Adventure Number 2: The first leg of the Trans-Mongolian Railway

From Beijing to Ulaan Bataar in 28 hours across the Gobi desert - wow! Last year I chose to drive into the centre of Australia to see how big that country is ... but travelling by train showed me even more 'bigness' and it was impressive!
THE TRAIN:
The first class carrage had 2 berth cabins with bunks and a table and a soft chair. The window did not open so photos were a bit dull and grimy from looking through ever more dirty glass, but the one in the corridor did, so that was fine. The cabin also shared a shower and sink with next door and the Chinese restaurant car served a set meal which was perfectly adequate.
At the China-Mongolia border we delivered our passports to the officials and then shunted off into a huge shed for an hour or more to change bogies! Not what you are thinking: the tracks in China are a different size to the other countries so the whole train is jacked up, carriage by carriage, and new wheels are put on! Lots of banging and jolting made it interesting with whiplash a vague possibility from the severity of all the connecting and disconnecting!
We then travelled a few miles to the Mongolia entry point where we were given back our passports, asked to fill in more forms (the ones we had filled in were in Mongolian and I had guessed the questions incorrectly!) and after three hours we continued on our way - by now it was 3am.
A few hours sleep and the sight of the Gobi desert greeted us in the morning. The restaurant car had been changed so no more free food, but Pringles and Pom bears came to my rescue. I made a 20 second video of the view every hour, but for many hours it changed very little and there were never any camels, cattle, horses, sheep, gazelles, wild dogs, or interesting birds around when my hourly alarm sounded! Typical! Arriving in the Outer Mongolian capital Ulaan Baatar my heart sank as it is an emerging modern metropolis stretching for over 30km and not a collection of nomadic herdsmen as my over active imagination had hoped. I should have known better - as a 17 year old I had been bitterly disappointed that Niagara Falls is not in the middle of a forest!! However, my impression was greatly improved when we moved into the Terelj National Park later that day ... but that is another story!