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2 July 2004

The Kingsmill's Trans-Russia-Mongolian Overland Trip, Part 3: Ulaanbaatar

Geoff Kingsmill
2006-04-26 08:55:31

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After driving through a 2000km road construction zone through the heart of Siberia it was a most welcome and pleasant change to be on good bitumen road going between Chita and Ulan Ude. Before Chita we were driving through Taiga country but now the countryside had totally changed. We were now driving through beautiful farming land fringed by pine forested mountains. Once again we were never far from the trans-siberian railway. Even though at times we could not see the rail line we could certainly hear the trains. The train line is amazingly busy with one train after the next. The whole line is electrified. Most trains have two engines and carry all sorts of goods ranging from timber and fuel to passengers. On the busier sections of the line there is a train every two minutes, certainly different from the trains in Australia.

Heating the towns and cities is very interesting. Hot water is piped from a central furnace or power station to each home. There are massive insulated pipes running through town. Some are a rusty metal colour whilst others are painted in bright colours. We have been drinking the local tap water wherever we go. In many towns there is a communal tap or water pump where water can be obtained. At other times we have filled up with spring water gushing out from pipes straight from mountain streams.

We read that food in Russia is pretty bland consisting of mostly cabbage and potato. What a myth this is. We have had great food and have been eating very well. Normally we would do our own cooking but we have found it is much easier and convenient to eat at the road side cafes. We typically stop at road side cafes that have lots of cars and trucks parked outside which is a good indication that the food must be good. We particularly like borsch (vegetable and meat soup), pazhardka (roast meat with ‘smashed’ potato) and poszi (steamed Buryat meat dumplings). We have been surprised at how health conscious everyone is. Every café has ...