Made our way via Metro to the Yaraslov station to catch the
Trans-Siberian. Planned our journey noting the different station names
and wrote out the Cyrillic characters so made it unaided without
stuff-ups. While I can remember the Cyrillic alphabet and make out the
words, it takes me a little time, not for the rush of a Metro station.
If you translate the characters, you get the pronunciation and many
words are the same in English. We waited in an outdoor beer tent for our
23:45 train until the smoke almost choked us. All excitement as we left
Moscow on the Trans-Siberian, wahooo!
Unable to sleep, let alone eat the meal that we were entitled to, it
being officially day one of the journey. Everything is in Russian, not a
skerrig of any other language so it is rather a hit and miss affair. We
do discover the samovar (not a great copper thing with a fire under it
but a mass of plumbing with a tap sticking out) but is only at 50C at
the moment. Luckily there is a French couple on board and she speaks
Russian quite well so there is hope. Asleep at last to the rocking and
rolling, creaking and clanking that is train travel. The whole place is
pervaded by the smell of burning coal as each carriage has its own
little coal-fired boiler and chimney.
Awoke to small towns and 5 stops of varying duration throughout the day.
Luckily Marg had found the itinerary on the net so we at least knew how
long we were to be stopped, some were only 2 minutes, some 30. The
longer stops have people selling stuff, food and warm socks and at times
vendors are on the train.
Marg, feeling that she would like a shower is told that she is third in
line and to wait 15-20 minutes between people for it to reheat. Finally
gets a shower to find almost no water and that erratic. The provodnika
(concierge) also demands R150 but Marg refuses because it was so crappy.
Train boss later apologises and tells us that it is fixed and that he
will demonstrate how to connect the pipe...pardon? We are on a shower
strike now (which is no great sacrifice for me) so no washing for 5 days.
Ask about food (which we have paid for). Apparently only 5 meals
supplied in the price, no breakfast, lunch (bortsch, rice & meat,
salad), dinner in the dining car. We have muesli, 2-minute noodles,
coffee, tea, powdered milk, chocolate (lots of chocolate), instant
mashed potato and a large sausage to see us through. We had been unable
to buy a gas canister (we flew to Munich so left those behind) so the
noodles will be no-minute noodles. Plenty of hot water in the samovar
although no reliable place to wash utensils because the sink room is
often locked.
Asked the provodnika about locking our compartment when we got off the
train so he locked it with the general-purpose triangular panel key.
When we got back on the train, a different provodnika unlocked our
compartment AND gave us the electronic swipe card for our compartment!
Too easy. Actually a triangular panel key would be handy (it is the
normal one that we get in NZ) because on some trains they lock the
toilets half an hour before the stop. Everything surrenders to the
triangular panel key, even the provodnika's compartment. You could most
probably hijack the train with one ("Take me to Cuba or I will..."
Actually what mischief can you do with a train?). Our train is the
Russia No. 2, the flagship so has aircraft-style sucky toilets with a
holding tank so can be used in the station. Higher-numbered trains just
dump on the track. Actually the suction is mighty powerful and sounds
like a fog horn when it operates. I wouldn't like to accidentally press
the button (conveniently placed at elbow height) while seated, your
entrails could be spread all over Siberia!
Crossed the Urals in the night so we are now officially in Asia (Trivial
Pursuits, science and nature question).
Watched a begillion episodes of Scarlett, the sequel to Gone with the
Wind. Luckily most of the original English soundtrack was identifiable
so we got most of the dialogue. Finally got to the end so could enjoy
our home-away-from-home-cooked meal of instant mashed potato with diced
sausage.
Woke today to SNOW! -5C outside and light snow falling, sooo cool. Got
out at the earliest opportunity, threw a snowball, licked the air and
blew condensation rings, all the goofy things that inhabitants of
temperate climates do. Russians on the other hand indicating by gesture
and demeanour "Shit, more bloody snow".
The train runs on Moscow time, even though we are 4 time zones away now.
So despite waking up when it was light at 5:30 Moscow time, lunch is not
served until 12:00 Moscow time (16:00 local time). Expecting dinner at
midnight local time, there will be a few drunk people in the dining car
by then. Actually there is only so much train food you can eat
especially when you have no idea what you are ordering. I was sure I was
ordering salmon but got beef with buckwheat (not the most appetising
colour combo brown on brown but made delightful by the artistic
drizzling of tomato sauce, Jamie Oliver eat your heart out!). Marg's
chicken was fresh appearing to have been recently run over by a Kamaz truck.
Luckily the temperature control in our carriage (Lucky No. 7) works
because the internet reports 30C for most of the journey. Tales of
Russian men wandering around in just shorts! I think some carriages are
nevertheless hot because we have seen people getting out of the train in
jandals and T-shirts in the snow.
We get off this train at Ulan-Ude and stop for 3 days before catching the bus for a 12 hour journey to Ulaan Baatar where we have 8 days at the Oasis Guesthouse.
See some sights taken on the way....
Trans Siberian Railway : Moscow to Ulan Ude Oct 2012 from Marg Meyle on Vimeo.
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