After a smooth 28 hour train ride, sharing my cabin with a British couple that were doing a quick trip around the globe, I arrived in Beijing. This is where I really started to feel like a foreigner. In Russia and Mongolia I could still make sense of some things because I had learned the alphabet, but Chinese is a whole different beast. After some struggles, I managed to get a ticket for the subway, and went on my way to the hostel.

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After travelling for 13 hours by bus, over some of the worst roads I have encountered so far, I finally made it out of Russia and arrived in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. The bus terminal was quite far from the city center, and not feeling up to figuring out the Mongolian public transport system, I hauled a cab. Needless to say, the taxi driver didn't speak any english and addresses are not really a thing in UB. Luckily, the main avenue through the city is stuck in a permanent traffic jam, so we had about 50 minutes to figure out where I needed to go. Eventually we managed to call the hostel and they explained the driver where to go. During all of this, I got to enjoy the view of Ulan Bator at night. It is a very modern city, with a lot going on, a welcome change from the smaller Russian cities I had visited before.

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