Today we had a long bus trip, from Ulaanbaatar to Ulan Ude in Siberia. 7:30am to 7:21pm!! It proved to be an interesting experience!!
First up, we were packed and out of the hotel early. Uni and Ganool arrived at 6am to take us to the bus station. Their commitment to us ended yesterday, but they have proved great friends.
(The man is our bus driver, not Ganool!)
We got to the bus station in plenty of time, and Uni and Ganool helped us through the check-in process. We made our sad goodbyes, and then finally boarded the bus, which left right on time at 7:30am.
Not much to report about the trip. It was very long and very tedious, but with interesting sights to look at along the way — although much of it was the flat grassland we heve been seeing all over Mongolia.
There were the regular rest stops along the way, some good, some a little dubious. At one point, there was a reasonable toilet at the stop (for 200 Tügrük — about 10 cents!). Suzie opted for this, while Warren (the cheapskate) opted for the rather less than optimal, but free, 'long-drop' toilets off to the side.
There was the inevitable border crossing. The Trans-Siberian Train that we could have chosen to use has a twelve-hour stop scheduled to do this — passport checks on either side of the border and, for the train, another session of bogey changing for the new Russian gauge. This makes for a 20-plus hour journey. The bus, on the other hand, slipped across the border in only 3 hours, leaving us with a total trip of 12 hours — long enough, one might say!
Anyway, the bus was due in to Ulan-Ude at 7:21pm, and got in about 10 minutes early. This caught out Sergei, who was a couple of minutes late getting to us to transfer us to the Victoria Hotel in Irkutsk, but all went smoothly, and we were able to settle in to our room for a good night's sleep.
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