Today in Ulan Ude which is nearing the Mongolian border and all of a sudden there are many Mongolian looking people.  No surprise I guess.  We had many steps and down to walk today..often getting out of the train station seems to be the worst.  After a short tour of this city, we went for a performance of two groups of people.  One was the Cossacks and the other Burat people.  It was so colourful and fun to see.  There was one fellow who played a bunch of different instruments and sang in a deep voice, like throat singing.  After that to a restaurant typically Buratian and the food was so good and interesting. The soup was delicious with noodles in it and the salad lots of red peppers and cucumbers and then main course was three large dumplings which are typically eaten with your fingers.  They were delightful too.  The dessert was a cake which was a bit crunchy..made with some local,berries which are ground up and dried and added to the cake batter.  It looked like a chocolate cake but in fact wasn’t. it was kind of gritty, but good.  After that a trip to a Buddhist  monastery, which involved more stairs and walking around in a clockwise fashion outside before going in where there was a lot of chanting going on.  Many on the train..well maybe 8 in our group- are suffering from food poisoning and unpleasant indeed. Fortunately I had a prescription in case of such an emergency and have been glad of it.  Both Joyce and I are feeling the fatigue as a consequence of the many trips to the bathroom. 
Tonight we cross into Mongolia and I guess passports need to be out for examination by the Russians both at 9:15 and 12:15 a.m. 
it was hot today.  
Well, the Russian’s have been in to check the passports.  Intimidating as can be.  They spent about 5 minutes in each passport perusing it thoroughly ...we can now go to bed!  At midnight, the Mongolian’s come on board and check the passports.  We have to leave them out and they will come and photocopy or something them. ,

Diane Draffin 🌷