Trans-Mongolian Railway

Stopped at the Russian border

In June and July 2010, I took the train from Beijing to St. Petersburg, via Ulaanbaatar, Irkutsk, Moscow and more. We were on the Trans-Mongolian Railway — or, more accurately, the Trans-Mongolian route of the Trans-Siberian Railway. It was a great trip, and I blogged every day along the way. You can find links to all those posts, plus my guide to planning the trip, below:

Planning a Trans-Siberian Trip in 10 Steps

Trans-Mongolian Diary Posts

• Day 1: The Romance of Place Names [Train to Mongolia]
• Day 2: Snapshots from Train 23 [Train to Mongolia]
• Day 3: Spending the Night in a Mongolian Ger [Terelj, Mongolia]
• Day 4: Finding Mongolian Buddhism in Tibet [Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia]
• Day 5: How to Spend 33 Hours on a Train [Train to Russia]
• Day 6: Quaint Irkutsk [Irkutsk]
• Day 7: Security Guard Shakedown [Irkutsk]
• Day 8: Lake Baikal Like the Locals Do It [Irkutsk]
• Day 9: Siberian Snapshots [Train to Ekaterinburg]
• Day 10: Dining Onboard the Trans-Mongolian [Train to Ekaterinburg]
• Day 11: Worshipping the Romanovs [Ekaterinburg]
• Day 12: Traveling Platskartny [Train to Nizhny Novgorod]
• Day 13: The Cyrillic Guessing Game [Nizhny Novgorod]
• Day 14: Georgia (Food) On My Mind [St. Petersburg]
• Day 15: Make the Most of the Hermitage Museum [St. Petersburg]
• Day 16: Peterhof, Playground of the Czars [St. Petersburg]
• Day 17: Russia’s Churches [Moscow]
• Day 18: Iconic Moscow [Moscow]
• Day 19: Russian Odds and Ends [Moscow]
• Day 20: Trans-Mongolian Wrap-Up