All day on the train travelling to Ulaan Baatar, capital of Mongolia. We had been warned to expect a lot of waiting around at the border crossing between Russia and Mongolia – and it wasn’t an exaggeration. We arrive at the Russian border around 1pm and we restart our journey after Mongolian passport control at 10 pm! For most of the time we are not allowed off the train and the toilet facilities on board are closed. So a strong bladder is required as well as shed loads of patience!
We leave the homestay at 6.10 am for the 7.30 am train. It’s dark and cold. The border crossing takes a ridiculously long time. We had been told to expect a 6-hour wait, but it is more like 9 hours and the toilets on board are closed 30 minutes before we arrive at the border. Why it takes so long no one can explain, but it involves separate passport and customs checks at the Russian border and passport checks at the Mongolian border. First the Russian passport officials come to collect the passports. Once stamped and return the customs officials board the train to check what luggage is in each compartment. They are followed by the dog handlers. After several hours the train starts moving again and we naively we think we’re underway. No such luck; after about 40km we arrive at the Mongolian border and a similar interminable wait to go through passport control.
It wasn’t until much later that we realised that only two carriages are processed at a time, and then unhitched and are re-hitched at the Mongolian border. We are in one of the last two carriages. So at least when we are done we can leave.
The process involves a lot of form filling. None of the forms are in English and the provodnista can’t speak English. So there is a lot of shouting and pointing on her part – until in the end she fills in most of the form for us. God knows what we are putting our signature to!
At intervals we are allowed on the platform to use the station facilities, but these are not open continuously, and to by food from the hawkers. At the Mongolian border stop this involves walking across the train tracks to reach the platform and no-one seems in the least bit phased by a train coming through on the adjacent track while we stand outside our carriage chatting.
Finally the whole process is completed and the provodnista leads all the passengers off the carriage and along the tracks whilst our two carriages are taken away to be re-connected to the rest of the train which we discover has been standing at the platform all along. Can you imagine that happening in England?