6 Days on the Trans-Siberian

Post date: 06-Nov-2009 13:19:51

First Night: Thursday, Oct 22, 2009

Rain sprayed the windshield so heavily that our Russian driver slammed on the breaks to slow us down on the highway. We arrived safely at the platform waiting for our Trans-Siberian Train. Our blond and rather burley driver led us out of the station to platform 3 where he showed our tickets to a short brown haired woman with a fur cap and glasses. She looked at us and the man and then motioned for us to follow him onboard the train. Colin and I gave each other a nervous glance as we walked down the narrow beige and green carpeted hallway of carriage #8 on Train #6 Mosow to Ulaabataar. We were surrounded by a damp rotting wood smell. It smelled a bit like the cabin at Long Lake when it hasn't been aired out all winter.

Our driver stopped outside room IV and we saw the sign for beds 13-16 on the door. This is the third time Colin and I have been lucky this trip with receiving a room number or being on a floor that incorporates number 13. There was an elderly couple and two women about 40 or 45 in our room. The driver yelled for them to move their bags and two of them filed out of the room while he placed my bag below Colin's lower bunk 13 and Colin's bag in a small storage slot just above my top bunk 14. He said goodbye and we said Spaseba (thank you in Russia). We were on our own.

We made conversation with our two bunk mates (Frank and Tatiana) by pointing and listening very carefully. She was Russian and he was from the Czech Republic, but where exactly we couldn't quite make out. I did understand them asking if we are brother and sister and we pointed to our rings.

Colin and I explored the train and felt that we had pretty great bunk mates since we saw two small boys on the train in another carriage. The dining car was rather empty and we got an invite to a carriage party at the other end of the train from a Brit named Al. We checked out the toilets which flush to below the train so they are locked at stops and the samovar that has hot water in it.

Day 1: Friday, Oct 23, 2009

We slept in until 12:30 PM which was pretty amazing for our first day. We went to bed at midnight the night before. Our bunk mates were up quite a bit earlier than us and had our curtains open and our door. At night when we have the curtains open, the lights at various stations make it look like a camera flash going off inside our bunk.

I admit that even with all our planning and research for packing there is still one item that I would have liked to have brought and that is an eye patch for when we're sleeping in airports or areas that are well lit or during the day.

We had a great day of enjoying the view of leafless brich trees, pine trees, abandoned houses, farms, cows, horses. fields, villages and cities with high rise apartments, but after a while it began to look the same. I finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Colin listened to various podcasts.

We got invited for drinks by the Brit Al and 3 Swedish girls at 7:00 PM in the food cart. We were just thinking of going there for supper so it was perfect timing. We had 2 beers each and a great visit about travel and when to have kids and how various cultures are so nice even though we are fed preconceived ideas about them that almost always turn out to be wrong. For example, Colin and I and Al were really nervous getting on the train, but so far we like everyone and everyone has been nice to us.

We ordered chicken for dinner and had a lovely meal that our cute little smiley waitress brought us which is more proof that some Russians do smile. Colin and I are both comfortable on the train and are enjoying the ride. The rocking train is very relaxing and you get used to it way faster than a boat. I haven't felt sick once even when sleeping. However, when we stop in the middle of the night you do feel a bit like you are on a dinosaur's back. Also corners can be a bit hard to handle when you are walking across the cold metal clamps that hold the rail cars together.

Day 2: Saturday, Oct 24, 2009

Colin was a bit grumpy today but I managed to cheer him up a bit. I don't blame him for being grumpy because it was so hot in our cabin that he didn't get much sleep last night. I woke up sweating and I wasn't even under any covers. We were also woken up by our bunk mate talking really loudly on her cell phone just before 8 AM. Yes, apparently you can get perfect reception on the Trans-Siberian.

Colin hopped off the train and bought us 2 bottles of sparkling water which were nice and cold. We went to the dining car and had Oj, coffee and a chicken meal again like last night for breakfast. However, we had roasted potatoes instead of French Fries. The only word in English our waitresss can say is chicken, so I think we'll be eating a lot of that on the train. We were alone in the dining car again. It's supposed to be the life of the train but most people make their pot of noodles with the free hot water and eat in their room, which is cheaper because the dining car is pricey.

