The day dawned bright and warm on our last morning in Ulaanbaatar. We enjoyed a final coffee at our favourite café and wandered down to Sukhbaatar Square to watch the celebrations for Mother and Children’s Day.

We were genuinely sad to leave Mongolia’s capital — we had enjoyed it far more than we expected. A staff member from Golden Gobi kindly dropped us at the station. The Ulaanbaatar train station is a grand Soviet-era building, complete with marble and chandeliers — absolutely stunning.

We boarded the train bound for Russia. Our sleeper carriage was modern and comfortable with four bunks. Our provodnitsa (carriage attendant), Svetlana, quickly had everything organised for the long journey ahead.

At 9:30 PM, Svetlana popped in to warn us we were approaching the border and suggested we hide our bottle of vodka.

The border crossing was every bit as long as we had been told. The Mongolian side took around two hours with passport and visa checks. Afterwards, we made our beds and tried to sleep. Forty minutes later we reached the Russian border, where a large group of border guards and army personnel boarded the train.

Passports and entry cards were checked thoroughly, then we had to open all our bags for inspection in the tiny compartment. We were asked to step out while an officer searched the space. The entire process was lengthy but orderly. The train finally departed the Russian border at 2:30 AM.

After a few hours of broken sleep, we woke up as the train pulled into Ulan-Ude, the first major stop in Russia. From there, the journey became spectacular as we travelled along the southern shores of Lake Baikal. The views were breathtaking — crystal blue water on one side and snow-capped mountains on the other. After two weeks in Mongolia, seeing so much water was a real treat.

We arrived in Irkutsk one hour late and were whisked away by the hostel for a fast and furious drive through the streets of the city.