Vendor Box

This glorified shipping container is actually a convenience store. Many of these can be found all along the Trans-Siberian line, not just at the stations but also down virtually every street in the towns and cities. They sell everything from cigarettes to deodorant, toys to perfume, shampoo to beer. There is a happy little comrade in there (sometimes several) to assist you with all your 4am shopping needs. Actually we could never find any sign of a door so we suspect they may live in there! (just kidding) The central window of the 3 tiny windows in the middle is where the sale occurs. There are 2 methods of making a purchase: a) if you are Russian you push any lingering tourists out of the way, belch out your desired product, shove a fistful of rubles in the window, grab your goodies, fart loudly and stagger off. b) if you are a tourist you wait until most of the drunk ruskies have passed out, you bend down and stick your face in the window, look up at the comrade(s) inside, stammer out "Bon Aqua?" (most common brand of bottled water), slide in a 10 ruble note, hope like hell you get your water and hope like hell you get some change. Some of these booths also have one or more fridges of cold drinks right next door. You tell the person inside (the booth, not the fridge) what you want and pay for it, they then unlock the appropriate fridge with a push button remote control and you take your drink. We assume if you take more than you have paid for they are legally allowed to shoot you through the little window (and that's gotta hurt!).