Erdenet

The train to Erdenet takes just under 11 hours. We left at night and arrived in the morning. We could have taken a minibus for five hours instead but we chose the train. Safer. And cooler. It was one of those older trains from Soviet times. Each car had a small coal fire to warm it up.

We shared our sleeper with two Mongolian women; one just had surgery while the other was seven months pregnant. The first was quite talkative and kept us occupied with conversation. We didn't sleep especially well that night most likely due to the strange surroundings.

I made a notable entrance in Erdenet by falling into the arms of several Mongolian men as I tried to step off the train. I blame the clunky boots and the small steps. The people from the hospital where Aaron worked for the two days were very friendly and made sure we felt at home during our stay in Erdenet.

Erdenet is one of the nicer cities in Mongolia. I said in an earlier entry that it's the second largest city but I was mistaken, Darhan had a growth spurt and Erdenet fell into third spot. The mine has been nice to the city and helped with some of the infrastructure. Erdenet has the largest pool in Mongolia and many sporting facilities.

We slept better on the train ride back to UB perhaps because we knew what to expect this time. This little trip is training for our upcoming 30-hour train ride to Beijing.