Irkutsk | A Night Train To Irkutsk Russia

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to Irkutsk, Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway

Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk
Trans-Siberian Railway
23 Hours – 1,029 KM

The day dawned bright and warm on our last day in Ulaanbaatar. We spent the morning visiting our favorite coffee shop and wandered down to Sukhbaatar Square to see the festivities of Mother and Children’s Day, which was being celebrated that day.

We were sad to leave Ulaanbaatar as we had thoroughly enjoyed our time in the city and were pleasantly surprised by how much it had to offer.

One of the Golden Gobi staff dropped us at the station. The Ulaanbaatar train station is an incredible Soviet-era building, all marble and chandeliers—stunning.

We boarded the train and set off for Russia. Our sleeper carriage was fairly new and very comfortable, with four bunks. Our provodnista, Svetlana (carriage attendant), soon had us organized for the journey ahead.

At 9:30 PM, Svetlana popped into our compartment to tell us we were approaching the border and advised us to hide our bottle of vodka.

Five Hours Later…

We had heard stories about how long it took to cross the Mongolia-Russia border, and they were right.

The Mongolian crossing took about two hours while border control moved through the carriage, checking passports and visas. They took our passports away to check and then returned them. While we waited, we made our beds and got ready for sleep.

The train then traveled 40 minutes to the Russian border, where an entire troupe of border control and army personnel boarded the train and went compartment to compartment. I counted five different people, all from different sections of the military.

First, our passports and small entry cards were checked thoroughly, and our passports were stamped. Next, we had to open all our packs for inspection, which was tricky in the small compartment with our packs stuffed away in nooks and crannies. Then, we had to vacate our compartment while a young army officer searched it.

Finally, we were able to return to our compartment and try to sleep. The train was cleared to move off at 2:30 AM. More importantly, the toilets were reopened, having been closed since approaching the Mongolian border.

After a few hours of sleep, we awoke rather groggily as the train pulled into Ulan-Ude, the first major town in Russia. From there, we traveled for several hours along the southern shores of Lake Baikal. It was a stunning train journey with the lake on one side and an incredible snow-capped mountain range on the other. After two weeks in Mongolia, it was very pleasant to see water.

We arrived in Irkutsk an hour late and were collected by the hostel for a whirlwind drive around the streets of Irkutsk.

Finally, we were in Russia.

For information on traveling in Mongolia, read our Mongolia Travel Guide.
For information on traveling in Russia, read our Russia Travel Guides.