Killing Time

We’re deep in transit mode. We’re in the midst of the crossing-the-border-process, about to go from China into Mongolia, something I had read about in Wyoming weeks ago in the guidebook and was dreading. The process seemed ripe for disaster, or at least many delays, but so far things have gone well.

After touring the Yungang Grottos in Datong, Scott and I had to kill a few hours in Datong before our 5:30 pm train to Jinnin Nan. We got to the station around 4:30 and spent the remainder of the time in the waiting area along with other passengers for train K43.

The waiting room in Datong.

Around 5:15 we boarded car 5. Even though we only had standing only tickets, I think I actually stood for no more than 5 minutes. Scott wasn’t as lucky and had to stand for the majority of the trip. But the ride was short, less than two hours, and we spent the time reading, periodically looking at the passing scenery. The Gobi was ahead of us, but for that train leg, there were mostly towns.

We arrived in Jinnin Nan, exited the train station and then returned to yet another waiting room. This layover was over five hours. The temperature had changed even more and those hours in Jinin Nan were the coolest we’ve experienced on this trip so far. The time passed with more reading (I finally finished First They Killed My Father), some iPod watching, attempts at sleep, eating ramen out of our new pot, trips to the bathroom, and general exhaustion.

Our 12:30 am 4653 train to the Chinese border town of Erlian boarded early around 11:40pm. We again boarded car 5 but this time with places on two hard sleepers. Beds 19 and 20 were the top bunks of a six bunk compartment.  In the dark, we stored our big bags on the overhead rack and hunkered down for the night ride on the rails. As I had remembered from previous trips to China, sleeper cars on Chinese trains are cleaner and nicer than their Indian counterparts. Each bed had a sheet, a pillow, and a thick comforter, all seemingly very clean.

After a somewhat rough sleep, I awoke to find Scott already out of bed. He was sitting on a stool, looking out the window, watching the Gobi pass by.

Train car #5, from Datong to Erlian.

Scott getting off the train after arriving in Erlian, the Chinese border town.

The train arrived in Erlian a little after 6 am. We walked the short distance from the train station to the bus station, found out tickets to Zamyn-Ude wouldn’t start selling until later, so found a breakfast spot where we spent over an hour eating and playing cards. Around 8:30, we returned to the bus station, bought two tickets on the 1:30 bus to the Mongolian border town of  Zamyn-Ude and have been killing time ever since.

Erlian is a strange town with an almost-done huge dinosaur museum, large streets with non-working traffic lights, and almost no one walking on the sidewalks.

It’s five minutes to one and there’s a line of baggage for this journey that snakes around half the waiting room. Scott’s unsure how all of it, plus passengers, will fit on the bus. We shall see.

Once we cross the border, that will be another obstacle passed. The challenge that awaits us once we get to Zamyn-Ude is finding a train ticket to Ulaanbataar without knowing how to say a word in Mongolian. The guidebook says there’s a train at 5:30pm but that it sells out quickly. There’s also the possibility of an even later train. Either we get on a train right away to the Mongolian capital or we spend a night in the dusty town of Zamyn-Ude. Scott reminded me today that all these unknowns, usual causes of stress to me, are all part of the adventure.