Page 20 - maY 26, 2016 - martensville messenger
Where in the World?! My Night on the Trans-Mongolian
Submitted by Dean Johnston
When we got up it was cold
and snowing. It’s not really
my business but I think if
Mongolia wanted more
tourists they should try to
have less snow. The other
tourists in the train station
all looked pretty tired, just
like us. But none of them
had a boiled egg like we
did, or a cookie. I think
some of them would have
liked a bite but I didn’t
want to share so I tried not
to make eye contact.
Each car on the train from
Ulaan Bataar to Beijing
has a long line of rooms
with four tiny beds folding
out from the wall and a
skinny hallway running
beside. Some of the
tourists seemed too fat to
pass each other in such a
skinny hallway, though. I
decided to keep an eye on
it.
Laynni stayed on the top
bunk because she says I go
to the bathroom too often
at night, but she had to do
almost a full pull-up to
get up there. She seemed
very pleased, but was also
happy when we later found
a fold-out ladder because I
could tell she didn’t really
think she would be able to
do it again. Now she didn’t
have to, but she could still
think back on that one pullup and feel proud.
We only had one roommate,
named Julien from France.
He didn’t know that I
am really good at saying
“bonjour” and “merci”, and
even sort of good at saying
“merci beaucoup”. I made
a plan to surprise him with
it later when he was least
expecting it.
Whenever the train stops
you have a couple minutes
to get out and buy stuff
from women with shopping
carts full of things like
cookies and instant noodles
and Coke. There were no
price tags but the lady told
us the noodles were 3,000
yuan and I believed her.
We had instant noodles
for both lunch and dinner
because hot water was free,
and because in the dining
car you had to buy a fourcourse meal for $US24 and
it didn’t even come with
noodles. We didn’t just eat
noodles, though. We also
ate a lot of candy, and I
bought ice cream at one
stop. It is good to have a
balance, I think.
At the Chinese border
a guy came around and
gave
us
immigration
and customs declaration
forms. The customs form
specifically said we didn’t
need to fill it out unless we
had something to claim, but
Julien and I talked about
it and decided to fill them
out anyway because, hey,
you never know. Then the
guy came back around
and wanted both forms,
he didn’t care that we had
nothing to claim, and Julien
and I smiled at each other
because, you know, we kind
of saw this coming. We also
had to change our “bogies”
because the Chinese train
tracks are skinnier than
the
Mongolian
tracks.
Supposedly so it would
be harder for Mongolia to
attack them, but I talked to
quite a few Mongolians and
most of them didn’t seem
very interested in attacking
China.
In the morning the dining
car
was
completely
different. The menu had two
choices, “Western pastries”
and “Chinese breakfast”.
But the lady said they didn’t
actually have the Chinese
breakfast, and the Western
pastries turned out to be
just white bread and really
runny eggs, so I don’t know
what to think any more. We
also found out they would
not
accept
Mongolian
money, only Chinese yuan,
because when the lady saw
my dirty pile of Mongolian
ABOVE: Cruising the scenery.
tugrik she got really upset
and frightened, just like I
did when I saw those eggs.
Altogether, the whole trip
took about thirty hours
and we spent most of it
sleeping and reading and
eating snacks. I think that
was a pretty good way to
spend that time, maybe not
as good as volunteering at
an orphanage, but probably
better than stealing poor
people’s jackets. Beijing
was pretty warm, though,
so in the end the poor
people didn’t have anything
to worry about.
soothing, more soothing
than the rattle of other
things, like maracas or jars
of loose change.
3.
Train toilets empty
directly onto the tracks, so
try not to drop your phone
in there.
4.
When the train
passes herds of camels it is
best to pretend like you see
them all the time and it’s
really nothing special.
5.
Tiny bags of chips
from the hall vendor make
Five Things:
1.
You’ll
quickly
notice that Mongolia is
mostly flat.
2.
The rattle of the
tracks can actually be quite
for a cheap, unsatisfying
snack.
Dean Johnston is the author
of Random Acts of Travel:
Featuring
Trepidation,
Hammocks and Spitting
and Behind the Albergue
Door: Inspiration Agony
Adventure on the Camino
de Santiago, but he
occasionally likes to write as
though he is a semi-literate
teenager. Check out http://
routinelynomadic.com.
ABOVE: The long, skinny walk.
Garden Centre Now Open
Fresh Stock Arriving Weekly
230 Centennial Drive North
Martensville, SK
Phone: 306-934-5564
Hours: Monday - Saturday
8:00 AM - 9:00 PM
Sunday - 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM