We got up early and went to the bus station first thing before breakfast, to buy our overnight bus tickets to Erenhot. On our way back to Leo Hostel we enjoyed our first fresh hot soy milk. We grabbed Chinese breakie pastry on the streets, one was dripping in syrup but amazingly tasted of nothing, the other one was like a brick, and packed up our stuff at the hostel. In the afternoon we got on the bus towards the border and enjoyed a magnificent night of sleep on our first sleeper bus!

When we arrived at Erenhot we quickly discovered there weren’t any trains running across the border due to the Chinese public holiday (a hangover from the official holiday on 1^st October!) so decided to try to cross the border ourselves and catch a train on the other side to UB. Unfortunately even the border itself was closed and would not be open until tomorrow. Slightly disappointed we decided to catch a bus into the middle of Erenhot for first breakfast and then to scout a good wild camping spot (we were determined not to end up in one of Erenhot’s border hotels). In the bushes of the city park we found an excellent urban wild camping spot and bought food for our midnight feast. After an excellent lunch in a cheap eatery we wandered back to the park (after catching the wrong bus and riding a full tour of Erenhot before disembarking exactly where we got on) and read our books until it fell dark. After multiple attempts to break away from our new friend, a tipsy local who insisted on reading our Mandarin phrasebook from cover to cover, we were successful and pitched our tent under the cover of darkness. Once we were settled, we enjoyed a quick dinner in the dark and fell straight asleep (almost on top of each other in our tiny tent!).

We woke up before dawn so we could pack up before sunrise like camping ninjas. Our first urban wild camping experience was a success!


We headed to the train station and prompedly bought us two tickets from Erenhot to Zamyn-Uud. After a number of discussions with Chinglish speaking locals we became aware of the fact that we would arrive too late in Zamyn-Uud to catch the cheap Mongolian train onto UB. After an unsuccessful attempt to get a refund for our tickets we were terribly annoyed that we just wasted all the money that we had saved by camping in the park. We caught a bus back to the border and quickly got squeezed into an old Russian jeep. We left China and entered Mongolia, but before arriving in Zamyn-Uud our driver abandoned us. Tired of the faff and determined not to spend any more money, we decided to complete the walk ourselves by foot. After FINALLY successful buying two sleeper tickets for the train to UB, we went for our first Mongolian lunch (dumpling stew for Alby and a pile of rice for me). Although only 3km from a Chinese town, the food was completely different. After killing some time in another city park (this one less suitable for camping, none of the bushes had leaves) we spent the rest of the day/night in a 4 bed cosy sleeper cabin on the train, chugging through the Mongolian Gobi.