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Published: January 23rd 2016
Day 4-8 and life on board the Trans-Siberian Railway.
The Trans-Siberian Railway is not fast, it seems to trundle along the Russian countryside. I know it is snowing and icy, but I can’t imagine it being much faster in normal conditions. The train is basic but functional, we have four beds in our cabin, a lovely snow covered view, a toilet at the end of each carriage, a samovar in each carriage which provides hot water for making tea, making meals, you can even use it to boil some eggs.
The ‘Provodnitsa’ -our stern attendant, there are usually 2 to a carriage, one working while the other rests, is in charge of the carriage, and customer service is pretty low on their priorities. They can be pretty fearsome. Their job apart from checking tickets, is to make the carriages spic and span, issue clean sheets and towels, and to wake you up when it’s your station (we hope!).
The toilet is pretty rudimentary with a simple lever to flush away, which also gives you a good view of the Russian railtrack. It is best not to flush when you are sitting down as you will get a blast
of Siberian chill right up your nether regions!. During station stops the Provodnitsa closes the toilets until we are clear of the town.
Half way along the train, is the restaurant car, but to get there is a bit of an adventure. The connecting walkways although not open like a wild west train are still exposed and you can see the railway tracks rushing beneath you and with the hazardous ice it’s a bit like an ordeal like something out of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
On first entering the restaurant car, they seemed quite excited to have customers. I don’t think they have a lot of custom. The prices although OK for us, is above what the Russians will pay and as they are making shorter journeys than us will probably bring their own food or do without.
How people know what station is which I don’t know, many platforms do not have names.
We can get off the train when the train is in the station for a while, but the train doesn’t give you any warning it’s about to leave, so we are a bit wary of venturing too far. On Sunday we
had a breakthrough and found a timetable.
At stations there are sometimes shops to buy food or trinkets, or maybe someone with shopping bag trying to earn a crust.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, our cabin to ourselves ended when two girls, with cases arrived at the door. They spoke no English but we thought we’d make ourselves scarce while they changed and settled in. They stayed with us just the one night, they talked a lot and giggled when we tried to communicate. The next night we were on our own, but the following 2 nights joined by two Russian guys who were on their way to Irkutsk for a exam for work.
One thing that we are having difficulty with is the heat! Yes heat!. It may be sub zero temperatures out side (-28) but the carriage is heated by a coal fired heating system that is maintained in every carriage. Its particularly bad when the cabin doors shut making sleeping difficult. Our hotel back in Moscow again was hot, and although we opened the window a slight amount within minutes the temperature dips noticeably, and the same would happen here.
Once
we got past Moscow city there are still lots of signs of life in the country, with towns, and street lights. It was only when we got to Perm a big city 24hrs into our journey, that things were getting more remote. The train would pull up at some remote station in the night. At certain larger stations we would have a locomotive change. The further east we travelled the colder the temperatures, one station the thermometer measured -28 degrees. Possibly like many others, because of the harsh conditions, we assumed apart from some isolated towns it was pretty desolate (probably because anybody who was to be punished was sent to Siberia so who would want to go of their own accord!). There are big cities though, and ones we travelled past included. Omsk, Tyumen, Krasnoyarsk, including Irkutsk - the last on this 4-day section.
Even though the journey is long we seem to keep ourselves busy and it’s a good way to have some ‘me time’. We have an ever changing view, we read, listen to music, have a drink, blog, plan, our voyage or head up to the restaurant car.
On our 4
th night on the
train we have an early start to be met for the next part of the journey, Lake Baikal, the deepest freshwater lake in the world.
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angie.glew
non-member comment
Green envy
it looks fab and very indiana jones...don't fall down the gapsx