Blogs from Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia, Europe - page 18

Eek! Snow. Appreciate it's supposed to be cold in Siberia, but the white stuff is not due for another month and we are due to spend a night in a tent. We say goodbye to our train in Irkusk, and go in search of thermal pants. We are staying for three nights, one camping by lake Baikal and two with a lovely Russian lady Alexandra, who does a mean line in dumplings. Drive to beautiful lake Baikal to meet our trek guide, an impressive survival expert, we will call Ray Meers-ski, who insists he does not need to sleep in a tent, despite the snow. Paul and I spend a very cold night camping on a beach and cooking on an open fire. Our friends however, saw the man in question back in the local town ... read more

Turistas concentrados Si poco antes de las seis de la mañana, un verano, en la estación de tren de Irkust, se encuentra con una concentración de turistas (los reconocerá por sus maletas o por sus mochilas), no se asusté. Somos esos locos occidentales, en su gran mayoría, que pagan por coger el verdadero Transmongoliano. El que les llevará hasta Ulan Bator. Los nativos (me refiero a los rusos, los mongoles y los chinos) lo tienen difícil para coger un billete en estos meses. Lo de verdadero viene porque hasta ahora habíamos tomado trenes similares, pero de distintas rutas. El primero, el mejor, llamado tren de los Urales, que hace la ruta Moscú-Ekaterimburgo. El segundo, el Transiberiano de toda la vida, que hace la ruta Moscú-Vladivostock. Y por último, íbamos a coger el Transmongoliano, que hace la ... read more

I recently realized, after many confused emails and messages from people, that some of you have no clue why I am in Russia. And others of you are very curious as to why I am traveling with a weird furry thing named Jenkins. So, some answers... My friend Lauren and I are doing the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Moscow to Beijing by way of Lake Baikal and Mongolia. We are roughly halfway through the journey right now. The first leg of our trip, from Moscow to Baikal, was 4 nights and 3 days on the train. The next leg, which begins tonight, is 2 nights and 1 day to Ulan Bator. We plan on hanging out with Mongolian wrestlers at the Naadam Festival in UB before continuing on to Beijing on our final 2 days/1 night train ... read more

On Saturday April 29th Patrick and I arrived in Yekaterinburg station at 2am to board the next train on our Trans Siberian adventure. After a late night trip to the supermarket for some provisions we boarded the train at 3.30am. Our cabin was inhabited by two drunk Russians who scarpered when we arrived. They appeared to be having a bit of a party in our cabin so we were relieved that we were not going to be sharing the next 3 nights with them! Given the late departure time, we got down to the business of sorting out our beds and baggage without delay and fell asleep straight away. The next day was spent in leisure in our cabin and around the train. We still had no occupants in our cabin and a day having the ... read more

January 3rd, 2006 Trans Siberian-Mongolian Railway Moscow to Beijing (total distance = 7865 km) This installment: Moscow to Irkutsk Left Moscow at 21:20 Temperature = -15C I boarded the train with an hour to spare. I found my cabin and much to my delight I had the entire space to myself (I have good luck in this department). Naturally this didn’t mean someone else wouldn’t join along the way. My cabin is equipped with a table, two beds, a TV (are you kidding me?!) and a plug (highly useful). Every train car has an attendant and ours is a portly and friendly (thank God) middle aged Russian lady (upon proof reading you might find the ‘friendly’ title puzzling given later encounters!). In her EXTREMELY broken English and in my TERRIBLE Russian she managed to communicate to ... read more