Day 8 - Ulaanbaatar to Darkhan

Our host at Four Seasons GH had informed us that no train tickets were available today, so he got us bus tickets instead. I had read that the train took twice the time the bus did, so figured this was a good thing to get more time at our destination. Head down Peace Avenue to bus station. Pile on and we are off.

The day doesn’t quite go as planned. There is continual road construction all the way to Darkhan, leading to delays that turned a four hour trip into eight hours. Exhausted and pummeled, we exit in an abandoned lot in central Darkhan at 17:00. Stagger to the Comfort Hotel, one of the only ones I could find in the city during my search a week prior. It has a dilapidated, broken down charm, like a place that was elegant in the 1960s but now forgotten. Check in and do a walk around the city, my main intention being to locate where the bus station really is, so I can book return trip to Ulaanbaatar. Cannot find it, and various attempts at inquiries in Mongolian turn up no info.

A receptionist at the Comfort Hotel speaks some English and lets me know that it is a much better idea to get train tickets. He sends me with his brother in a taxi, across town to the train station. No English here so we communicate by google translate on my phone and secure the tickets for the 27th. What a relief. Also arrange a taxi to Amarbayasgalant Khiid for tomorrow ($75).