Picking a bogie

30 June 830 pm - day 5 - erlian

We pulled into Erlian, fairy lights and classical music blaring, and handed in our passports to the Chinese immigration police. During the two and half hour stop in Erlian, the carriages are lifted of the Chinese Bogie, or under carriage, and placed on a wider gauge Mongolian/Russian Bogie. As is polite the bogies are exchanged under cover of a shed. Robert chose to stay on the train to see what it felt like, and I went to the tax free shop at the train station to load up on provisions. A cold bottle of Tsingtao beer helped while away the wait on the platform, as I chatted to some residents of erlian, and some other passengers.

Back on the train, final inspections, looking for any Chinese trying to hide in the toilets or undercarriage (quite specific search) and then more formalities before getting the passports back. As importantly they could then get the train moving and open the lavatories, as by this stage most peoples bladders were full of beer, and peeing in the hot water kettle (there is one in each carriage) almost became the only alternative

By this stage it is midnight, and everyone is tired. An hour later we arrived at the Mongolian border, more searches, more passport and customs checks, and finally lights out and the land of nod.



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Location:Erlian -Chinese border

Off to Mongolia

Weds 30 June - Beijing

The early start (up at 530) meant we missed breakfast at the hotel, and I had visions of the only thing open at Beijing train station being the char siew pao seller, or maybe the youtiao man. That was beijing station in the 90's. Now there are two 24 hour mcdonalds and a KFC. To help the local economy, we chose the furthest mcdonalds and tucked into usual fare, and watched a replay of the japan-Paraguay penalty shoot out.

The railway station is much cleaner than I recall, where are all the local yokels and soldiers I recall from '92?

The K3 to Moscow departs from platform 4 at 0745 am on wednesdays, and we arrived 60 mins early. After just 15 mins the train was called and we walked across an overpass similar to York station in uk, and found the K3.

I recollect booking the 2 berth super deluxe carriage, however our tickets led us to a 4 berth soft berth. I called my friend at CTS, who was apologetic, and spoke to the captain of the train on my behalf to see if we could upgrade. No luck, and we set off on time, and started nw to the Mongolian border.

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Location:Beijing

Devil in the details

Tuesday 29

A few months ago I ordered the Beijing Moscow train tickets through the Internet (actually through my iPhone), paid via pay pal (iPhone again) and asked for delivery at the hotel I had booked in Beijing. The tickets were delivered today (Tuesday) for tomorrow's departure by the very efficient china travel service ticket agent. They were left at the hotel whilst Robert and I were out collecting Belarus visas (we got to the embassy 15 mins before it opened to be safe) and off touring the Great Wall at Mutianyu, about 100km north east of beijing. Back at the hotel around 4pm I checked the tickets and realized I had booked mine using an old passport. If the ticket doesnt match the passport, no-can lah! Thankfully the CTS agenT was uber-efficient and managed to get a new ticket issued within two hours.

Pays to check the details, and not to be so pang-say chuay jamban (forgive my poor Hokkien).


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Zai beijing

Beijing west train station was impressive. The train from hong kong rolled in exactly 24 hours later. Queues at the immigration, but no interrogation.

The front of the station was as busy as, well, a train station in Beijing. Finally we found an ATM and got some money (good idea to bring some money on the train next time..)

We accepted we would get ripped off, but took an unofficial taxi to the hotel rather than find the correct public bus. The taxi driver was as surprised as we were to find the hotel.

Successfully applied for Belarus visa at the embassy, located near ritan park. Expensive, as all express visas are, and we had to take a rickshaw to the local bank to pay. The only consolation was that the rickshaw driver gave us a goal by goal replay of the england world cup thrashing, which we had watched in a hutong bar, and out of sympathy let us off some of the fare, as I didn't enough small change.


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Location:Beijing

On our way- hong kong to Beijing part 1

Saturday 26 june

The second leg of our journey started the rail-trip properly. After being detained, inexplicably, at hong kong immigration (something that has happened frequently ever since my first trip to hong kong in 1992), we took the airport express train to kowloon station. The first thing we both realized was that, even on such a modern train, public wifi access would be intermittent. Having handed in my blackberry the previous day, my last day at Prudential, we would either have to wait for public access to wifi or risk large data charges on my iPhone.

From Kowloon we took the k1 bus to hung hom station, arriving at 2.15, precisely 60 mins before the train departure. Surprisingly it was very easy to pick up the tickets (which I had ordered on the internet) but we were encouraged to go through immigration and board the train, the t98 express to Beijing. In hindsight we should have used the time to fill up on junk food and change some money into renminbi.

Booking early meant that Robert and I had excellent seats - the first two couchettes in carriage 10. Carriage 10 is the deluxe-soft sleeper, with ensuite wc and an a lcd tv (with two channels of Chinese cartoons). Our carriage was very near the dining car and the supply of hot-water, which would get frequent use on the 24 hours to Beijing. The carriages are very clean, the aircon cold, and the passage-ways totally silent. A very different experience to my previous train trips in china in the early 90s.

Having ignored the Siren call of McDonalds in hong kong, we were both pretty hungry; however a 3 hour wait ensued for the restaurant car to open. After scouring the somewhat limited menu, and realizing we didn't have any renminbi to pay, we extracted ourselves and bought some instant noodles and cashew nuts using half of the hong kong dollars I found at the bottom of my wallet from a previous trip to hong kong in April. We feasted on the cashews, the lukewarm noodles and a muesli bar, and watched the grey-green afternoon blur into a rain-filled evening.

We played with our iPad, iPhone and read, before settling the gadgets into chargers and calling it a night ourselves. The Rythmic rolling of the carriages soon had us both asleep, very comfortably, despite the rumbling in our stomachs.




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Location:T98 from hong kong to beijing

Leaving on a jet-plan, I do hope we can find the train

A little over 6844 miles to go to Scotland. Robert and I took a leisurely breakfast in the lounge at changi airport's plush terminal 3, charging gadgets, then we had to rush to the shops to buy all the things we left at the house in our haste. The flight leaves for hong kong at 830. Bon voyage Singapore.
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Location:Sq 860 to hk

To Russia with love

Finally I have Russian visas with the correct validity (I hope). The process was a bit cumbersome as it was necessary to get invite letters via the Internet.

Now off to the Mongolian consulate in Singapore for the Mongolian transit visa (the Russian visa is a pre-requisite).

Didn't Ewan mcgregor and Charlie Borman have a team of research assistants to help when they did their bike tour ?




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Viva la visa

Russian visa finally applied for. Ready next tuesday. With that we can apply for Mongolian visa next week. Will have to hope for Belaru visa in Beijing next Monday. One week to go.. We leave for hong kong Saturday morning..


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Last ticket

Have booked the last ticket : Moscow to Berlin. Not cheap but looks very comfortable. It is the moscva express. Departs Moscow 8 am weds 7th July and gets into Berlin the next morning at 9 am.

Start the process of getting visas tomorrow. First off is the china visa. Applying in person in Singapore

Still worried by Belarus visa situation, however looks like it can be obtained in Moscow at a push.



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Nearly made a big mistake. Applied for Russian visa stating the entry date when we arrive I'm Moscow. In fact it needs to state when we cross into russia from china... Could have resulted in being thrown off the train at russian border.... Just in the nick of time.

Thankfully Roberts passport just back from hk consulate. Need to get cracking on the china, Mongolia and Belarus visa and make booking on Moscow to Berlin leg. The elusive moscva express.



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