5 hours at the border crossing

So far, we've crossed seven borders. Entering Russia was no problem. Immigration check was done on the train from Helsinki, it only took 10 minutes, and there was no hassle. The border crossing from Russia to Mongolia, however, was another story.

Our train from Irkutsk to Ulaanbaator departed at 4:50AM. 8 hours later, at around 1:30PM, we arrived at the Russian border, the town of Naushki. The immigration officer entered our cabin, said "I take passport" and disappeared with our passports. He didn't return for three hours! And after a not-so-thorough cabin check, we finally got our passports back. Phew! Border crossings can be so stressful.

The next stop was the Monglian border. It took about 45 minutes to actually cross the border. When we reached the Mongolian border, the town of Sukhbaator, we had our passports taken again and our cabin checked. While we waited, we ate our dinner (instant noodles and bread) and chatted with our Mongolian cabinmates, Tegshee and his father. The language barrier made it difficult but they were very very friendly.

Tegshee and Yoshi

The first difference we noticed between Mongolians and Russians is that Mongolians smile. Russians don't smile much and even the children have stern looks on their faces. We asked a Russian guy we met in Tomsk about this and he warned us, "If you smile at a Russian, they'll think you're laughing at them and get angry. Don't smile at them."

View from train: Northern Mongolia