“Although the temperature outside is now well below zero, I am lying in the snug and sweaty darkness of a seriously overheated Chinese train compartment. After about half an hour tossing and turning I have a bit of a moment and finally lose my self-control in a high-temperature-induced panic. I feel an urgent and desperate need for fresh air. I need to do something, anything, so I grab my tool kit, get out some pliers and begin to remove the bolts around the frame that obviously keeps the window closed. There are eight bolts, and I remove them one by one and put them each carefully on my table like I’m working on an unexploded bomb. My compartment door is locked, so as long as we don’t stop at a station I can continue my work unobserved by Li and Chen, my minders. The bolts are now all out, but the window still won’t open. I push, shove and try and slide it in all directions. Nothing happens. Taking a break, and sitting on my berth I scratch my head and wish that I were a qualified engineer. Why won’t the window open? I realise that I’m going to have to admit defeat to living in a sauna. But then in a horrible single moment of mechanical deduction, the reason it’s not opening finally dawns on me. This window is fixed shut and, unlike the windows in the corri­dor, has no opening part. What I have actually done is to unbolt the entire window and its frame from the carriage. At this moment there is nothing other than ice and grime holding the window onto the rattling and bumping carriage as we sway down the line towards Irkutsk.”

It would of course have been highly amusing to imagine me trying to explain to the Chinese officials why the window in my compartment was absent from the train in the heart of the Siberian winter. But the two viewpoints of fear and hilarity also made me think about the richness of adventure. When I first started out as a long range rail traveller I tried to plan everything so carefully. The smallest problem stood out as a personal crisis, and I was always worrying about something trivial. It is only over time and with some miles under my belt that I now see most problems as actually generally good things. Not only do they give me something interesting to write about, but they seem to make me a better traveller. So as I have raised my game as a rail adventurer, and now an author, I have actually learned to embrace the odd crisis. I’m also a bit more chilled out now too. By accepting that these things will happen and I will overcome them, I seem to become a more open minded, confident, and a more flexible person.

My first book is about my rediscovery of the joy of long distance train travel. After a longer gestation period than I had planned, it was finally published this week. Trans-Siberian Adventures is based on my first ever journey across Siberia – from Edinburgh to Shanghai.

My original blog has proved to be a useful journal, but the book has allowed me to take my writing to a new place – one that perhaps only two years ago I would not have imagined. I have been able to write about my experiences in much more detail and to provide what I feel is a more real insight into life on the rails. Blogging on the move has become a daily ritual of my travel, but like an artist, this is really just an initial sketch, rather than the full painting.

I feel I should point out that the photo at the top of this post might imply my impending custody in a Korean jail. I have to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. I found Korean policemen to be the nicest law enforcement agency that I have ever encountered. This gives me a closing thought, one that I also mention in the book. It doesn’t matter if you don’t speak a word of the same
language; nearly all people in this world are innately kind and generous to
strangers. Don’t be put off travel by what you read in the newspapers.

I really hope you enjoy my book and that it might inspire you to give long range rail adventure a try. You can read more about Trans-Siberian Adventures on my book page. Please let me know what you think.

Distance: 30 km, journey time 7 minutes, max speed 431km/h (268 mph)

Well here we go for the last train of this trip – but one seemingly without rails!
It’s a 20 minute taxi ride from the Bund to Longyang Road, where the downtown Maglev station is to be found. A short hike up an escalator, then you buy a ticket (mine was a first class or “VIP” ticket, one way, discounted if you show your flight ticket, RMB 80 or £8). Cheaper seats further back are maybe RMB 40…

The trains depart every 15 minutes and take just 7 minutes to reach Pudong International Airport.
Once I had stowed my baggage, I wandered forward to the cockpit door, which you can look through to see “the driver”. I must say it was a bit of a “Wizzard of Oz” moment, as the pilot of this train was a wearing a hoody and looked like he was working hard to improve his score on Mortal Kombat rather than preparing to take responsibility for my life on an ultra high speed rail line.

After about five minutes he finished his game, sat bolt upright, adjusted his seat and hit some buttons – the doors closed, the train levitated, and we shot off towards the airport at warp speed.