Our bunk mate hasn't left the train since we've been on it. She only leaves the room to pee and make food. I don't even think she's wandered off our carriage to another carriage. She just stares out the window looking depressed. It's sad because the train is supposed to be fun and we're having fun. I did teach her cold and snow today. After Colin and I come in from each stop now she says "cold?" and I say da (yes). We don't see our other bunkmate much because he usually finds an empty room in our carriage and uses that table and window as his hang out for the day.

Everything out the train window looks brighter and nicer with a blanket of snow on top of it. Our bunk mate left the train today for water and chunky milk and met a friend to chat to. She looks happier today. Colin read another Sherlock Holmes book and I caught up on my blog writing and editing the novel that I wrote last year.

We are still on Moscow time, so we only had a few hours of daylight today and we didn't see the sun. We have got to switch over to Mongolia time so we don't have such a huge difference when we arrive.

Yesterday, a girl got on with 2 ferrets and she took them for a walk down the hall on leashes today. Very cute. We've seen a few dogs on other trains but not on ours.

Day 4: Monday, October 26, 2009

Well today definitely made up for our shortage of stops. We stopped quite a few times for short periods of time and then we had two really long stops. One was 2 hours and one was an hour for customs. We saw some of the best scenery today and less snow too.

We went through customs right before we left Russia. We filled out an exit form that included our passport information and how much money we're leaving with. An extremely serious woman and a man nicely dressed in long navy coats and fuzzy hats came on board and collected our passports. The guy looked at the passport and us then put it in a briefcase the girl was holding and they left the train. We got off the train and took a few pictures of our engine before it pulled away (to switch to a Mongolian engine). We got back on the train and dug out our luggage. I was a bit nervous because the guy across from us was motioning that he was detained before due to language in a book he had (so Colin buried his Hacker magazine at the bottom of his suitcase) and he indicated we should put our cameras and journals and cell phones away so they are not taken. I don't know if he was serious or if he was kidding. The exit form we filled out asked if we were leaving with magazines or books too.

After 30 minutes, a guy came back on the train and took our exit forms. He stamped them and then he left. The male guard and a different female guard came back on the train and stood outside our room with our passports. The guy looked at each of our passports and then said our names. He started with "John, please come with me." However, what he really meant was please step outside the room. He handed us back our passports which had the part B of the migration form taken out (we originally filled it out when we entered) and our Russian Visa stamped with an exit date. We kept our Registered in Russia forms. The girl entered our room and looked under and above our beds and banged against the ceiling grate to ensure it was empty. No one looked in our bags and that was that.

We travelled for 10 minutes and then stopped in Mongolia where we filled out a form in Russian that Frank translated for us and we helped the 4 Belgium guys next to our room fill out the form too (they got on yesterday). The officers male and female came onboard wearing SARS masks and handing us many forms. First, we filled out a Mongolian custom form with the usual info-passport number, Visa number etc. Next, we filled out a health form asking if we have a fever, etc, the countries visited in the last 7 days, if we have been around ill people etc and a form listing the H1N1 virus symptoms. Seconds later our passports and first forms were taken, then the health forms were taken and the first form we filled out was stamped and given back to us. Our passports were returned with our Visas stamped and we were on our merry way again. Our room and our luggage were not searched.

Last Morning: Tuesday, Oct 27, 2009I was woken up by our carriage lady grabbing my foot as she slung our door open flooding our cabin with light. I bleakley looked at my watch 5:30 AM. It took us less than 30 minutes to strip the sheets off our bedding and get packed up. We enjoyed another 90 minutes of mountains and a beautiful surise before we arrived in Ulaanbaatar at 7:30 AM.Here's a sampling of pictures from the trip:

And if you still want to see more, you can view our other 243 pictures and 7 videos of the train experience here: