Mongolian crossing time – 3 1/2 hours
Russian crossing time – 1 1/2 hours

and still no bathroom, aaaaaaaaagh!  However, things got good funny fast after the last entry.  The Russian ladies turned out to be Azerbaijani mother and daughter and they are awesome.  They quickly became annoyed with our crazy Mongolian lady and managed to eject her from our cabin.  Now we’re all best friends, sharing meals, listening to Jay Z, watching Gossip Girl in Russian, and teaching each other our languages.

I guess the Russians are not as tolerant of the Mongolian traders and it looks like our crazy lady got busted.  The whole group was kicked out of our car back to last class which could be punishment enough.

We finally cleared all border controls and thanks to the pocket change of rubles my dad gave me we were able to FINALLY use the platform bathroom.  It truly felt like saving the world.  Thanks, Dad!!!

Overall the whole journey by train will take about 36 hours to our next stop where we’ll stay for 2 days.  And judging by the drop in temperature my sweater will finally come in handy.