Being just the 2 of us lasts, oh, about a minute. We find the platform, watch as our filthy dirty wagon is attached to the otherwise pristine train and pile into our 4 berth cabin to meet our travelling companions for the 24 hour journey to Novosibirsk. Rodzal is a tartarski soldier in his early twenties from Kazan, travelling alone back to work in Ulan Ude after holidays back home. He is blonde, tanned, shaven-headed, speaks a very few words of English and has undertaken the 4 day train journey without anything to read, any music, games, cards, drink or any distraction of any description. He sits on his bottom bunk and watches us or stares at the bunk above and that's him for the trip. I like him, he is very relaxed and polite and
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