Departed Beijing on Sunday 6pm
Arrived Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday 10.45am
Total time taken: 1 day 16 hours 15 mins
Total cost: 252 yuan + 39,200 tugrik = S$111.90

Leg 1: Bus from Beijing Muxiyuan to Inner Mongolia Erlian
Total time: 11 hours
Total cost: 180 yuan pp

I bolted down a cup of noodles before boarding the bus. The sleeper bus was more comfortable and cleaner than the one we took from Deqin to Shangrila. No shoes and no smoking allowed. Driver was quite strict about this which was a bonus for us. We woke up in the middle of nowhere to pee in a disgusting shithole with no doors. I was one of the first to go in and chose the inner most hole for the least exposure lol. Imagine squatting in there with a row of women with their pants down and shit everywhere. That was totally gross. I continued to sleep through the night all the way to Inner Mongolia.

Leg 2: Jeep from Erlian to Zamyn Uud
Total time: Approximately 3.5 hours
Total cost: 72 yuan pp

We arrived in Erlian at around 5am in the morning. It took quite awhile for us to retrieve our bags from underneath the bus. It's alarming the amount of baggage and goods they had squeezed down there! We went inside the bus station and asked the only living person in there (a lady working at the only accommodation (远顺宾馆) located inside the bus station) if there are any direct trains from Erlian to Ulaanbaatar today. She couldn't give us an answer so we decided to cross the border on jeep. We changed our yuan to tugrik from her which was a bad move as we later found out she had quoted us a poor rate.

Jeeps waiting outside Yi Wu market were charging 100 yuan pp to the Mongolian border – Zamyn Uud. This was twice the amount we had understood it to be. The Israeli couple whom we met just now had caught up and grabbed the 60 yuan pp vehicle filled with goods. We should have taken that long time ago but we wasted too much time trying to bargain till 50 yuan. We managed to agree on 70 yuan pp with a Chinese driver. After clearing customs, we got back onto his vehicle and he suddenly yelled at us to get out. How the hell would we know we are not supposed to get on if you didn't tell us?!

Leg 3a: Buying train tickets from Zamyn Uud to Ulaanbaatar
Total time: Approximately 1.5 hours
Total cost: Angry Mongolians and bruises

We caught up with the Israelis inside the black shiny building. They told us tickets were sold out and they were going to have some lunch. We walked upstairs to check and true enough all the counters shook their heads. We asked what time is the next available train and when can we buy the tickets but no one gave us any answer. We just don't understand why people were still waiting around when there were no more tickets. It was really demoralising. He suggested we go find lunch. I was hungry but I had not much appetite. This plate of beef goulaish turned out to be good. We were recharged and went back in to try our luck again. Still no tickets.

At about 4.30pm, the crowd suddenly came alive and started jostling to the front. Someone just got tickets!!! It was really pointless queuing as all the Mongolians were helping each other buy ticket. We took turns standing or should I say getting squeezed in the line. It was not fun. When it was my turn to take a break, I walked to the front of the line to check out what's going on. People were sticking their hands into the ticket window. I slotted myself into a space somewhere near the window and found myself standing next to a man with a gold watch. He had his hand in the window and he kept checking his watch. I couldn't believe it when he decided to leave and I knew my chance was here. I seized it and slotted our passports through the window. An angry mob behind me was raging and started grabbing me. "TWO TICKETS TO UB PLEASE!!! PLEASE! I BEG YOU!!!!!" My hand was hurting. If buying a ticket in India was madness, this was chaos. I couldn't even take out money from my wallet and there was just no time to check if I had fished out enough notes. I didn't even care what class it was as long as we could get on the train.

I was so damn relieved when the transaction was completed. I squeezed through a sea of bodies and saw him reasoning with the mob. LET'S GO!!! I yelled. It didn't matter who's right or who's wrong. We fled the scene and exited the building. We had a couple of hours to boarding time and needed to wash up badly. I had a small cut and a huge bruise on my right hand. A green accommodation outside the train station had vacancies but there was no hot shower. It didn't matter if we had to take a cold shower as long as we could shower!

Leg 3b: Train from Zamyn Uud to Ulaanbaatar
Total time: 13 hours
Total cost: 39,200 tugrik pp

Finally we are in Ulaanbaatar. I chose to cross the border on his birthday. It was a huge risk as we were almost stranded in Zamyn Uud. It was one of the most difficult and stressful day I ever experienced in our years of travel. Hope you had an "eventful" birthday in Mongolia!