Blogs from Chita, Siberia, Russia, Europe

After short night in Irkutsk we took an early train to Ulan Ude – the idea was to go during daytime in order to enjoy the scenic ride along the southern coast of Lake Baikal. The weather didn’t seem to agree with our plan – it was cloudy, at times rainy, so you could see at most the first 100m into the lake… so Danny was reading, I rested my eyes a bit :) Once in Ulan Ude we tried to walk to the hostel, I had more or less a clue where it was Danny decided to be more of a follower on this trip – granted, he does not speak Russian and it’s his first time backpacking :), but not exactly, so we got kinda lost. Asking people didn’t help much either, the street ... read more

So I make train 20 - the Trans-Manchurian and I start with a full carriage to myself. There is some confusion when the train arrives as there is no carriage twenty for me to board - but I quickly realise that they will add further carriages at each stop and when I board it is empty apart from the usual dour russian provodnik and me! I am also at the back of the train so I can easily get some shots of the view from the back which will be nice. Later I am joined by Walter a Beijinger who is super friendly and inquisitive compared to my last compatriot but He does not speak english and so our conversations use the manadarin phrasebook and take hours to determine do i have children? - no - ... read more