I slept surprisingly well considering that we were effectively sleeping on the floor. The yurt had retained its warmth throughout the night and it was therefore with some annoyance that our guide woke us for breakfast at 6.30am! Still we made a showing and ate what we could of the rather dubious ensemble of Mongolian breakfast  before us. Before long we were off back to Hohhot to catch our afternoon train to Lanzhou.

We got back with plenty of time to spare and so decided a long frawn-out lunch of MOnglian Hotpot was in order. Doing our best to read the CHinese characters we ordered an array of meats and vegetables that we then proceeded to dip into a garlic or spicy broth that was bubbling away in the middle - a seriously fun way to eat! We left on full stomachs feeling ready to face the 18hrs of fun on the hard seats in the train to Lanzhou, our next destination.

From the moment we boarded it was utter chaos. Each passenger seemed to have brought their wordly possessions which crowded the already narrow walkways to our seats. We were already crammed in like sardines, but as if to add insult to injury there were plenty more people standing wherever there was any space left. In short, as we set off from Hohhot that afternoon, we were hot, stuffy and uncomfortable.

As with most long journeys, the first couple of hours passed unnoticed. I was far too busy just taking the scene in. A layer of dirt was visiible pretty much everywhere and people's rubbish was thron haphazardly around the train if not straight out of the window. It took 5 hours for the desperation to kick in. A beer was in order so as to make the seats mildly more comfortable. Stupid games followed, which the other passenegers just looked on with blank stares as we tried to enjoy the moment. The CHinese train authoritie seemed to think that its passangers wanted to listen to lound music blaring out of the lopuspeakers throughout the night so that didn't help us sleep either. I closed my eyes only to be reawoken as another standing passanger made a desperate race for the vacated seat next to me, knocking me and waking me up unamused.