Day 2 Train to Harbin

In the early hours of the morning Tanya and Anya left and a Russian Vietnames lady joined us. She was very sweet, but spoke no English and chatting at 3 in the morning has never been my strong point. Roy was on the bottom bunk so sign languaged a bit before going back to sleep.
In the morning we made our acquaintance, and she was lovely. We are the same age and she buys and sells shoes. She was on her way to Vietnam via Beijing. It's still called Peking in Russia.

At midday we arrived at the border. Our conductor warned us we had to leave the train and we sat in the dingy station for well over 3 hours. It was dull. There were 2 kiosks and we tried a pie which was dreadful so bought some biscuits and pickles with our last few small change rubles.
Our train returned, now on the Chinese rail track, but the doors were still locked. Maybe it's for security for those who went into town. Finally we were allowed back on, but soon the Russian border crossing procedure started. Passports were checked. Wait. Bags were checked (our poor friend had to open all her bags and tear open boxes). Wait. More passport checks. The lady stared and stared at me, obviously not happy with my passport picture. Wait. I thought it was all over and walked down the passage for something when the customs arrived back and said I must go with them. There was a youngish man in charge, an older man and a Chinese looking lady interpreter. And I got grilled. I showed them my British passport as well as I look closer to that picture. They seemed very interested in why I had spent a month in India and tested my memory on where all I'd been. Took a while to even remember the Taj! How long in Egypt. Who with. Chatting, I could see she was trying to catch me out and would ask the same question later in a different way. The man in charge left at some stage. She asked me if I was on Facebook. Eventually she thanked me for answering the questions and said I could wait next door. The only other being in this room was a spaniel sitting on the chair. She was so intense and stared at me when I sat next to her. She look away, then back with a worried frown, deep into my eyes. I let her smell my bread and cheese fingers (I'd just made a sandwich) Soon the lady returned and walked me back to my carriage.  In the mean time Roy had been totally stressed that the already overdue train would depart without me as soon as the passports were returned and had started frantically packing. He was very relieved. While I was away they had searched every inch of the train.  Next my furry friend came running through the train, smelt my fingers again and ran off to the next carriage. It did cross my mind that making friends with the Russian sniffer dog might cause some unwanted trouble. They are bizzarly over zealous.
About 7 hours later we finally left for China. Here the guards arrived with smiles on their faces, checked passports and all honkey dorey. Roy and I watched Golden Eye, then went to sleep and a few hours later the train left.