My Trans-Siberian and Transmongolian Railway trips: where to go, what to see, things to do
I think the real Mongolia is far away from the capital Ulaan Baatar.
Walking for about 3 hours along the dirt roads that pass, without signs, among the green and uninhabited hills, you come to the Guun Galuut nature reserve.
A few kilometres away from Ulaan Baatar, in the infinity of the steppe, appears the massive monument to the national hero Genghis Khan.
Few people know that in just over 25 years, with an army of only 100,000 men, he created the largest empire in human history: a kingdom that extended for 31 million square kilometres from the Balkans to the Pacific Ocean and from India to Nothern Siberia.
The Transmongolian train runs in green grasslands until the first ger appear from the windows and you arrive at the Ulaan Baatar station.
In the common imagination, Siberia is always a very cold and inhospitable place.
For this reason, going to Siberia was my objective.
The Siberian region occupies almost 75% of the Russian territory, going from the Urals to the Pacific and from the borders with Mongolia and China to Arctic Ocean.
Crucial was one of the many travel proposals that are received daily by email: “Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Beijing”. I was 16 and it seemed only a dream. But a spark started in my head…
