Train Trip to the Russian Border

This past year, my husband has often said, "We should take the night train up north, just to see a different part of Mongolia."  So far, we've only seen the countryside within two hours of Ulaanbaatar, and lived and worked daily in the largest city of Mongolia which we normally speak of as "UB".  So, this past weekend seemed to be the "right" time to go up north.  Weather is getting cooler, so getting up to the Russian border needed to happen soon if it was to happen at all.

Friday night, we boarded the night train at 9 pm.  We took our teammate/friend, Pam, and another friend, Dalai, along for the trip.  Pam had been there before and was interested in a trip outside the city with us.  Dalai was up for some hang out time with three Americans, he's so much fun to have around, and he has the added advantage of knowing the Mongolian language!  So, off we went...

Here we are, sitting inside our sleeper car.  Once the beds folded out, there was room for two people to stand up side by side...just to illustrate the small size of this room!




Pam, our teammate, gets comfy in our sleeper car.  The two brown benches are two of the beds; the maroon pieces (above head area) fold down to make the other two beds.  As you can see, I'm taking this picture from the doorway, and you can see the left AND right side of the doorway in the picture.  Cozy....or claustrophobic?!

 I am thankful to say that I slept surprisingly well Friday night on the train!  We arrived at the Sukhbaataar, Mongolia, train station around 8 hours later.  Since we were there very early (5-ish a.m.), we sat in the train station for awhile.  Sukhbaatar does not wake up for several more hours!  We munched on peanutbutter sandwiches which we'd brought along, read, and visited among ourselves.  Before 8 a.m., Dalai had employed a taxi to take us to a couple sites. 


Our first stop was "Mother Tree", a famous worship site for the Buddhists who travel here. Mother Tree has fallen. 

 The square piece of wood with blue scarves around it is for worshippers to prostrate themselves in prayer. At this hour, we were the only ones here, besides the abundance of dogs running about, sniffing at piles of yogurt, cookies, tea, and other foods offered up to the spirits. If someone wants to become pregnant, they might choose to come to this location to ask for favor in fertility. I think of Romans 1:25, "For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature (or creation) rather than the Creator."

Here is an altar in the midst of the Mother Tree area.  There are green and blue scarves tied to the altar (you will see many multi-colored scarves tied to many things throughout Mongolia...fences, posts, altars, trees.  This is a way to say, "I am worshiping here"). 




Here's a closer look at the items placed on this altar...nothing of real value: a metal ornament, candy, burnt matchsticks.




We couldn't help but notice the beautiful fall colors the Creator had offered for our eyes to feast upon! 




This is the new (second) designated Mother Tree.  I see the dead tree and am reminded how we are all, at the beginning, dead in our sins; but God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved!).
 Ephesians 2:1, and 4-5.




Stacks of packages of tea which made a wall around the area...offerings made day after day.

It was time to move on to other places, so our taxi driver drove us onward.  I had to take a photo of the speedometer, as we neared 120 km/hour (75 mph).  We were impressed with the smooth roads in this part of Mongolia.  I don't think we ever reach that speed around Ulaanbaatar (way too bumpy!).


 

Here we were as close as we could get to Russia without getting our hands slapped.  There was a lot of activity going on in this area behind us: people going between the borders, taking their purchased goods from Mongolia to Russia and probably more often, Russia to Mongolia.  We found out that if you WEAR the clothing you carry across the border, it isn't taxed. If it's in boxes, bags, luggage, etc., any new clothing purchased (I think just for resale) is eligible for taxation.  So, you could see people putting layers of clothing on to get it across the border.  There was much jostling of vehicles, Mongolians and Russians co-mingling together...some of both languages being spoken.  I didn't take pictures of all of these "goings on", mainly, because I don't love taking pictures of strangers without their permission, and I don't like asking permission!
 

Here is "Sukhbaataar Square" in the city Sukhbaataar.  This man is famous throughout Mongolia.  He was the Russian man who led the Russian army in its victory in 1921 over the Chinese who were heavily suppressing Mongolia for many years.  He is their hero, right after Chinggis Khan!  We have a much bigger (and more beautiful) Sukhbaataar Square in UB, but it was interesting to see this area honoring this man.



Kevin and Dalai walked up this hill and took a picture of the monument below.  The two Pams stayed on the lower level watching goats and sheep come up on the cemented area to eat from the small grassy patches (perhaps you can see the little squares of grass on the left and right of the cemented area).  I'm not sure what this was a monument to...we didn't take time to try to read the cyrillic signage or ask Dalai to interpret

This lady is setting up shop for the day.  Three of us were on a hunt for a pair of footwear: Dalai needed hiking boots, Pam wanted some new walking/dress shoes, and I was looking for some practical fashion boots to wear with leggings and dresses.

Here's the shop where Dalai and I found our purchases.  My boots ended up costing a mere 20,000 T ($16.00).  Since the boots have been purchased, I've worn them and walked briskly to our destination about 10 minutes away.  They were super comfortable for the whole evening...and super warm.  I'm so satisfied with my new boots!

Here we are at a guanz...the Mongolian word for Mongolian fast food.  I'm rejoicing that beef, not mutton, is on the tip of my fork.

Here's Kevin posing in front of a vendor's unused shelves.  This little square area is one person's store at the market.  He/she hasn't arrived yet to set up shop, but the items will balance on these strips of wood. 

And this little pup?  He's just enjoying the sunny afternoon to the left of my boot shop.

Cows roamed the streets of Sukhbaataar.  Here they graze in a public park where we were sitting for awhile in the afternoon, resting our feet and reading.  There were around 7-8 cows in this group who were herding through the streets together.  They didn't seem agressive at all, and kept to themselves.  I recently read an article that said herds walked freely through Ulaanbaatar back in the 90's.  I suppose the traffic has scared them all away. 

The day was coming to an end, and we didn't need a whole lot to eat for supper since our guanz meal was quite filling.  However, Dalai had eyed some smoked fish in the market earlier in the day, so after we had spent an hour or so down by the river, he walked back to the market and brought us this smoked fish to snack on at the train station.  It looks disgusting, but I must say, it was delicious!  We ate it along with some sourdough bread and we ate until we were full.  We didn't have basketfuls of leftovers to gather, though...just enough to satisfy!

While we waited for the Saturday night train, we played some card games, visited, talked with a 16 year old Mongolian boy in the train station, and soon the train was there.  Again, I was surprised that I slept so well on the train.  Sunday morning arrived and we were at the Ulaanbaatar train station.  It was a trip to be remembered, not because of any fabulous sites, not because of "must-do" activities, but because we had experienced some new things with some dear friends.  We had bonded more deeply with this brother and sister.