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Published: August 21st 2013
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Well I've done the Trans-Siberian (part of it at least) and now I'm in the city of Ulan Ude just by Lake Baikal. The Tran-Siberian is a very famous train ride but as most people reading this will know there's not actually one train called the Trans-Siberian, it is a whole fleet of trains servicing the country. The routes the tourists usually take are the Trans-Siberian route which remains entirely within Russia and goes between Mosow and Vladivostok (very few tourists go westwards in the opposite direction); the Trans-Mongolian which goes from Moscow to Irkutsk at Lake Baikal and then turns south to go down through the middle of Mongolia to Beijing; and the Trans-Manchurian which skips the Mongolian part, but likewise goes from Moscow to Beijing. The trip is basically a famous “must-do” trip simply because it is really long. Even just the bit I did from Vladivostok to Ulan Ude took three nights. However it is also incredibly boring. Train buffs would love it, but for most people I reckon the idea would not live up to the reality.
Second-class where I was has four-bed cabins (i.e. two bunks) about six foot square and as boiling hot as
a sauna. There's a toilet at the end of the corridor but I hardly ever managed to get to use it because it was always occupied and any time I did get in, there would immediately be a knock on the door and one of the train attendants would be there saying the toilet is closed because we're coming up to a station, so I had to get out and they would lock the door;
twenty minutes later the train would roll into the station! I probably only got to use the toilet about four times on the whole trip. The trains have generous scheduling times so they can get to the stations on time. If they are running early they just stop and sit in the middle of nowhere for ten or fifteen minutes so that they can arrive at the station at the right time. Despite this, and after having heard so much about how punctual Russian trains are, the departure of mine from Vladivostok was delayed by an hour.
I was the only non-Russian on the entire train (like I said, tourists don't generally do the westward route). Most of the other passengers stayed in the
cabins and slept or did crosswords. The only thing I had to do was stand at the windows in the corridor, one minute crawling interminably into the next, seeing if I could spot any wildlife. It was like in Terminator 2 where the T800 is standing unmoving at the window of the garage all night long after breaking Sarah out of the mental hospital. Most people watching the movie think he's keeping guard in case the T1000 turns up again, but he's not. He's looking for nightjars.
There wasn't a lot to be seen from the train. On the first day we passed large areas completely flooded out but not a duck or egret was to be seen. There were a few magpies and carrion crows but not much else. The second day was a bit better because while there still weren't many birds (again, mainly crows and magpies) I did manage a new bird. Every so often there would be small pale birds on the power lines running parallel to the tracks but they were just far enough away that I couldn't get a fix on them from the moving train. Then the sun hit one in just
the right way to show up some bright red legs and I realised they were Amur falcons (also called red-footed falcons). This was rather annoying because I knew what they were but I couldn't actually see anything other than pale blobs with red feet. After quite a while I managed to see two close enough to tell that at least they were falcons but still not really adequate views and I was very much 50-50 on whether to count them or not. Finally one was kind enough to actually fly alongside the train right at my window and I got a good look at it.
When the train rolled into Ulan Ude I thought it was pretty dump-like, but now I've had a wander round I like it. It is very much an Asian city. Russian girls are hot, Asian girls are hotter, and therefore Russian-Asian girls are hottest of all. And the people here are much friendlier than in Vladivostok. I think it's the Asian influence. Also the temperature is more to my liking. I've gone from 38 degrees Celsius in South Korea to 25 degrees in Vladivostok to 18 degrees in Ulan Ude. I'm slowly working my way down to my ideal temperature (Hokkaido, minus 10 degrees Celsius). While walking from the train station to the hostel (called Traveller's House) I saw some sparrows rummaging around in the plants by the sidewalk, and I thought “why do those tree sparrows looks so weird, and why are they so big?!” – they were actually house sparrows! That was unexpected.
Tomorrow morning I head off to a village called Ust-Barguzin which is right next to Lake Baikal and on the edge of the Zabaikalsky National Park.
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