Train life and etiquette

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Well, as we have 4.5 more hours to kill before our next train (at 1.25am local time!) I thought I'd tell you a bit more about the trains as one or two of you have been asking.

Once on the train, it is really quite relaxing and it is easy to spend lots of time just watching the world (or the trees) go by. They are generally comfortable and clean although the latter depends to some extent on the 'provodnitsa' or lady/ladies in charge of the carriage but many of them seem to be very houseproud. There are toilets at both ends of the carriage which are usually bearable even if you wouldn't want to spend a long time in there. It is clear that people doing longer journeys use them for showers as I have seen taps with shower attachments.

The trains are perfectly on time at all stations but this is largely due to the margins for error allowed as it seems that bonuses depend on punctuality (so you may get to the outskirts of where you're going 10 or 20 mins early and then have to travel very slowly the remainder of the distance to the station). The trains stop for anything up to 20 minutes at the larger stations and regularly in between for no apparent reason though this may be because they're running ahead of time. For some reason they appear to travel faster at night but it may just be that noise and the rocking sensation is increased by lying down!

I was also asked about food. We haven't actually experienced food from the dining car as had been warned that it was often not very good. We did venture into one just to see only to find 3 staff members playing cards and nobody else. We had a quick beer and left. As previously described, food is a bring you own and share it with everyone else affair enhanced by whatever is being sold at the stations when the train stops. At recent stations there has been more fish but there's usually a range of pot noodles, biscuits, snacks and beer along with freshly cooked pasties, potatoes, sometimes veg and boiled eggs.

There is clearly a train etiquette that I fear we may not be following in that people generally get on the trains quite smartly dressed but, as soon as it leaves, they change into more comfortable clothes, usually track suit, and slippers. Just before arriving at their destination they change back to their smart clothes.

And now we are just about to leave Krasnoyarsk (which I will have to tell you about another time) and head off to Irkutsk and then Lake Baikal. We're now over halfway to Beijing which is quite hard to believe.

Thanks for the competition entries so far. Alice, thanks for living up to my predictions - I anticipated you would be our first response! I'll leave a little more time for further entries as I have to think up a prize as well!

Love to all

S + H xx

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Comments

[anonymous]

Again, I think travelllers on South West trains have something to learn from our Russian counterparts. I shall introduce a practice of changing into something more comfy after boarding in Eastbourne and then change back into my work clothes shortly before we arrive at Victoria. What with that and my whole cooked chicken and bottle of vodka I should get a double seat to myself (unless there are travellers from Omsk who have come on a twinning visit to see Bexhill, who will no doubt hail me joyfully). Sarah H.