Day 10 28/9/2104

Didn't recognise UB at all!  Arrived at 6.04 and looked out to a dreary scene of snow on the ground, mist and horizontal sleet.  Glad to be still in 'bed' seeing our neighbours leave huddled up against the cold.  As we moved out of the station all we saw was endless new builds, a mixture of concrete Russian style tower blocks, fancy glass buildings and increasing as we moved further out lots of gers.  We treated ourselves to breakfast in the Mongolian restaurant car of fried egg and bread.  Snow had filled the gaps between the carriages making it an interesting walk to get there.  The rest of the day was spent passing over a misty dreary Gobi desert with not much to see.  Simon was starting to miss the trees and wanting the journey to end.  Diane however was thrilled to spot a camel or two every few hours!  The highlight was dinner in the restaurant car served by smiling hosts followed by the what had become customary Chinese beer and vodka back in our compartment.  The weather had improved and we had a beautiful red sunset.  The boarder controls out of Mongolia and into China were easy compared to the experience of the night before.  Although the wait at the Chinese boarder was extremely long due to the need to change the bogies to enable the train to go from the wider Russian tracks to the narrower Chinese ones we were entertained with the joys of Auld Lang Syne being piped across the station!  Russian tracks and trains are apparently wider than anywhere else in the world to enable them to carry more freight.  The change involved each carriage being separated, lifted up, the old bogie pushed out, the new one slid under for the carriage to be lowered onto it and rejoined to the rest of the train.  A lot of stunting and pushing!  We finally went to sleep at midnight to the noise of the Chiness guards drinking, smoking and playing cards.  They must be glad to be nearly home.  Our friend Lee chatted during the day about footfall, Bejing and his home and supplied us with copious amounts of Chinese green tea.  What a nice guy.  Anyway we'll be waking up to Northern China tomorrow.  Wondered what that will bring?