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I left Irkoutsk on the evening of Friday, the 1st of July, for once making it at the train station in ample time. I very much liked Irkoutsk for its charm, old wooden houses and grand stone buildings.
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The only reservation I would have about it is that the mosquitoes are the size of Mig 29's and do just about as much damage.<br/><br/>
Trans Mongolian
Degrubenc2005-12-09 14:08:59
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with shashliks, beer and cheap vodka but what surprised me was a stand well furnished in western pornography of various origins, all countries represented in all sorts of fashion. I struggled to understand. It is only later that I grasped where it all came from. I watched (while enjoying a delicious shashlik with raw onions) a foreigner on my carriage buying such material; immediately, the woman behind the stand said a word to a young boy standing nearby her, he rushed off to a Russian border guard nearby and pointed at the foreigner who had just bought the merchandise. Sure enough, when we were searched some 5 hours later, his bag was thoroughly searched, the merchandise found and confiscated and he was given a fine of 2000 roubles. I expect the magazines have already been sold back to the store. Win-Win situation (for the Russians, anyway).
When I returned to my carriage, before the inspection, most of the cigarettes had magicaly disappeared: they were being passed through the window facing away from the station to a couple of other Mongolians outside the train, who were loading them up in a truck. The operation was swiftly concluded and once the operation was done, the Russian border officer, who clearly liked to get to the bottom of things (including I expect, his bottles of vodka), searched the compartment and my bag but found little of interest, apart from my dirty washing.
We passed the Russian checkpoints with few problems (apart from the foreigner who got fined). It involved, of course, endless administration and papers to be filled in but that was to be expected.
A half hour later we arrived at the Mongolian border, where we were in line after other trains and had to wait another 2 hours before we could get through customs. As I stared blankly out of the window, guess who I saw? The truck with the cigarettes was back, he drew up alongside the train and started loading the cigarettes back in the
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See photographs from:
Mongolia Gallery
