The Train ....

The Trans-Siberian railway at about 9300 km is the longest railway line in the world. It crosses a whole continent through European Russia across the Ural mountains (which separate Europe and Asia), continuing into Siberia's taiga and steppes, and finishes in Vladivostok — the Russian Far East coast on the Pacific Ocean. The main route crosses eight timezones. It is mind boggling to think of the distance.

Our journey wasn't going to take us the full way across to Vladivostok, that would have to wait for a future trip, our plan was to follow the Trans-Siberian route as far as Ulan Ude then break off and take the Trans-Mongolian line down to Ulaanbataar and ultimately Bejing, China. Some people do the whole trip from Moscow to Beijing non-stop which takes around 6 days. We included two stops to break up the journey and to give us an opportunity to visit two of the highlights across this vast distance, Lake Baikal and Mongolia.

So on with our post....

Laden down with an extensive variety of noodles, teabags and baby wipes we made our way to the platform in Moscows Yaroslav station to size up our transport across Russia. Despite everyone having numbered beds there was a full on urgent scramble at the platform to get onto the train. Somehow we thought that people wouldnt quite sharpen the elbows to get onto a train that they were potentially going to be on for 77 hours. We later realised that securing territorial luggage space early on was the name of the game. We reached our beds just in time to witness an old woman stuffing her huge black bags up into our luggage space... or rather she was barking orders at a tall man who was doing it for her. He departed leaving her satisfied and all was well until Marcus started to jig around her bags to fit ours in. She started to squeal and shout like she was been robbed - we didn't know what she was saying but we could feel the air turning blue. Our aim was to get on with our close neighbours on the train and not go to war before the wheels had started turning so it was all a bit stressful. After a couple of high exertion minutes (with the screaming still going on) Marcus successfully snookered all the bags in and turned to her giving her the thumbs up sign. Suddenly it was all smiles and peace was restored. It was just as well because the next four days were looking like hell on earth up to that point.

Even thinking about spending 77 hours solid on a train is a feat in itself. We expected the worst and instead were pleasantly surprised. We decided that to get the fullest travel experience we would choose Platzkartny class for this leg. Basically the classes come down from 2 bunks in a cabin to 4 to 54 (Platzkartny). Its a bit like hanging out on your local park bench for a few days watching the comings and goings. There are no doors between compartments and there are beds along the corridor of the train. At any given time you are eating, sleeping and living in close quarters with six people around you. We were the only tourists on our carriage, coming to think of it we actually didn't see any tourists for the entire journey. Our fellow travellers were mostly older woman and young families so the surrounds were peaceful. Once everyone was aboard train comfort clothes were pulled out of respective bags. These became the night and day uniform. The men sported vest tops, shorts and sandals. The women wore tracksuits and slippers. The next few days were filled with reading, noodle making, tea making, trips to the toilet and practising some russian phrases with our neighbours. People seemed to handle the surplus of time remarkably well... there were lots of afternoon naps. Marcus and I had two top bunks. Limited space in 3rd class makes the quarters a little coffin like as the ceiling is considerably lower to make room for a luggage rack. Poor Marcus only had a few inches to manoeuvre around in and his legs stretched out into the corridor causing people to duck as they moved up and down the carriage. We had combed Moscow unsuccessfully looking for plastic cups the day before we got on the train. As necessity is the mother of all invention we resorted to using two pickle jars in stubbie holders for our mugs. They worked out great (no spill as you walk down the swaying corridor) and doubled up as a great hot water bottle at night. (Oh and the pink shorts were also a purchase for the train, only colour shorts in the shop and only 2$)

Each carriage is patrolled by two provodnitsas (lady stewards) they work the entire journey constantly cleaning the toilet, vacuuming the carpets and meticulously laying down a runner between stops to save the swanky carpet. You don't really want to cross these ladies, they take their job very very seriously. The TranSiberian has scheduled stops a couple of times a day along the way. At each of these the providnitsa would get all dolled up in the official jacket and hat and authoritatively stand outside her carriage. The stops are a great opportunity to stretch the legs, hawkers line the platform selling breads, sausage rolls, smoked fish and ice creams ... a welcome break from instant food. We took full advantage of these stops although as we travelled further across Russia the time allowed at each station was curtailed as we were running behind schedule. I had a truly epic near miss at one station where I (along with half the train) ran across 3 train tracks and into a little station shop to buy some (cold) supplies. I came out of the shop and looked across the tracks to see our train all ready to go, the platform empty and Marcus frantically shouting and pointing towards a another train about a kilometer long steaming into the station cutting off my path. There was a split second decision to be made so Marcus jumped my side of the oncoming train (I had the all important passports) and we both ran for the overhead bridge feeling completely paniced and hoping that the train wouldn't pull away without us. At the top of the bridge we could see the twenty providnitsas all standing inside their carriage doors. Shouting and waving our arms to catch their attention we sprinted up to the first open door and had to beg the providnitsa to release the steps down for us. Needless to say we weren't very popular and there was a lot of stern Russian been thrown in our direction. The experience ended any extended shopping at any future stops!

The TransSiberian train runs on Moscow time ... in all the train station along the way big clocks tell the time in Moscow. There are 5 hours between Moscow and Irkutsk our stop to visit Lake Baikal, so along the way we lost the time but there was no standard way of making allowance for this. On the second night we noticed everyone was in bed really early and the lights were switched off. People began operating at weird hours. We were caught out by this and suffered a little bit of train-lag, on the final morning we had to get up ridiculously early and get packed up. I woke up looked around and felt totally disorientated, we were surrounded by what looked like complete strangers. All the comfort train gear had been replaced with makeup, good suits and stylish clothes. People seemed very practised in the art of not looking like they'd travelled for days solid on a train. Pulling into Irkutsk, we said our goodbyes to the new friends we'd made and stepped out into the early morning cold ... it felt a little weird to be finally out of the cocoon like atmosphere of carriage number 10 on train number 10.

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