Ok technically we took the Trans-Mongolian Railway, but only as far as Erlian, the Chinese border town just outside Mongolia. There were no train tickets straight to Beijing for the month of August, at least according to the ticket office in Ulan Bataar, which is a separate story worth sharing at some point, so we settled for a sleeper bus. Picture a large tour bus, but instead of seats, it has three long rows (two aisles) of bunk beds each about half the size of a twin bed. I promise, it's not as bad as it sounds.
The positives: air conditioning, cleanish sheets, and no smelly bathroom on board.
The negatives: a "smoking section" (aka the driver and his friends), very loud karaoke television, and no bathroom on board.
Unfortunately for Frances, too much unpasteurized dairy consumption in Mongolia had left her insides pretty vengeful toward the outside world. I'll leave it at that.
Fortunately for Frances, I feel much better and China has been quite delicious. Already today I've had tofu soup thing, fried donut thing, mango popsicle, egg onion pancake thing, cabbage pancake thing, and it's not even dinner yet. Valerie can communicate which is a huge plus after dealing with unpronounceable Mongolian, and it's nice being able to just relax and enjoy the humidity and smog.
And you're right, the karaoke television was really a positive.
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