A traveller's reflection: Trans-Siberian 04: Ulaanbaatar City Tour

"Conquering the world on horseback is easy; it is dismounting and governing that is hard..." - Genghis Khan

(Ulaanbaatar City Tour on electric scooters)

Day 04: Sunday, 5 May 2024
Route: Ulaanbaatar City Tour
Train Route: Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk (25 hrs)

Breakfast was at the Platinum Hotel Restaurant.

This morning the group had a walking tour and visited the Sukhbaatar Square, just a 15-minute walk from our hotel. This is the main square in the heart of Ulaanbaatar. A large statue of Sukhbaatar, the famous patriot characterizes the square, and the square is named after him. The Parliament House, Stock Exchange, the Drama Theater and Cultural Palace are located around the square.

(A morning stroll towards Peace Avenue)

(Ulaanbaatar skyline in the early morning)

(A group photo at the park)

(Statues of Sukhbaatar and Marco Polo)

There was Ger Exhibition at the square and locals came to enjoy the weather on a weekend proudly adorning their national costumes. We visited a few decorative Gers for photo opportunities.

(Genghis Khan Statue at the Parliament House)

(Father and son in their traditional costumes)

(A comfortable and spacious Ger)

(Informative posters in a decorated Ger)

(Playing Mongolian chess with the elderly)

(The newest big-city eco transport trend)

(The Grand Mosque and Islamic Center, still under construction)

By noon we checked-out of the hotel and headed to the Ulaanbaatar Railway Station. We had sambal bilis sandwich lunch and hot nescafe at the station before we boarded the 1520 hrs train to Irkutsk.

(Ulaanbaatar Train Station, beautiful and clean)

(A replica of an old locomotive at the end of the station)

This will be the start of our Trans-Siberian train journey, a combination of trans-Mongolian and Trans-Siberian train lines from Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia to Moscow in Russia.

(We arrived early at the station)

(No sign of our Trans-Mongolian train)

(The bright blue and red Trans-Mongolian train)

(Checking the right carriage to board)

The boarding check-in process was simple. Our train tickets and passport were thoroughly inspected. We kept a copy of our train ticket in the handphone for our record as the train tickets were taken for good by the inspectors. Once we settled down in the 2-bed cabin of carriage 4, we performed Zohor/Asar prayers and rested well.

(The group getting ready to embark the train)

There were only six carriages and no canteen on this particular train. Although there was language barrier, the attendant in charge of our carriage was friendly and quite helpful. Each carriage was equipped with washrooms at one end and a pantry at the other end. Boiling hot water was available at all time. There was a microwave oven to heat-up food, but could only be operated by the Train Assistant. Feeling very hungry, we had an early dinner from our ready-to-eat kembara pack.

(Our comfortable and cozy 2-bed cabin)

(Narrow corridor but the cabin is quite spacious)

(Our first meal on board of the train)

This first phase of our Trans-Siberian train journey took 25 hours passing through beautiful picturesque landscape of grasslands and mountains. There were a number of stops along the way, enough time for us to disembark for a while to take pictures.

(The train leaving the city of Ulaanbaatar)

(Beautiful and fascinating landscape of Mongolia)

(Incredible scenery on the Trans-Mongolian Railway route)

The train reached Mongolia/Russia border before midnight. Border Crossing in Mongolia is at Sukhbaatar and in Russia is at Naushki. Passport and Custom controls were thorough and lengthy at both borders. Our luggage were checked by custom personnels assisted by trained dogs. All food and medicines were carefully examined.