I watched the speed indicator as we accelerated up to my previous speed record from the high speed “G train” I took from Beijing last week – 300 km/h. Things start really flashing past, and this train has banked corners, so you feel a little bit more G force. But it kept on accelerating. I watched it cross 400 km/h and within a couple of minutes we had topped out at 430 km/h – briefly I was the fastest 1st class train passenger (an otherwise empty VIP class) on Planet Earth!

At this speed the outside world really is a bit of a whirl. Anyway, it didn’t last too long before we edged back to 300 km/h, and quickly we arrived at the airport. I learned from my concierge at the hotel that between 9.00 and 11.00 in the morning the train reaches its top speed, but later in the day it’s about 50 seconds slower on the run, to save power apparently..

I found Pudong Airport a bit like Heathrow – not very friendly to a transferring passenger carrying baggage, but was pleased I had done this trip rather than take a taxi the whole way. As many say, it’s a bit of a shame this line does not go all the way into the city, but its still well worth using.

So there we go, a 12,490 km journey over three weeks which I would definitely commend to you. I hope you have enjoyed my posts and found them informative, especially if you are considering doing this trip yourself. I also hope you have found them amusing if you are not planning to do this trip, but know me, and were perhaps hoping I might get detained in a gulag!

I have tried hard to present my experiences in an honest and straightforward way – it’s a journey that needs a fair amount of planning to work through the red tape, but once on the rails, a real adventure. It’s not hard, but does need one to remain open minded and live in the moment of the biggest train trip out there.

I will not be posting further on my continuing travels in Asia, as they don’t employ the train, the subject of this blog. I will however post more on kit reviews and image galleries whilst its all fresh in my mind.

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I apologise if I have misled you with the name of this post, as it refers to the nickname for the Shanghai World Financial Centre (SWFC) rather than any beer drinking paraphernalia. You can understand why when you see the design of this building (above centre) by the architect Kohn Pederson Fox.

Last night I could feel my hotel (the Pudong Shangri-La) vibrate slightly in the strong gusts of wind. When I spoke to the concierge at breakfast, he said that this is normal, and that’s why there are no lights hanging off the ceiling, as guests would see them sway! I’m only on the 22nd floor of this hotel, but this morning I ventured out onto the skybridge on the 100th floor of currently the World’s tallest (roof & occupied) building – the SWFC.

Finished in 2008, it was once the third tallest in the world, and is next to two other super high buildings, making this currently the tallest cluster of buildings in the World.

For 150 RMB (£15) you get to take an elevator up to the 94th floor, an escalator to the 97th floor and then a lift to the “skybridge” on the 100th floor at 474m. Did I mention that I have a fear of heights and a crushing fear of falling from heights? I must be mad to take on this assignment..

I discovered that I was fine on the relatively solid feeling 94th floor, but knowing that on the 100th floor all that was beneath you were some thick glass tiles made my knees wobble, and I had to cross mostly without looking down. I was able to grab hold of a railing and take this picture, but it wasn’t the most relaxed I have ever taken! I was in fact quite relieved to get back down to ground level.

Shanghai seems to be a great blend of tall and ultra modern, as well as low rise and traditional – it gave me a bit of a “Bladerunner” feel, as does my next port of call, Hong Kong.

I was originally going to take an overnight train to Hong Kong, but I must confess that I’m flying. The reason is a bit sad and domestic. On my journey so far I have been able to “buy out” my own compartment at night, giving me the necessary privacy and space. My Chinese train agent was not prepared to try and do this for me on this route, wanting passport numbers for each berth, so I gave up in the end. That might seem a bit defeatist, but after all the other planning done for the trip, I just decided to officially end the train journey in Shanghai and travel by plane.

With hindsight an overland journey from Beijing to Bangkok or Shanghai to Singapore would be a good advanced level train travel test, and maybe one I will do in the future – it has a mix of visa, border and timetable complexities that six months ago I might of not imagined I could take on, but now I feel I quite fancy the challenge of!

