We set off on our Trans-Mongolian journey across Siberia a few days ago now and thought we’d fill you in on the experience! We departed from Moscow’s Leningradsky Voksal station at 9:35pm on Tuesday evening, having stocked up on the essentials (noodles, bread and vodka) at the supermarket near the station. We boarded the train and settled into our small-but-perfectly-formed cabin – our home for the next 5 nights! Our cabin is a 4-berth affair, about the same size as our old kitchen (i.e. particularly small!). We were joined about 10 minutes before departure by a nice Dutch chap called Ward. Luckily for us there were only three of us in our cabin – it would be particularly cosy with 4!
Leningradsky Voksal station
Fran with supplies heading for the train (the old one on the right not the new one on the left!)
Fran making herself at home
We had already eaten that evening so we settled in and got chatting to Ward (who was scarily fluent in English). It turns out he was in the finance industry and decided to take 6 months or so to see more of the world. We’d bought plenty of food but decided that a beer would be a good option so I popped to the restaurant car to purchase some Russian ale. This set us back a whopping 130 roubles (about £3.25) so we were really pushing the boat out! As I made my way back to our cabin, a burly Russian chap invited me to join him for a vodka as he was dining alone. As I’d read it was rude to refuse such hospitality I politely agreed to a small vodka. His English was at the other end of the spectrum to Ward’s – literally none! He did however speak a miniscule amount of German (even less than me) so we were having a conversation using gestures and pre-GCSE German which was certainly interesting. Anyway, I managed to ascertain that his name was Anatoly, he was either a fox hunter or a lumberjack and he liked to drink vodka. A lot. I managed to return to the carriage for reinforcements but only after I’d polished off about 4 colossal shots of vodka so I was already a little tipsy to say the least. We were joined by another two travellers from our compartment – Kelly and Tommy from Evesham. The burly Russian bought us in a feast of gherkins, salami and various hams (which probably set him back a bit) which were essential to counteract the ‘orrible taste of vodka! We polished off three bottles (we supplied one we’d bought for approx £2.50), after which the Russian was pretty rowdy and kept challenging me to a hand shake tug of war! We managed to escape eventually but the 7 double/triple vodkas that I’d been forced to knock back made the train spin a little too much for my liking!!!
A stern-looking Anatoly, Ward, Beardo and Fran
Fran polishing off a vodka
Tommy, Kelly and Anatoly (and a bottle of vodka)
Had the hangover of doom the following day but luckily there were plenty of opportunities to sleep it off so by mid afternoon I was feeling about 75%!
Life on board is certainly interesting – most of the time you are confined to your room for what Fran aptly described as ‘forced relaxation’. Stops are infrequent, often 6 hours apart. When there is a stop however there is a hive of activity – food traders selling beer, noodles (for cooking with the boiling water in the coal-fired samovar in each carriage) and sometimes home-cooked fare like meat patties and sliced potatoes, pancakes and veg (if you’re lucky). Some stations only have kiosks which are usually a ‘point and pay’ affair – it always nicer to get it from a trader on the platform though. Touch wood we’ve both been OK on the tummy-front with this food – this evening’s mince patties, coleslaw and noodles might be a test though! The stops are usually only 20 minutes in length, however the guards start frantically beckoning you back on board after about 5 minutes – you end up feeling robbed of you precious time off-board as you wait another 10 minutes before the train departs! When you leave the station it’s back to normality – reading in your cabin, nattering with people form all over the world (our carriage is a mix of Germans, English, Irish, American, Dutch and Mexican – there are about 10 Americans in first class but they’re slightly later on in life!) and generally feeling couped up but free at the same time. It’s a shame that the windows are pretty grubby and most don’t open as it means most of your photos come out a bit foggy!
Our schedule – basic version
Our schedule – in-depth breakdown!
Coal-fired Samovar
Dashing off the train for some frantic shopping/exploration
Platform tucker…
Not sure what was in this pasty but it tasted OK!
Our first few days we made excellent (and on-time) progress through south-western Russia, coming close to the border with Kazakhstan in Perm. The landscape across this region is dominated by trees and boggy meadows, dotted with snow. The majority of the houses are simple wooden affairs in various states of disrepair, interspersed with huge ugly concrete structures which are either sawmills, concrete factories or sometimes something potentially more secret! I purchased the excellent Trans-Siberian Handbook before we left which gives a breakdown of towns you see along the way. A couple of interesting entries included a branch line that leads to a city called Krashnoyarsk-26 – neither the city nor the branch line appeared on any Soviet maps as it turns out it was a nuclear processing plant! Another one a few kms on is a similar story, this time it’s a secret space centre. It’s a bit like travelling through a number of Bond films at the same time, which is awesome! Just have to resist jumping onto the roof of the train to fight Jaws!
Barabinsk Station
Happy customers now we have pastries!
A bleak-looking factory
Novosibirsk Station at night
Moving into Siberia, we started climbing and the snow covering the ground and icy lakes got thicker and the villages smaller and more uninhabited-looking. The excitement preceding each stop was soon quashed when we realised there were no kiosks or platforms at the tiny stations we were stopping at – 6 hours wait for 10 minutes of milling about on the platform! Early this morning we passed Lake Baikal – a spectacular and incredibly large freshwater lake (a couple of hundred kilometres in length) with steep mountains surrounding it. We’re almost at Ulan Ude which is our next stop, the last stop in Russia before we cross the border into Mongolia – exciting stuff. We’ve pretty much run out of roubles on the train and there’s certainly no ATM so we’re making the most of our instant noodle selection (20p a packet – the taste reflects the price) and bartering with every platform vendor to get the best price for their culinary delights! Our next post will no doubt be after Ulaanbaatar where we will be staying for 4 days (one night of which will be in a Ger on the Mongolian steppe!) before continuing our journey to Beijing.
One of our many trains (they change them at pretty much every other station)
Platform bartering in full flow
Industrial Russia whizzing by
Enjoying some meat / sweet cheese pancakes
Not enjoying noodles again
Chinese beer, sold to us on the sly by the Chinese conductors at 1/3 of the price of the restaurant car! Actually Ward bought us this one as a gift!
Doing our own window cleaning for a better view
Some sort of platform ruckus involving police with machine guns last night – think it was transferring prisoners by train (not ours!)
Sunrise over frozen Lake Baikal – small dots in the distance are cars driven onto the ice by fishermen who then dig holes in the ice to fish!
An old old steel bridge!
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