We took a short break from the TransMongolian train and for the leg into Mongolia, we took the Ulan Ude to Ulaanbaatar Bus.
After our lovely afternoon sightseeing and sleeping in Ulan Ude, Russia before our bus to Mongolia. We walked from the Ulan Ude Traveller’s House Hostel (Check Rates and Availability) to the starting point for the Ulan Ude to Ulannbaatar Bus. This hostel is the best place to stay in Ulan Ude – it’s cheap and clean, it’s incredibly close to everything… we walked to the bus stop and the train station is within walking distance too. All the major sites of Ulan Ude like the Lenin Statue and the pedestrian street with places to eat and drink cheap beers were just a short walk away.
The bus is a good way to travel because it’s much cheaper than the train and it’s much faster. The bus takes over 24 hours and the bus is less than 12 hours. No long waiting time at the border. Hot Tip: If you book at the hostel listed above, you can e-mail the owner and he should be able to reserve a spot on the bus for you. We were glad we had reservations because the bus was completely full.
The bus drive was beautiful. Make sure you have your visa. You will get out of the bus at the border to enter Mongolia. This guidebook is recommended for any TransMongolian trip.
The Russia/Mongolia border to the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar was an easy trip. This was the biggest traffic jam we saw:
Arriving in Ulaanbaatar was a traffic nightmare. This city of over a million people and most of the population of Mongolia doesn’t have any expressways – just a 6 lane, red stop light street that cuts west-east thru the city. It’s called “Peace Avenue” but there is no peace on that road – just honking cars.
At our hostel, we met up with the other 3 ladies who were going to be on our 7-day tour to the Gobi Desert – Diane, a retiree from West Seattle, Joy, an actress from NYC, and Amanda, a Canadian who had been teaching English in Korea.
After our amazing tour to the Gobi, my travel partner and I had another full day in Ulan Bator. We visited the largest monastery in the country.
The natural history museum is a good laugh. Some of the displays are so sad, but there is an excellent dinosaur fossil exhibit, sponsored by a foreign party. Then I walked around the capital,
had a beer at the Irish pub,
and attended the Mongolian cultural show at the National Theater.
An fantastic night of dance, symphony with instruments I’d never seen before, and Mongolian throat singing. Although many instruments were string instruments and versions of violin, cello, etc., they were adorned by carved horse heads!
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