The next day in Erlian feeling refreshed after our bone feast and a good night’s sleep we set out to find a car to take us across the border. It is not allowed for some reason for you to cross on foot and crossing in a large vehicle is known to cause “trouble”, so there is a local business of drivers that make their living taking goods and people across the border in Monglian licensed vans.
While finding our way to the market where all the drivers hang around in, it was interesting to note that there are parts of town that Chinese is commonly spoken and parts of town that were very Mongolian and people seem to speak very little Chinese. In fact it seemed like people were more likely to know a bit of English than Chinese.
Border crossing crew. Grandpa in front.
After asking around a bit we found a tiny grandpa looking driver to take us across for about $10. He was so insistent on taking us- literally grabbing and holding onto my arm and taking me to his car, not letting go until I was halfway in the car- that I thought we’d be leaving right away, but little did we know that we’d be waiting around for almost an hour and half while he went about and rounded up more people and cargo to load up his car with. Eventually he packed his van up to the gills, with 6 people scrunched in and the back filled with boxes (people bring over goods from china where it’s cheaper and resell it in Mongolia) and we were good to go.
The total time to cross the border only took about half an hour, but was filled with almost cartoon like activity. Basically you drive up to the border on the Chinese side, get out and get your passport stamped. Pile back into the car, drive for a few minutes across the border and get out on the Mongolia side, get your passport stamped again, get back in car again, finally you get dropped off at the train station close by at Zamyn Udd.
When all said and done we were finally in Monglia! And about to have the first over night train ride of the trip, from Zamyn Udd to Ulan Baatar. The vast and wild flatness of the Steppes await us now. Sane Baine (hello) Mongolia!
