We stepped off the train at Ulanbatar and it was like a switch had been flicked, suddenly the people looked completely different to those in Russia. There was no gradual change as we crossed Russia they just changed from one side of the border to the next. The main difference was they were all smiling. Ulanbatar or UB as us locals call it is the main city, well the only city really, with 45% of the countries population living there, it's big and developed but th...

The train from Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar looked  the same as the others. But they were worlds apart, there was no smoking or drinking, the carriage was locked so you couldnt even walk up and down the train and the toilet was constantly closed. We seemed to stop at every shed and dog kennel along the way which meant you were constantly woken when the train broke and you had to grab something before you fell out of bed. We shared our carriage with a guy called Roland...