Day 55 - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia - Beijing, China

Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) - Beijing (China) 

With country number 2 done, we prepare to leave & head back to China for a short stop over, before heading to our 3rd country. It's a sombre mood as we pack, I'm sad about leaving Mongolia & heading back to China. I think if we were going straight to our 3rd new country thte would be an element of excitement as well. To me, China feels done & I'm impatient. After our 3 day mission getting across the China/Mongolia border, we decide to treat ourselves to some cheap flights & dramatically reduce the travel time to 3 hours.

We arrive at the Chinghhis Khan International Airport with plenty of spare time, our guesthouse having provided us with a transfer. It's a small airport & we find a coffee & wine cafe to relax in. Tom orders a beer to accompany his Netflix & I order a caramel latte to have with the home improvement magazine I found. It's a peaceful few hours reading & relaxing. 

When it's time to check in, get our tickets & go through security, we have a few problems with prohibited items. On my carry on I have some snacks, of which a jar of peanut butter is confiscated, as is my toothpaste. Over the loud speaker we then hear Tom's name announced, with instructions to make himself known to staff. We are taken down a few flights of stairs to a security area where a German shepherd is happily bounding on the luggage & more intense x-ray systems are scanning bags.

Tom is then asked to unpack his bag so they can examine his leatherman & to remove the lighter they detected. The lighter was long forgotten & eventually found in a small, zipped pocket of his toiletry bag. The leatherman was examined & approved to be re-packed in the bag. 

After this we were led back upstairs to wait near our boarding gate. There was a small delay to board our plane & visibility had reduced, but didn't affect our departure. It was quite nice to fly over Ulaanbaatar & see the surrounding mountains. It was a relatively short flight, with the usual international comforts of a meal, beverage & movie. We arrived in Beijing, go through immigration with no problems & an average wait time before exiting the terminal. As expected Beijing airport is huge & a tram is needed to take passengers distances between the boarding gates, immigration & the public terminal.

We encountered small frustrations when the Chinese exchange refuse to accept our MNT or provide us with information on where we can do this.

It was a relief when our airport transfer turned out easy to organize & with our accommodation super close, we arrived at our hotel an hour after landing. The hotel is pretty basic, the carpet definitely needs to be replaced & is covered in cigarette burns. But the beds are comfortable, the linen is soft, the air con works & it smells clean.

The wifi, as is the case with China is temperamental & despite my good intentions of catch up on a few days of blog entries from Mongolia, I am frustrated, defeated & go to sleep instead. It's so nice to once again have our own space & privacy, something we haven't had in more than 3 weeks, since before Beijing.

Mongolia will always have a piece of our hearts, as one of the most isolated, hidden and extraordinarily beautiful places on this planet. You can feel nothing but a deep sense of appreciation and peace when you are in the vast, isolated wilderness.

- Alli