At its best

Barclay Price

At its best, travelling to other cultures and places brings unexpected insights and from my many travels one that stands out for me took place in Ulan Bator almost thirty years ago.

Since reading 'Biggles and the Gobi Desert' as a teenager I always had a hankering to see Mongolia. In nineteen seventy nine my wife and I heard that after forty years of the border between Russia and China being closed to all travellers, a travel company had negotiated a train trip for a group of twenty people from London to Hong Kong. The itinerary included Mongolia. We took the decision to blow all the money we had saved for a deposit on our first flat and booked for the expensive six week trip. We set off from Victoria Station in London on a Tuesday morning at nine fifteen and to the amazement of arriving commuters, a friend marked our leaving by setting off Roman Candles in the middle of Victoria station. We travelled to Paris, Berlin, Warsaw and on to Moscow for the October Revolution Parade. After a memorable day celebrating the Revolution, including many toasts with a group of Bratislavan Power Workers, we set off with light hearts and heavy heads to cross Siberia. At Irkutsk we took a right turn and my ambition to see the Gobi Desert was achieved as our train rolled across the empty, stony expanse. ... (continues)