Trans-Siberian: Life on the train equals lots of Pot Noodle

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The joys of having a BlackBerry mean I am writing you this entry from the train, from somewhere between Omsk and Novorsibirsk, in the middle of Siberia. We left Moscow 48 hours and 3,300km ago and have some 36 hours more before we get to our next stop, Irkutsk. I am talking in hours rather than days as we have now skipped over a couple of time zones, but yet the trains all run on Moscow time, hence, I have really no clue what time it is now and whether it's day or night!

We are sharing a 4-berth compartment with 2 Dutch guys in their mid-20s. Which was a great relief to both them and us when we set off as it was always going to be a bit of a lottery who you would end up sharing with the compartment with. And its pretty close quarters for the time you're on the train. Particularly this first leg of the journey which is the longest at 4 consecutive days.
I had visions of sharing with some locals which would involve extensive use of our Russian phrase book and lots of sign language.

The scenery is a mixture of great swathes of snowy wilderness combined with sudden great built up areas, with lots of Soviet style buildings and factories. As we head east, there are more and more inches of snow outside but during the day, quite beautiful, as the sun shines and its blue sky (albeit only for a few hours, then the sun begins to set again early afternoon.)when the sun sets, the sky goes a dusky pink, which we can see outside our cabin window, it really is quite beautiful. The landscape is quite soothing to watch after the concrete cities of St Petes and Moscow.

There is lots of industry here in Siberia, producing anything from aluminium to car tyres. Forestry and coal mining are also big industries.
The townships that run these industries are small and big villages, clusters of old dark wooden houses, that look like time must pass slowly here and not much happens. But then you notice some have satellite dishes in their yards, go figure. Guess they need something to get them through the long cold Siberian winters!

On the train, there is a hot water tank ("samovar") in every carriage and we knew we had at least this, so we came stocked with instant coffee and lots of instant noodles.
We bought them in Moscow so they weren't quite the English Pot Noodle but darn close! I actually like instant noodles, maybe its the Asian in me, but the prospect of having to live on instant noodles for the next 4 days was not as daunting as it was to David and the Dutch guys. In fact, I was bloody well looking forward to it.

Which was just as well, cos that is pretty much all we had for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next couple of days. We re-stocked up along the way at the kiosks on the platform. We are allowed to get off at stops where the train stops for 20 minutes or more. Its also a good chance to stretch the legs. At some stations there are also ladies selling homemade buns and cakes and traders selling their wares (souvenirs, furs, jewellery). Very enterprising!

During the days, we read books, watch the scenery and play cards. We also play playstation, listen to ipods and check Facebook on our mobiles! Ha, you gotta love technology! And when all our devices go flat, we even have a power socket to charge them all up. As a result, time is not quite flying by, but we are not bored.

Last night, the boys returned from the restaurant car, which is currently being used for socialising, (we're not too sure about the food being served there, hence all the pot noodle) with some new friends, Russian army guys who insist on drinking vodka. (A flick on the throat indicates let's have a drink). They don't speak very much English so the Russian phrasebook was pulled out. Ivan had a bottle of dangerous looking Russian vodka, kept flicking his throat a lot and insisted on toasting to eternal friendship. One shot of vodka surely won't end there! Let's just say it took a great effort to convince them to leave so we could get to sleep that night!

Thanks to those who are sending through your email updates, it was great to hear how the netballers ended up this season, congrats teams, to the end of yet another great season! Its nice to hear how its all going in the "outside" world so keep em coming! Will be nice to read over my next meal, which will be, you guessed it, a nice steaming bowl of Pot Noodle.

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