train has moved into the rail yard. The Chinese still have our passports.

12 am Update:
We’ve reconnected to the engine, and are just hanging out in the rail yard. It looks like they are just finishing the last rail cars up, but really who knows at this point, lol.

1 am Update:
Passports returned

2 am Update:
Mongolia has taken passports

4 am Update:
Mongolia has returned passports ... the official got a nice view of my room mates butt as she was trying to confirm his ID.Baca lagi