Train from Ulaanbaatar to Sainshand
So last weekend we went southwards to the World Energy
Center in Sainshand. We took the train on Friday morning at 10:10 and had a
9-hour ahead of us. Now that we were going by train for the third time already,
we were pretty well experienced about the routines of boarding the train:
- Grab your ticket
- Hand it to the train staff
- Try to keep smiling even if they don’t and
refuse your wish to take photo with them
- Try to address them in Mongolian or Russian
- hurry boarding the train and don’t ask any stupid
questions
This time, we went first class, meaning we had our own
compartment of four beds, which was much more relaxed than the previous rides,
since we didn’t have to fight for our seat and place ourselves between tons of
luggage and people.
The landscape kept changing the more southern we got. We
left the white snowy hills of UB towards much flatter, dryer, brown steppe
desert vegetation. The day passed by quite quickly and the sundown in the Gobi
Desert was yet another magic moment in this whole Mongolian experience.
Surprisingly the pick up at Sainshand Station (arranged by
the
Shan Plaza Hotel that we booked for one night) worked out very well and we
were taken straight to our accommodation. After checking in, we were looking
for a bite nearby and eventually ended up at possibly the only restaurant in
town to be open after 20:00, called the
Gallery Pub.
What to do and to see around Sainshand
Next day, we put all our trust in the driver to show us
around at all places worth seeing. And it turned out to be a lot at the end of
the day.
First we did the Wish Mountain, then Khamaryn Khiid
Monestary, the Great Human Bell and then the Khamar Monastery – the desired
place to go. After entering, we realized our preparation was quite poor, since
there were a lot of rituals and things to be considered when going there. But
luckily, there are always other Mongolians around who will assist you behaving
accordingly. This includes:
- Lying on the ground with your hands full of rice
and grains to be eaten by hundreds of pigeons to observe the energy from off
the ground
- Singing a Mongolian song in front of a Buddha
Statue
- Picking up a white small stone, telling it your
name three times and dropping it again at the entrance
- Leaving the place reversely with back to the
front
Next we were taken to some caves where the local monks used
to lock themselves up to go on a fast. Then crawl through a small, dark cave
symbolizing the rebirth through a birth canal. Next were stoned dinosaur
skeletons and tree trunks in the middle of nowhere.
Another sweet highlight were the untouched sand dunes shaped
by nothing but the wind.
Even though all those things were somewhat close by to each
other, sunset came very soon and the day was over. Sitting in the car back to
Sainshand station and watching the sunlight disappearing, I thought this was a
good day.
At 21:15 we took the night train back to UB.