So I am now packing for tomorrow – the Maglev trip to the airport, and – yikes – a 20kg luggage allowance on my cheapy plane ticket. I shall have to adopt the uniform Chinese approach of trying to carry everything on as hand luggage..

Bye for now.

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G15 High Speed Train, Beijing South – Shanghai Hongqiao

Sad to be leaving the Kerry, but up early for my journey to Shanghai. In the Shangri-La way, everything was a whir of efficiency at check out and I was soon deposited in a wifi enabled car and accompanied by Chris, the hotel concierge. I discovered on the short journey to the station that this blog is actually blocked in China, but the hotel route their internet via Hong Kong, so as a result I have had no problems posting. I hasten to add that I think it is Blogger that is banned, not my posts..

Beijing South is an impressive building (and the biggest train station in China) but yet so much easier to use than the sprawling Beijing Central station. I actually didn’t need the interpreter services of Chris at all – it was more clearly signed than most British airports!

The investment and scale of the high speed rail network in China is amazing. On Tuesday this week they opened the new line from Beijing to Canton, cutting the journey time from 20 hours to just 8 hours. The line to Shanghai is similarly fast, covering over 1300 km in just 4 hours 45 minutes. The Trans-Siberian covered on average 1100 km per 24 hours!

The G train that I travelled on had three classes – second class, first class and business class (the most expensive). If you travel in business class you get the “VIP” service package – lounge, food etc.

The system at the station is that after going through a speedy security check as you enter the main station, there are a series of airport style gates for each train. These open 20-30 minutes before departure, and you show your ticket on entry (they didn’t ask to see my passport, but it’s number appears on my ticket).

I think the station reminds me of an enormous version Stansted Airport (for all the right design reasons) and hope Sir Norman Foster would not be offended – i.e. you only have to walk about 100m forwards from entering the concourse to getting down onto the platform for your train, real functionality.

After being left in the VIP lounge for an hour or so my porter collected me and fast tracked me to the front of a big queue. We took the lift down to the platform where he sped ahead to the very end of the train and deposited me in the sightseeing/quiet/VIP cabin – more the feel of a Gulfstream 4 than a train, with just five seats. There is so much leg room here that all my bags are in front of my seat and I can’t reach them with my legs. It reclines into a full flat bed and has a TV monitor (which I didn’t try or see anyone else using).

Having heard about the sad passing of Gerry Anderson this week, the design of the inside of the cabin also reminded me of an Eagle from “Space 1999”- Look at the proportions of the window and the curve of the wall.. It would be nice to think that the designer was inspired by futuristic kids television!

I popped out to take a few quick snaps, then I waited in my chair watching the LED panel ticking down the time to blast off. I was slightly alarmed that the pilot had not arrived at T-5 (he has to get in via the cabin) when it dawned on me that I was sat at the back of the train and not the front – Beijing South is not a terminus. So at 10.57 the doors slid closed and with the gentle whir of motors, three minutes early, we eased out of the station. The first few kilometres were a reduced speed, but within 10 minutes we were accelerating up to 300km/h and beyond. It was unnervingly smooth.

I spent some time in the main business cabin, where I chose to have my lunch (seat 4F). There were just 12 seats here – it was a bit brighter, wider and more open than the “rocket style” of the nose section, with three seats across. Both are very nice places to be.

Lunch was simple but tasty. There was no choice, it was a beef and duck medley with noodle soup. No tea or coffee, just water or Coke.

As a recently fully trained Trans-Sib survivor, I noticed that there was the modern equivalent of a samovar at the end of first class, so no problem if you bring your own noodles. Here’s a picture of first class, which looked quite popular.

I had thought that the train was a non stop service, but in fact we stopped briefly at Jinan West and later Nanjing South. The trip is so fast that you watch the outside temperature rise as you travel south. I let countryside the flash past to a soundtrack of “The Very Best of Japan”, which seemed to fit the surroundings rather well.

If you are thinking of buying a ticket for this part of my journey, a few notes that you might want to run through –

1) As I understand it, some trains don’t have a full business class, just first class seats for premium passengers. It’s worth making sure your ticket fare looks like the right one. Mine cost 1700 RMB (about £170) + service charge from ChinaTicketsNet. I ordered it before I left home and it was delivered by courier to my hotel in Beijing without any difficulty.

