We had a hilarious and eventful morning! After talking to other people around town last night we discovered that every man and his dog were going to try to get tickets for tonights train to UB. Therefore, we all got up at 5am to get in the queue at the ticket office which opened at 9am. Our cunning plan was only slightly foiled by the fact that about 50 hardy Mongolians had beaten us to it and were already in the queue.
We nethertheless joined the back of the queue as required. However, after about 2 hours we discovered that neither Chinese nor Mongolians quite understand the very British concept of queueing. Everyone was just wandering over and finding some pretext or other to join the queue wherever he saw fit. David, quite rightly decided if you can't beat 'em, join 'em and slyly made friends with the guys that were right at the front of the queue and bagged himself a place right at the front. Huh!
I eventually walked up to casually start talking to him and blimey! I was at the front of the queue too. By the time it got to 8.30am the 'queue' was about 200 strong and things were starting to get a bit ugly. A couple of fistfights broke out and there were scuffles galore as everyone started to get excited with the upcoming 9am deadline. Luckily, 3 policemen arrived to restore order and they certainly didn't mess around. Within seconds the partly deranged mob had become an organised queue the British would be proud of. It wasn't quite dignified with a fair bit of shoving and even hairpulling going on but it was a queue no less.
Amazingly, David and I hadn't lost our place at the front and when the doors opened at 9am I waltzed in second and without an fuss or bother secured sleeper tickets for both of us plus our Swedish and Mongolian friends. Blinding!!
We got the train over the border and on to UB. Mongolia here we come!
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