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Published: August 31st 2008
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We're off!
Eurostar to Brussels After months of planning,fretting; tackling rental agreements; visas, train times; tickets and packing the house up, we're finally off! Having said our fond farewells to the family and been waved off at St. Pancras by Pens brother Geoff, we spent the next 48 hours rolling slowly across western europe. The greatest novelty on this leg, apart from the toilet and the samovar, was when our train sidled into a siding for a change of wheel gauge at the Polish/Belarus border. It was literally jacked up whilst we were on it, the wheels slipped from under us and replaced - a fittning reminder of the transition from the West to the former Soviet Bloc.
We pulled into Moscow at about 11am on saturday, August 23rd, and our first task was to find the station that our train to Kyrgyzstan was to leave from that evening. We managed to navigate our way across the city on the Metro, via some of the stations which were wonderfully ornate, baroque constructions with gigantic chandeliers and huge mosaics of Lenin and the peeps doing heroic things. Having found the station and left lugage, we trotted off to see the sights. The cathedral complex behind Red
Polish/Belarus border
The changing of the gauge! Square was impressive despite the myriad hordes, with its wonderful golden domes and superb Russian Orthodox interiors. The famous St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square has the flavour of Disney - brightly coloured, incongruous and already familiar. Then, another challenging ride on the Metro, back to our station, struggling with the cyrillic alphabet. the area around the station was a grim, unwelcoming, and a magnet to the drunk and dispossessed of Moscow, not unlike London Road in Brighton, really, but with an edge. Our train, the Silk Road Express, was due to leave at 11.30pm, and as the time drew near, the platform filled with crowds of wide faced, black haired central asians. There was a great surge to get on the train when it arrived, and we were jostled and swept into our carriage with a great mass of people.
As the train took off and things settled down, we acquainted ourselves with our travelling companions for the next 4 days: a Kazakh woman and a Kyrgyz man who were sharing our compartment, who spoke no English as we spoke no Russian. The first significant event was the discovery that there was no restaurant car on the train,
Moscow metro
Onward Komrades though it seemed likely that we would be able to buy provisions en route. The second significant discovery was the realisation that John's wallet and credit cards had been stolen on the station! This was, of course, a tricky situation - we're on a train bound for a very long way away from LLoyds TSB Hassocks branch, and with no way of contacting anyone to cancel the cards, we just had to sit it out. I(John) remembered a friend who had also lost a wallet, with a considerable amount of money in it, and his comment that he felt much more alive without it than with it. As I was already feeling quite alive after 3 days travelling, i didnt really need that exra 'aliveness'!! However, I thought of that friend and his wise words. The rest of the journey setled into a relentless schedule of looking out the window, reading and dozing, interspersed with lively spurts of engagement with our fellow travellers.
The landscape was epic, as was to be expected in Russia. The first day was spent rolling through unending forest, probably covering 1000 kilometres,and there was no break in that landscape apart from the occasional village
Moscow
Cathedral Square carved into it. Being Russia there were the inevitable "blots" - gigantic industrial monstrosities. The forests and Russia gradually merged into Kazakhstan and the great steppes.From trees horizon to horizon we then plied across unbroken stretches of open grassland for as far as the eye could see. As the landscape changed so did the climate: slowly, progressively, hotter. That might have been good at any other time, but not on this train. There was no ventilation to speak of other than the odd window that opened a few inches, and with the sanitary conditions in the WC enough to bring down all but the strongest, conditions were being to approac 'challenging'! What the hell! We knew it was never going to be the Orient Express....
As we approached the Kyrgyz border, forewarned about potential corruption in officialdom, the Kazakh border control officer tried to extort some money unsucessfully. Over the border in Kyrgystan, the officials were less corrupt but more officious. One officer looked at our passports, saw they were English, and passed them to his superior, who then asked John to accompany him. He was then passed on to another officer on the platform, who passed him on
Komsomalskaya station Moscow
The station for trains east! to yet another, who led him off to the interview room. Its decor was bizarre, considering that this was the HQ of Kyrgyz border control! There were several 50's style glass fronted cabinets in which a full china teaset was proudly displayed. He felt more at home immediately as he sat there with two deportees from Uzbekistan. All this at 3.00am! As it turned out, no electrodes were attached. He spent five minutes with a very chirpy moon faced officer who, having finished the formal investigation, suddenly flexed his arm muscles, smiled beatifically and shouted, " Bejing Olympics! Jackie Chan! Yes!" At that point he felt confident that we were going to be allowed in to The People's Republic of Kyrgystan.
We arrived tired but happy at Bishkek station at 5.00 in the morning. After a sleep and a very welcome shower, we took to the streets. It was good to be on dry land again. The green and leafy city is laid out on a grid, which makes for ease of navigation, but without an old town is completely without character or charm. The city centre is dominated by monstrous architecture and monuments, including a huge statue of
Lenin. Given that most states pulled these statues down immediately after independence, it seems extraordinary that here they remain 17 years on.
We had heard rumours of "horse activities" at the Hippodrome, just outside town, as part of the annual Independance Day celebrations. So we went to check it out. To our amazement we discovered that these "activities", was the Busgazi (Kok Boru in Kyrgiz), the famous game mounted riders play in Central Asia. It consists of two teams attempting to take a headless goat/sheep and place it in a designated spot. The event we watched was a knock out competition between local teams. There were 4 or 5 horsemen in each team, and they were wonderfully skilled riders, with horses that were required to barge against each other as the riders vied for possession of the goat. Whilst hanging from the saddle at a gallop, the rider had to scoop up the unwieldy carcass and then hang on to it as he galloped to the goal. As well as being individually skillful, all the team members worked closely together as they struggled for possession . It was a wild, raw event with minimal rules maintained by a mounted
bishkek
the mountains beckon in the distance! referee. It was a spectacular game to watch, hugely enjoyed by the packed stadium, with a backdrop provided by the equally spectacular Celestial Mountains - our next destination.
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Rachel and Andrew
non-member comment
Fly-Through!
Lovely description, what a fantasic trip! We're going to do a GoogleEarth fly-through of each leg... Sorry about the wallet. Love, Rachel and Andrew