2) Some trains (the ones with no separate business class carriage) have a very small number of seats that are the same as business class but right at the front of the train (like my seat) with an opaque view into “the cockpit”. These are sometimes called “VIP” or “sightseeing” class, but it confuses the system described above, as they are also treated as business class on trains that have a business class cabin. I think its about half of all the trains – its easy to spot because there is no business class fare available on that train from the ticket agent eg ChinaTicketsNet.

My conclusion is that you will unlikely to be able to buy “sightseeing” or “VIP” seats on trains even with business class fares available, as the agents don’t sell “sightseeing class” as a separate product (probably owing to all the confusion and the small number of seats). I would add that the normal business class carriage is nearly identical, so no real need to worry about all this..

3) My business class ticket, by chance, allocated me a seat in a sightseeing section at the very end of the train, in a business class carriage (carriage 16, Richard Burton style – seat 1A) – there are only five seats, and I note one pair are placed together as a sort of love seat with no armrest in the middle 2A/B. A bit scary if you had to share that with someone that you didn’t know!

It’s all a little bit confusing, so I hope that’s clear!

We arrived on time into a misty murky Shanghai Hongquai that is on the same scale as Beijing South – modern and massive! I’m stopping in Shanghai for a couple of days now – my final leg, only 30km, but the fastest 30km currently possible by train on Earth, is on New Year’s Eve – the Maglev.

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I know you don’t need a “tourist diary” from me in Beijing, but I do have a couple of updates as I down tools (or should that be “trains”?) for Christmas. First of all, for the record, my Christmas dinner – a rather special whole duck carefully prepared at Da Dong, suppliers of the best Peking duck in the city. (No Christmas pudding, but you can’t have everything!).

Leaving the train and getting back into civilised living is an odd experience. Once I left the platform at Beijing Central I was met by a man from my hotel with a limo, cold towels and a freshly pressed English language newspaper. It was only then I realised how grubby and disheveled I had become over the past two weeks. For the first time in my life I felt the need to apologise for my appearance once I got to my hotel..

My hotel (The Kerry) have been great and the head concierge (Chris) had everything organised for my arrival. So over the last day I have been getting used to the splendours of running hot water, room service, a computer controlled toilet (which is a bit scary after the facilities on the train), and living in a room which has a bed alone that is bigger than my whole compartment from Moscow.

My baggage is now much lighter – no need for emergency rations, wine, coffee, wet wipes or toilet rolls. If I were going back Westbound next week I would not take as much again, but I wasn’t to know, and although I was never a Boy Scout, I don’t like to be under prepared. Also like most people who have done the trip will tell you, I have read less than two books on the whole journey so far – no time to read with so much going on!

For the record, I’m still coming to terms with how much Beijing has changed since I was last here just over 20 years ago. Where did all these people come from? The scale of the investment in Chinese infrastructure will be clear when I share my next leg with you – to Shanghai on the fastest conventional train in the world*.

* train anorak debate – this is a past record also of a special French TGV at full stretch, but I understand the Chinese G trains are not running at full speed, either to save electricity or minimise the risk of a crash..

Bye for now!

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Another good night’s sleep – I woke to the feeling of the brakes and fearing a “Crazy Ivan” as we pulled into Datong, our penultimate stop (bang on time). Not much to see on the platform or indeed the station, which was devoid of human life apart from of course about 20 guards from our train standing alongside their carriages. They were supervised as normal by our “C in C” and “RSM”, who clearly are now preparing for passing out parade at Sandhurst wearing their best dress uniforms.

I didn’t make it to breakfast (a shame, as it was free) but met up with some of the others for brunch in the new Chinese restaurant car. It’s different again, and not quite what I expected or ad hoped for. As you walk in you are actually greeted and semi directed to a table. We were served chicken balls (not chicken testicles, but chicken meat in dollops, so to speak) with rice and vegetables, which arrived about 30 seconds after sitting down. I didn’t see a menu – I think this was very much the only “dish of the day”.

