From Ulan Bator to Irkutsk

Settling in

We get into our carriage with all our luggage and we are relieved. We arrive in our compartment where we find a young couple that says in French: “We’ll move over”. It’s a Franco-French compartment. After so many weeks, it’s cool. We put our things away and settle in. Dad tells me in Iranian: “For the moment, they’re happy that we’re all French, but they don’t know what to expect with you talking all the time.” During this journey, it’s going to be different since I have texts to write. The train leaves and I begin to write. When I finish writing, I take a break to go with dad to the restaurant carriage since he hasn’t eaten yet. We arrive a few carriages further in a small Mongolian restaurant that is very nicely decorated with smiling waitresses that are happy to serve us. That is pleasant. Dad orders a good ravioli soup and I just have milked tea. Asking what the ingredients are, we find out that it’s a packet of powder that she mixes with water. We go back to the compartment and I start talking with the two people that are with us. The boy who is quite young, tanned and wearing glasses is called Cyril. He looks a lot like Dimitri d’Aïna who is now Dimitri de Polka. Cyril is doing a road book of his six-month trip that took them to China, Viet Nam, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Mongolia and Russia. I then talk with the young woman; her name is Annabelle and she lives with Cyril in Puteaux near Paris, and she works in marketing for the brand of butter and crème fraîche “Elle et Vire”. After speaking with them, I continue to write. I write a text and then take out my iPod Touch. When they see that I have one, Cyril and Annabelle ask me how to put music on it. I listen to a little bit of music and when I want to go to the bathroom, they are occupied.