Moscow - Irkutsk

This part of our journey involves a 4474 km train ride from Moscow to the City of Irkutsk in Siberia. The rail system in Russia appears to be the feather in their cap. It prides itself on its punctuality and I can testify to that. Apparently railways managers get a hefty bonus each year and the punctuality of their trains is a big part of it. All trains countrywide run on Moscow time, which leaves it a bit difficult to keep track of the time, as we are going to be crossing 5 time zones on the way across. When we get to Irkutsk at we'll be 5 hours ahead of ourselves. All train tickets are quoted in Moscow time as well so you need to be careful as to what time locally your train leaves.

The lady in charge in called the Provodnista. She ensures the carraige is clean, that the hot water boiler is full and that the toilets are locked coming into stations. What she says goes, so we'll have to keep her sweet.

You have no control who you share your "kupe" carraige with and myself and Lucia got a lesson in that from the off. When we boarded the train there was two Russian guys already there. Neither spoke any english which made communicating difficult to say the least. One of them was a nice guy enough but the other one turned out to be a real pain in the ass!!! When we got on he started to talk to us. We were using the Lonely Planet to communicate and he was taking care to be understood as well, which was fine. But the problem was that he had 2 1.5 litre bottles of 7% Russian beer. The first of which he drained in record time and the second wasn't lasting pissing time. So suitably drunk at this stage he dispensed with attempting to be understood by us and started to talk and talk and talk. We tried to ignore him by reading or trying to sleep but he'd either wake us or pull the book out of our hands. He got off thankfully that night at 12.30, but christ was it a long day!

Along the way the train makes regular stops, usually for about 15-20 mins. There are loads of traders at these stops so you can get off and buy bread, water, chocolate, beer etc. At the first stop we met a Russian lady that spoke good english. She was about 70 odd and delighted to have an opportunity to practice her english. Nearly as delighted as we were to have someone to help us to buy things when we got off. She turned out to be a Raiki doctor and a poetry writer. She invited us in for tea and bread and insisted we have breakfast with her. She's a bit odd but in a good way if you know what I mean.

DAY 2
The monotoney of the journey set in at this stage I suppose. We had the cabin to ourselves which was a god send after yesterdays escapades, but little or nothing to do. We read loads, and took to playing cards. Cuisine wasn't overly flash either. As there is any amount of hot water provided, I'd brought some cuppa soups and noodles to make some posh Pot Noodles.

When everyone gets on the train they change into their "train clothes". It usually means changing out of your suit or whatever into pyjamas or tracksuit bottoms. Cleaning facilities are at best poor, running water in the jacks and thats it. As you can imagine there was a bit of a smell starting to rise. We'd brought some baby wipes but it think it could be a case of "throwing buns at elephants" if you know what I mean.

We got 2 new guests at about 9 that night, a mother and daughter combination. We couldn't communicate much again, but they were nice enough.

DAY 3
Sleeping is proving a bit difficult. Between the movement of the train and the stopping at stations, so its fitful at best. The beds aren't overly comfortable either.

At breakfast this morning with our Raiki doctor friend we were treated to a Russian delicacy called Pig Fat. Its made of salt and herbs and pig fat. I ate it but I won't be doing so again, yeeesh!

At about 2.00 AM we passed through the city of Yekaterinburg. This city marks the Europe/Asia divide and was the birth place of Boris Yeltsin. This part of the journey brings us into Siberia. The weather is still quite warm but the landscape can look quite barron, with alot of marshland.

The next city passed was Omsk. This city was where Dotoevsky was exiled to between 1849 -53. He wrote the book "Buried Alive in Siberia" here. Sounds like a cheery place eh! The station at Novosibirsk was very impressive as we made our last stop of the night.

DAY 4
Last full day before Irkutsk. The first stop of the day was at Krasnoyarsk. It had a nice station with a display of an old train engine. It was here that we crossed the Yenisey River over a 1 km long bridge on the outskirts of town. We heard afterwards in Irkutsk that this is a good spot to get off, that there is lots of nature reserves, we alas did not get off here

This region of Russia appears to be the oil and coal heartland. Its sparsley populated in large areas and we've literally met dozens of oil and coal freight trains on this leg.

We've seen very little of our Raiki Doctor for the last 2 days. Word spread through the train she was there and there has been a steady stream of people to her cabin.

DAY 5
Train pulled into the station at 5.30 am Moscow time, 10.30 local. So we were prepared for a spot of "train-lag"

Our friend next door insisted we get some shots of her out of her train clothes and then proceeded to get very emotional on our leaving. She had been great to us and we would have been lost without her in fairness.

The train has been interesting to say the least. Each passenger, bar day 1, has been nice to us and the counrtyside was interesting to see. The monotony is quite hard sometimes so if I was to do it again I'd probably get off somewhere along the way.

So now to Irkutsk

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