The carriage was cold but otherwise comfy. Our brunch was supervised by a policeman – I’m not sure if there was the possible risk of any noodle theft going on, but I felt safer knowing that he was there looking after me and my lunch.

As well as Stephan and Ceyda not enjoying their lunch above, here is Christina and Anna from Finland, who were also on the train for the whole distance from Moscow.

And also a couple of Germans from Munich (I’m sorry that I don’t know their names) who joined the train in UB. I understand from Stephan that they are on their way overland to the challenge of the normally closed China/Burma land border. Hard core!

I spent the morning packing up whilst looking at the amazing views of mountains and gorges between the tunnels as we approach Beijing.

Guard A and Guard B have spent the morning preparing the carriage and cleaning various bits of the train. They seem happy enough – Guard B says that they have three days leave before heading back to Moscow on train 003.

Here’s the final shot for this leg – the Trans-Sib train at Beijing Central railway station today. I felt a quite a connection and really was sad to leave it, having lived as part of it for so long.

I have four days R&R now before travelling on the train to Shanghai for the weekend.

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Just a quick update from the other side of the border.

I seemed to have passed muster again and my passport is back in my compartment – my fourth visa for this trip so far is now in place.

Guard A and Guard B seem to be on best behaviour as they are back in their home country. Guard B has just given me tickets for a complimentary breakfast and lunch tomorrow, recognising the prestigious arrival of the “native” Chinese restaurant carriage.

The Chinese border is quite impressive here at Erlian. They played patriotic music as we pulled in and the platform security all salute the train. There are laser lights to accompany the music, and train drivers seem to take every opportunity to use their horn.

Lots of shunting and crashing about now as its “bogie” time…off to the shed.

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Greetings from Mongolia!

It’s another night on the border, this time we leave Mongolia and enter China. We have covered 1118 km in the last 24 hours. As I write this I’m sat in my compartment in the silence and semi darkness at Dzamyn Ude waiting for customs and immigration clearance. On the plus side, I’m drinking Russian champagne whilst I wait. More of this later!

It’s been another great day and I’m sad to be leaving Mongolia so soon. I had planned to get off for a quick look around Ulan Baatar this morning (at 06.30) but instead I slept. In fact I slept through several stops, not rising until our brief stop at Choyr around midday. This surprised even me, as I had been getting up at first light each morning. I think I slept really well – my body must have really needed some extra time to recharge..

I have been reflecting today on the fact that I have gone a bit native in the last couple of days. Those of you who know me will often joke how I usually complain about hotel rooms and how I like everything to be “just so”. Well here I find myself not really caring about such trivial things anymore and just living in the moment of this Trans-Siberian adventure. Some signs of my nativeness (the ones I have noticed!) include:

• Not caring that my new Mongolian next door neighbours have left their vegetable scrapings in my bathroom sink this morning.
• Drinking (cooled) water from the train samovar and actually quite liking how it tastes, despite knowing where its been and having access to bottled mineral water.
• Communicating about all things in international sign language, now at an advanced level. I can’t stop myself ordering anything now without pointing at it and holding up the number of fingers to indicate how many I want and miming the temperature I expect it to be.
• No longer caring about the state of the toilets, as long as they are not frozen.

Back to what’s been going on today – there have been some big changes overnight while I have been sleeping. The carriage that was all my own I now share which about six other passengers, all what I imagine to be “posh” Mongolians. The train has filled up a lot at Ulan Baatar. There have also been quite a few new carriages added and a pair of diesel locomotives up front. Most significantly though, the much heralded arrival of the Mongolian restaurant car has taken place. Just to try and catch me out they have placed it in the middle of the train, only about two carriages (or ten doors) away. I now turn right, rather than left, from my compartment.

So after a breath of chilly air from the Gobi desert at Choyr, I took lunch with Stephan and another new train 004 recruit, Ceyda, a Turkish/American lady who got on the train yesterday at Irkustk.

A point in passing. She had been on the Russian Trans-Sib train, the “Rossiya”, and said it was much cleaner and more friendly “down the back” than on this train. Better apparently to travel in Russian third class than in Chinese second class. It’s not a comparison of first class though, where I am very much enjoying this train.

