Getting A Train Ticket in UlaanBaatar

So far it was always kind of easy to get a ticket at the station for the next part of the TransSiberian. Not in Ulaanbaatar. First time I went to the international ticket office they told me ‘no ticket’. One week later I could have got some. Later on I found out on the Russian webpage that the sunday train still had space. Not able to book online I went back to the station the day after. Where I got told that I shall come back ‘tomorrow at 3pm’. ‘maniana maniana’ like South America.
For the transit Train from Moscow to Beijing you shall only get tickets the afternoon before departure after the train left Ulan-Ude the last big Russian stop. So I was back at the office on Saturday at 3pm. And at once it was 4pm and office ‘109’ around the corner. Anyway if you asked that girl she sent you back to the counters. We played this game a few times till we sat down and waited till 4pm. Once more I stood up went to the girl at the counter and was sent to ‘109’. Booom… big shock. In front of the office were about 20 people waiting. Lucky us that the girl sent all of us back to the counters so back in front of the line.
Forget nice queues no it doesn’t exist in Mongolia and for sure not in this situation. People were rushing the desk and instead of a line everybody was facing the accountant. Putting his/hers arm through the gap in the window to presents his/hers passport. First all the people which registered got a voucher for a ticket and next all the rest. First she ignored my passport together with another. She picked some local once instead. Had a look at it and refused one, two and more. And there we went, back in the game. Lucky us we got a little paper with seat numbers but the price increased. The day before we got told it shall be 130k MNT and now it shall be 217k MNT.
Three of us were running for an ATM which we finally found nearby. By the time we were back in the office most of the people were gone. They ran out of tickets we were told. Even two backpackers didn’t get one. Bit afraid of our tickets could have been gone since we left the place.
We started to queue again. A Chilean guy in front of us payed 217k MNT but we only got asked for 184.5k to our surprise. A short negotiation with the girl didn’t change anything. Happy but tired from all the stress we left the station and were looking forward for the morning after to catch the train.

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