Leg 13 of 18 · Days 207–229 · Finland, Russia, Mongolia, UAE
300 Days:All Aboard The Trans-Mongolian
If there was one part of our honeymoon I was nervous about, it was this one. Russia, four days on a train through Siberia and then on to Mongolia, all in October when the weather can do just about anything. It turned out to be one of the most memorable parts of the whole trip, full of golden domes, snowy forests, dumplings and some very kind strangers. Here's how it went, from Helsinki to Ulaanbaatar, with a few days in Dubai to warm up at the end.
Helsinki & Tallinn
We flew from Iceland to Helsinki and spent our first full day exploring the city on foot. Helsinki's central station is guarded by four giant stone men holding glowing lamps, which Stephen immediately named the He-Men. We walked to the Sibelius Monument, a huge sculpture of steel pipes built in honour of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, and took far too many photos looking up through the pipes. Autumn had well and truly arrived and the parks were covered in red and orange leaves.
The next day we took the ferry across the Gulf of Finland for a day trip to Tallinn in Estonia, which turned out to be a real highlight. We walked through the Viru Gate into the old town, found the viewpoint with the best graffiti ever ("Save the camera, honey. Enjoy the view") and had a delicious lunch in the Telliskivi Creative City. You can read all of my tips in Top Tips: Tallinn, Estonia.
St Petersburg
From Helsinki we took the Allegro train to St Petersburg. It's only three and a half hours, and the biggest worry was whether our Russian visas were going to work (they did, phew!). I've written a full guide on taking the Allegro train from Helsinki to St Petersburg if you are planning the same trip.
St Petersburg was grand in every sense of the word. We spent hours in the Hermitage, which is housed in the Winter Palace and is so big that you could spend weeks there and still not see everything. My favourite things were the chandeliers (pure spirograph inspiration) and the Peacock Clock, a golden mechanical clock over 200 years old that still keeps time.
The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood was even more spectacular inside than out. Every single surface is covered in mosaics, thousands of tiny pieces making up pictures of saints and stories, and it absolutely took my breath away. We also learnt that the Russians take their park signs very seriously. Don't walk on the grass, especially if you are wearing a pinstripe suit!
Dinner most nights was dumplings of one kind or another. I'm not complaining.
Moscow
Next we took the Sapsan high speed train to Moscow (my Sapsan train guide has everything you need to know). Seeing St Basil's Cathedral for the first time was a real pinch me moment. With its colourful onion domes it looks like it has been decorated with iced gems, and it was even better in real life than in the pictures.
We spent our first day in Moscow wandering around Red Square, the Lenin Mausoleum and the GUM shopping centre in the grey drizzle. The next day the sun came out and we explored inside the Kremlin walls. The golden domes of the Assumption Cathedral were dazzling in the sunshine and, deep inside the Kremlin, Stephen found what he was convinced was Putin's helipad.
On our first evening in Moscow we had met the rest of our group for the G Adventures Trans-Mongolian Adventure, and after two days of sightseeing we boarded the train that would be our home for the next four days.
Four Days on a Train
People always ask what you do for four days on a train, and the honest answer is: not much! Our compartment had four bunks, a little table and a window, and that window became our TV. We played cards, read, ate an awful lot of snacks and chatted with our new friends. Stephen asked on day one "4 days on a train... why are we doing this?" but by the end I think he was secretly enjoying it.
The train stops at around 65 stations on the way through Siberia. Some stops were only a couple of minutes, but at the longer ones we jumped off to stretch our legs, buy snacks from the platform kiosks and photograph the huge Soviet locomotives. We also had a handwritten cheat sheet of Russian phrases to help with the shopping. If you are heading to Russia, my post on basic Russian phrases for travellers will save you a lot of pointing and smiling.
Towards the end of the journey we woke up to snow! It started as a light dusting on the birch trees and by the time we reached the next station it was falling properly. I couldn't have been happier. The forests looked like they were covered in candy floss and we ran out onto the platform for photos in our coats. According to Google Maps, we were officially in the middle of nowhere, right under the "Russia" label.
Lake Baikal & Irkutsk
We got off the train in Irkutsk and headed to Listvyanka on the shores of Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake in the world by volume. It holds about 22% of the world's fresh surface water, which is pretty mind blowing when you are standing next to it. We took a boat out on the lake with our new friends and it was a cold, cloudy and very peaceful day.
The next day we explored Irkutsk before our next train. The Epiphany Cathedral was beautiful inside, with the sun streaming through the windows onto the painted walls, and there was a very strange statue of the Babr, the city's symbol, which is a tiger holding a sable in its mouth.
Crossing into Mongolia
Crossing the border from Russia into Mongolia by train is a long process. At the Russian border town of Naushki they detached our carriage from the train and left it sitting in the middle of the tracks for hours whilst the border formalities were done. Eventually another locomotive came and picked us up and we crossed into Mongolia in the evening, watching the sun go down over the empty tracks. There must be a better way, but it was quite an experience!
Mongolia
We arrived in Ulaanbaatar early the next morning to bright blue skies and a chilly wind. We visited the Gandantegchinlen Monastery, where the huge golden statue of Avalokiteśvara stands 26.5 metres tall inside the temple. It is said to be one of the tallest indoor statues in the world and it really is enormous. In the evening we tried some traditional Mongolian food at Modern Nomads.
From Ulaanbaatar we drove out to the Genghis Khan Equestrian Statue at Tsonjin Boldog, a 40 metre tall stainless steel statue of Genghis Khan on horseback. You can climb up inside the horse and stand on its head for views over the steppe. Then we carried on to Terelj National Park, where we spent the night in a traditional ger camp surrounded by rocky hills, larch trees turning gold and the first patches of snow. Autumn was turning into winter right in front of us.
We visited the Aryapala Temple, perched on the hillside above the valley, and tried our hand at traditional Mongolian archery. I got my Katniss Everdeen on and Stephen got his hunting face on. Neither of us would survive long in the wild. Back in Ulaanbaatar, our last night in Mongolia was spent at a Mongolian barbecue, which seemed very fitting.
Dubai
After a month of rain, snow and freezing temperatures we flew from Ulaanbaatar to Dubai, via Hong Kong, for a few days of sunshine before Africa. What a contrast! We stayed at a hotel with a rooftop bar overlooking Sheikh Zayed Road and the Burj Khalifa, which is such an imposing yet beautiful building, especially at night.
We booked a desert safari, which included dune bashing in a 4x4, watching the sun set over the dunes of the Margham Desert, henna and camel rides. The sunset was one of the best we have ever seen.
The next day we visited the Dubai Aquarium and then went up the Burj Khalifa for afternoon tea at At.mosphere, one of the highest restaurants in the world. A whole new meaning of high tea! The views from the top were incredible, even with the haze.
On our last day we did what everyone in Dubai does: went to the mall. Stephen was particularly impressed that there was a ski slope inside the Mall of the Emirates, with real snow, in the middle of the desert. Then it was off to the airport and on to Africa for the final leg of our honeymoon.
