Day 14: Crossing Borders

Well, it wasn't definitely fun and games at the Russian-Mongolian border. The provodnista (our female and I think more junior carriage attendant) had the hoover out, going up and down the corridor and into everyone's compartments about an hour before we hit the Russian border. The carriage wasn't filthy or anything (unlike the Chinese 004 train from Moscow that looked like it had never seen a hoover in its lifetime; the Russian 006 train we caught to Ulaanbaatar was *nice*, it actually *felt* like we were in 1st-class compartments), but I presume they wanted to make the carriage look good for the border guards. The provodnik (our male and seemingly more senior carriage attendant) appeared at every compartment door and with a big smile said, "please go to the toilet, as we are approaching the border and the toilets will be locked for at least *four* hours."

He wasn't joking either. We arrived at Naushki (the Russian border station, 5895km from Moscow) around 14.30 Moscow-time (19.30 local-time); we travelled for what could only have been 10-15 minutes further from Naushki and then pulled into Suhbaatar (the Mongolian border station) at around 16.45 Moscow-time (which we think was 22.45 Mongolian-time, but it all got a bit confusing as we seemingly managed to gain another hour somewhere between Slyudyanka, where we boarded the train, and the next stop Ulan-Ude...); only after another 2 gruelling hours of bordem did the train finally start moving towards Ulaanbaatar again, at 18.46 Moscow-time.

We are now, I think, GMT+8. But we could very well be GMT+9 and BST+8 (!?) as I thought we were GMT+8 after we crossed the 4500km mark.. And we have definitely moved forwards another hour since Slyudyanka. So perhaps we are GMT+9, which makes absolutely no sense because I thought Mongolia, China and Taiwan were all in the same time-zone, and I could've sworn Taiwan is GMT+8 and BST+7. Unless Mongolia has summer-time..?

The time confusion brings us to the moment the provodnik knocked on our door at 06.01 saying, "Wake up, wake up! We will be in Ulaanbaatar in 15 minutes!" And my alarm going off as soon as he had left because I'd set it for 06.02 "local-time", thinking we would have an hour and a bit to get ready to get off the train. When we got off the train at Ulaanbaatar 20 minutes later, the station clock read 07.23; as it was meant to read, that being the scheduled time of our train's arrival. 

So maybe Mongolia does have summer-time?