From Irkutsk to Taiga

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Caught the evening train to Taiga. I had to stay overnight in Taiga because for some reason I could not get a direct train from Irkutsk to Tomsk. Even though I had reserved a seat, when the tickets came on sale the agency I had been going through advised me it was not possible. What the???!

I take back what I said before - trans-siberia train vodka parties do exist. As soon as I got on the train I realised that there were a bunch of guys in my compartment. I found out they were fireman / sportsmen and were off to some fireman sporting event. This is where they compete with fireman kind of tasks like climbing ladders up houses, running with hoses etc. Sounds weird.

Anyway they were a very friendly bunch and made a nice difference from the unfriendly Russians I had met on my previous train ride. I also met a nice couple from France & England who joined us in the cabin. There was a lot of vodka and beer going around and suddenly everyone became experts in Russian and English respectively. The Russkies got a kick out of reading out pickup lines (incorrectly) from our Russian phrasebooks. The other westerners also has some card games which they taught to me and the Russians, so it was a crazy game of 'Uno', where not eveyone was exactly sure what was going on but it seemed to go down well anyway.

I have only met two varieties of Russians. The ones who are really helpful and friendly and the ones who just don't want to know you at all. Apparently the French/English couple tried to befriend the Russian man in their cabin and were shut down immediately. He didn't want to share their food and didn't even want to mix his rubbish with theirs! So after he had turned down their offer to take his rubbish to the bin, he took it down separately straight after them.

I took another shot at having some borsh but once again the restaurant had less than half the stuff they were flaunting on their menu. I had something pretty safe like eggs and ham. Unfortunately our little get together was ruined by an obviously drunk Russian guy deciding he would sit with us uninvited. He then proceeded to keep repeating the same sentences to us even though we told him we couldn't understand Russian. Apparently if you just keep saying the same thing louder it will be understood? He started to get annoyed when we didn't understand him so we decided to escape and only went back to the restaurant once he'd gone. He was doing wonders for their business - not, because we found that he'd terrorised more than just us!

Finally it was time to get off at Taiga. Taiga was not as bad as I'd thought. I don't think the town has much there at all but at least the station was nice and there was a restaurant and food kiosks at the station. It was also still light at 8pm which was good. I was booked into a hotel across the road but couldn't be bothered trying to find it, so ended up staying in the rest rooms at the station. The rooms were big and clean but because you are literally in the station you hear everything and its hard to sleep. I paid to have a shower but for some reason I wasn't allowed to have one straight away. I told the receptionist / shower Nazi that I would go for a walk in the meantime. Once I came back with my drink and ice-cream she decided that it was imperative that I have my shower straight away. Not sure why, maybe she did it on purpose so my ice-cream would melt before I could have it, but who was I to argue?

I didn't sleep very well because I was paranoid I would sleep through my alarm, stuff up the time somehow and miss my 5am train. I did not want to be stuck in Taiga! But I needn't have worried. Shower Nazi lady advised me that my train had arrived, and then decided to barge into my room again and make me think I was going to miss the train even though it wasn't scheduled to leave for another 40 minutes. Again, I thought she must know something I didn't, so I sprang into action and charged to the platform just so I could have the luxury of sitting on the train for an extra 40 minutes waiting for it to leave.

Travelling in 3rd class was like entering some kind of gulag, with all these sleeping bodies stuffed into a single carriage. As i worked my way to my seat/bed, I had to weave between arms and legs hanging out from the sides of the bunks and the sounds of snoring, heavy breathing and other bodily noises just made me a bit sick. Lucky my trip to Tomsk was only a couple of hours but that was enough.

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