Russian-Mongolian border experience

When the controller goes under control... It is interesting to see that
all the processes that we apply to the non western world is turned
against us. Here is what happens: you get into the Prussian control
area , you wait, you give your passport, and empty the train, you wait,
you get back in, you wait, you give the custom form, you wait, you
get your passport, you wait... total time: 4h!!
The warmth in the train is beyond crazy; the best thing to do is to lay
down and try to sleep. Temperature outside is 30 degrees and it must
be at least 40 degrees inside the train.
You go on, you think you are done and feel happy when the train gets
in motion... However the nightmare goes on and the same procedure
is applied on the Mongolian side 30 min later. Only difference: we are
not allowed to get out of the train. It is night, everybody is fanning
themselves with any paper they can get a hold of. We are loosing our
patience , the French group starts singing the Marseillaise and one
person bursts out with a strong French accent 'Welcome to Mongolia!' ;-)
Furthermore, we are engaged on a war on mosquitoes on all fronts;
you can feel them bitting your entire body every second.
After 2h stuck at the Mongolian customs, they let us out, super nice!
A fresh breeze is blowing on us, we get this feeling of gratitude one
usually gets after a bad dream...A little bit more waiting and we finally
get going toward our last stop: Ulan Bator. JC