The new restaurant is very different to our Russian one. As you can see from the picture below, the Mongolian railway people have really made an effort to sell tourism in their country. It must be one of the “top ten” train restaurant cars in the world, even just for its originality. It’s heated to about 35 C, and the lady who runs it speaks some English.

You can pay in virtually any currency (no Rouble coins though) which is just as well as I have no Toureg, the (restricted) local money. I tried the “Travellers Beef” which was fine, but dumpling soup was actually the winner. I was going to have it for dinner but they had sold out of almost everything by the time I arrived.

I now have to travel through a couple of carriages of Mongolian First Class on my way to the restaurant. They look plush and are heated to a temperature like you would find in a provincial hotel sauna. They have a slightly weird smell, but then again so does my carriage – and so do I after nearly a week living on this train. The worst thing about them is they have a really tricky “bridge” arrangement as you cross between carriages. This freaked me out a bit at first as its harder than the Russian or Chinese cars and needs an extra step of grabbing a (low) door handle and stepping over “the bridge”.. There is also a large sign on the carriage door prohibiting the letting off of fireworks inside your compartment, so that’s nice and clear and good to know next time I’m thinking of packing some bangers on my future travels in Mongolia.

I bumped into Guard B in carriage 11. He smiled and amazingly, handed me his official key, so he didn’t need to follow me back to carriage 9 (to let me in). It was quite an honour to be trusted with “the” real Chinese Railway key. I would be ashamed if he knew that I don’t need it though, having my own high security British Gas meter cupboard key.

Later this afternoon we stopped at an armpit of a place called Saynshand. We were about 20 minutes late getting in and the train left early. For the first time I had to perform my “emergency alightment drill”, onto a Mongolian car about 100 metres away from my own. I wasn’t going to risk being left in Saynshand at any cost, so I dived up the unmanned steps and returned back inside the train. The stops in Mongolia are faster than in Siberia as we are not taking on any more coal, instead using a stockpile built up as we crossed Russia.

As the sun started to set over the plains of the Gobi desert I was reminded of the episode of “Fawlty Towers” where Mrs Richards complains of the view from her Torquay hotel bedroom window. Basil Fawlty would be in his element here as I can see herds of yak and horses sweeping majestically across the plain as the sun dips behind the distant hills. No hanging gardens of Babylon, but a great view nonetheless.

Sadly this leg comes to an end tomorrow at 14.04 local time, when we arrive in Beijing. I will post more on the last bit of this part of the journey, as I know the scenery is good and I also have a farewell brunch with some of the travellers in our soon to be added Chinese restaurant car, which rumour has it, is rather good.

I should mention before I forget that we are going to change the wheels on the train tonight. For me this is the second time, having done this in Belarus coming in to Russia what seems like ages ago. China has the same train gauge as Western Europe, so its a repeat of lifting every carriage separately and popping some new wheels on.

Now back to my Russian “champagne” which I found out about in the restaurant car, price USD 16. I could not get this in our previous restaurant, so it was a pleasant surprise. I have a rather neat trick which is putting the bottle in a box (also containing a couple of beers) and then wedging my “mini bar” in “no mans land”, between us and the next carriage. With the outside temperature the way it is it takes only moments to come down to 3 C. The only problem is with all these border checks I have to be careful when to grab it back. I bumped into the Mongolian customs man carrying it out my compartment earlier and I think he thought that I was a probable alcohol smuggler! Guard A looked very worried for a few moments, but he laughed it off.

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I am currently sat at the Russian border waiting for my passport to be returned before we trundle over into Mongolia. A visa point in passing – Russian immigration don’t seem at all fussed about deregistering our visas. After going to the trouble of registering it in Moscow in the first place, I’m disappointed they don’t seemingly want (or need) to deregister it. Perhaps the exit procedure does this automatically in the system these days? It’s too complicated a question to try and ask, so I’m just going to not worry about this.

