Trans Manchurian Moscow to Beijing - Part two

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09/08/08 7.30am.
I wake to see endless rolling silver birch and fir forests again. Grey skies. The lovely sound of the train and the constant gentle rocking movement. I immediately think of the sad woman in Yaroslavsky station last night.


Kirov - 12.17pm 957km from Moscow.

(Kirov, renamed in 1934 in honour of Communist Leader assassinated earlier in the same year. Sergie Kirov was at one time so close to Stalin that most people assumed that he would succeed him as Party General Secretary. But he subsequently broke away and it is more than likely that Stalin had a hand in his death and moreover used it as an excuse for his own Great Purge in the 1930’s during which several million people died in labour camps. A branch line runs north to the Kotlas area, setting for Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s ‘ A day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch’).*

I look out of the window and think about the book I read about the 24 hours in the life of the Siberian convict Ivan Denisovitch, which I read 15 years ago at college. I try to imagine the things that I read in that book happening around here and that these beautiful surroundings hold so much history.

Time passes by with the endless forests. We read, Chris practices his Chinese characters, I read aloud from the Tran Siberian Handbook about the places we go through, (which must drive him crazy) I learn how to use Chris’s cameras and he makes shapes with his feet and toes (which, by the way look like scary hands)

At Balyzino station, 1194kms from Moscow.

A 20 minute stop, we buy food from the traders and a handmade shawl as a gift for Xuan. The platform has an exciting buzz. The traders make me laugh especially when they surround Chris and he buys something from everyone (except the scary fish)

Later in the afternoon, with ‘Red Dust’ fixed firmly in my hands and dribble running down my cheek, I understand how babies fall asleep so easily in prams. When horizontal and being rocked gently, eventually, everyone falls asleep, young or old.


Perm 1436kms from Moscow.


(The city of Perm - Pasternak’s Yuryatin in Dr. Zhivago is the gateway to Siberial Lying at the foothills of the Uruls)*
The landscape is changing. There are more and more houses on both sides of the tracks. They are made from wood and corrugated iron. I could live here, but maybe that thought is linked to the romanticised imagery from Dr. Zhivago. All of the houses have gardens with picket fences or wobbly make do fences. Lots have sun flowers bobbing in the evening sunlight. There are no platform traders at Perm. No traders are allowed onto platforms at big cities. The train takes on water. The sun is setting.

There is no ‘real’ time on this train. The train travels at Moscow time, regardless of the time change outside. We do not alter the train clock until we reach the Chinese border. China is 4 hours ahead of Moscow time, 7 hours ahead of GMT. There is no set time on the train to get up, no set time for lunch or tea or for going to bed. We wake then read and doze, we eat when we are hungry and go to bed late, Daylight nor dark rules our pattern. The constant comforting sound of trains has accompanied us from Sheffield.

Our compartment is completely orderly. We have a place for everything and everything has a place. We have everything we need.
We drink green pearl tea from China and Russian beer. We eat fresh raspberries and apples from Balyzino, read books and write. We are very lucky. It seems as if we are on holiday but we are not. This is our life now.
The world goes on outside of this train. We do not know if Russia has gone to war, or what is happening at the Olympics or politically in China. And, we certainly have no idea what is happening in the UK.


Novosibirsk Station - Local Time 1:00am - train/Moscow time 10:00pm

We are just pulling into Novosibirsk station. The Trans Siberian book tells me that (this is the Capital of Western Siberia. Most trains stop here long enough for you to get a good look at Siberia’s largest station. An impressive glass vaulted building that took from 1929 - 1941 to complete)

We can see the building 4 platforms, stairs and overhead gangway away. We check how many minutes we have at this stop, mime to the provodnik that we are going to look at the station building and run for it. It’s the most risky thing we’ve done because leaving the platform by the train is dangerous as the train always leaves stations without whistle or warning and it has been known that people do get left behind. We run up the stairs, along the gangway and into the elaborate chandeliered waiting room. We take 3 photos, buy 2 pizzas and run back. The grey suited army are below . We do not run if they are near us as they would stop us and we don’t have time. We make it back to the station with 5 minutes to spare. It’s the most exercise we’ve had in 2 days.


11/08/08

Half way point on the Mongolian route. We pass through the hilly taiga, past groups of beautiful wooden and log houses. They’re all different in shape, size and style. Everyone has a garden with loads of veg growing and most have a long row of sunflowers bobbing at the end. People are out in their gardens. It looks a nice life - easy but hard. I imagine the wooden houses and corrugated roofs under 7 inches of Siberian winter snow and realise how hard it would be.

We get used to the life and the timetables of the train; At every station we look to see what we can buy for a meal. I’m never sure if we had meal time yet or if it’s due. The train time is now 3 hours out from local time. I woke this morning at 4.20 train time, which was 7.20 local time and when I went to the loo, people were eating breakfast in their compartments. Everyone is confused about the time.

It is 7pm train time now but local time is 10pm and it’s totally dark. Passengers have already gone to bed. I know that the stop at Irkutsk is at 3.09am train time but it will be 7.09 local time and I will want to get up to have a look because once it was known as the ‘Paris of Siberia’. I also know that Lake Baikal is 64 km from Irkusk and that I most likely will be awake at 4.30am train time but that Chris won’t so I’ll wake him because it was on his route to cycle to Australia two years ago and he would be upset if he missed seeing the lake. Time is odd on the train.

How we keep clean…

Somewhere in between Tayshet and Nizhneudinsk, about 6.00pm, Chris started to make a small net out of 2mtrs of cord to hold his solar powered shower bag to the ceiling of the toilet with his travel suckers so that he could have a shower without having to hold the bag high above his head. To achieve this, he spent 30 minutes making the net, 10 minutes filling the shower bag with the right temperature water mixed from the samovar and the cooled water tap,1 minute to pack the M&S shopper with the shower, net, shampoo and shower gel and then he legs it to the toilet 50 minutes before we enter Nizhneudinsk station. The door is always locked to the toilets 30 mins before entering station, if he isn’t careful - he’ll get locked in.

This morning at 7am before anyone else got up, I mixed water from the samovar and the cooled water in 3 x 1 litre bottles, went to the loo, used our travel plug for the sink because none of the sinks have plugs, and washed my hair with Shampoo then washed myself.

RESULTS, Chris returns 10 minutes later and says that, for the record, 3 litres isn’t enough water and the shower still has to take place in a crouching position. Apparently, the net isn’t a work of art and needs ‘tweeking’ but it was still worth it. He has a beer and a toffee roll as consolation.

Also, Just to let you know, there is a hole in the floor of the toilet so that any water can drain onto the tracks and I think that I will stick to the bottles of water to wash with and not use the challenging solar power shower bag.

*All quotes from Trailblazer’s Trans Siberian Handbook.

Things that have broken already:

Gelert Wheelie bag handle - day 3 Moscow

Life Adventure handle broke on mug in Kirov - day 5.

My most recommended gadget is the travel plug.

Chris’s most recommended gadget is the pack safe extendable chord pad lock.

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Comments

[MikeL]

Fascination
Thanks for pointing me at this fascinating glimpse into your life and allowing others to share in this incredible journey into your new life. I'm surprised the handle lasted to day three Moscow, it was struggling in Sheffield. Love the photo of the attendant. Hope I get a chance to see you both again soon MikeL

[Billy]

incredible
I think that the most meaning life to people ,It likes your incredible journeies, oho,not journey, It's life. a life route which makes you remember in the bottom heart forever.