There is absolutely nothing to see or do here – except take a shower in a single spotless and well heated bathroom on the platform. The only snag is they just have one shower, and Stephan has called “shotgun”. As I’m panicky about being left behind at the best of times, I’m not going to risk it. The thought of running naked down the platform after the train in the snow isn’t a good one.

There are a whole load of officials here on the train now – Police, Army, Russian sniffer dogs, Mongolian sniffer dogs, immigration, and plain clothes people with torches – its a busy place. The Mongolian customs officer (but still in Russia?) asked me if I had anything to declare. I showed her my vodka & wine stash and she looked at me as if to say that I might not actually have enough booze, before wishing me a “Happy New Year”!

I thought it was all over when an immigration lady returned my stamped passport a few minutes ago, but there is now another Russian woman searching my compartment (which I had to leave) and I can see that she takes pride in being thorough. I put up my Christmas decorations today, and they seem to be a bit of an icebreaker – even some of the severest looking security people allow themselves a smile when they see my mini Christmas tree flashing away!

We seem to be without a restaurant carriage tonight, so I’m going to use some of my emergency rations – possibly the Russian equivalent of the Pot Noodle, the “Pot Potato”..

I feel a movie coming on, assuming they let me into Mongolia. I’m thinking of watching “Spies Like Us”..

Update – I’m finally “in” after repeating the same process at Dozorne, on the Mongolian side of the frontier. My compartment has now been searched twice and seen three different sniffer dogs so far. The last official who visited me was so friendly that I mistook him for a black market currency trader at first, but I saw he was wearing a police or customs badge under his parka. He shook me by the hand (twice) and wished me a nice trip to Mongolia. It’s a pity that you don’t see that at Heathrow T3..!

Another update – this man must have been playing “good cop – bad cop” with his colleague, who has just returned my passport. He spent an unnatural amount of time comparing me to my photograph and he clearly prides himself in looking very severe in his leather great coat and official briefcase. He didn’t even smile at my Christmas decorations. Bar humbug!

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The train has just left Ulan-Ude (we are still on time!) after a 40 minute stop, our longest so far. Overnight we passed through Irkutsk and have covered another 1200 km since this time yesterday. We seem to have a fresh engine each day – still on overhead electric at the moment, but changing to diesel tomorrow.

We came in alongside the Russian Trans-Siberian “Rossiya” train which I think goes on to Vladivostok – but we soon part company and branch off this line soon to start heading South, bound next for Ulan Bator (or “UB”).

The scenery is starting to change as we approach the Mongolian border. There are now vast frozen rivers and mountains ahead in the distance – all that lies between us and the Gobi desert.

I didn’t sleep to well last night, partly due to it getting quite hot, party due to the amount of beer drunk and party due to another two hours time change – I have now caught up with local time, Moscow time +4 hours. I popped my head out near Irkutsk – it was -32 C on the platform. A bit nippy!

A new character appeared in the bar last night in the shape of Dimitri, a para medic from Ulan-Ude. It was a near escape from oblivion, as he was unstoppable on the toasting front – at least 50.. Also amazing how far you can get in a conversation with an iPhone dictionary, a sense of humour, and some comedy miming.

In passing I’m slightly worried that I might have accidentally placed an order for some unique fish from Lake Baikal, and the locals have it salted and apparently its very smelly..

After supper (smoked salmon followed by pork escalope) Stephan and I visited the Russian sector to see how they live, which we discovered now only comprises of one single carriage. It has a proper Provodnitsa, and she was concerned we might accidentally fall out the end of the train!

On gadget news, you may like to know that I have finished building the Mark 2 heat shield to cool down my compartment. All you need to make this at home yourself is 10 metres of aluminium foil and some gaffer tape. It’s more effective than the Mark 1 as it is 10 sheets thick and covers the whole length of the radiator.

I counted the number of doors I have to contend with from my compartment to the restaurant carriage last night – 25 including the inner and outer doors. My technique is improving though and I’m getting faster, which is good as I’m dressed in shorts and flip flops and would not last long at the temperature outside.

I’m now enjoying some reasonable coffee and some amazing scenery as we begin to climb through the mountains.

I’ll report back on the border formalities which will start in about six hours time…

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