Pot-noodleing & backgammoning across Siberia
Trip Start
Apr 14, 2010
1
18
96
Trip End
Apr 16, 2011
Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
We entered the carriage to many curious glances from the locals and a more than slightly surprised "Tourista?!?" from the Provodnitsa (the carriage attendant) who clearly thought we had arrived at the wrong carriage, but then perked up significantly as the realisation came over her that this meant she could sell us drinks & food at tourist prices and maybe even flog us her bunk in a private cabin for enough money to put her three daughters through university.
It was our first experience of an authentic Russian banya (sauna) - but one fuelled by the heat of the sun through the windows of the train carriage and the multitude of hot sweaty bodies crammed into the open compartment (see the picture!). Lacking an ice-pool, we bid a hasty retreat to the (slightly cooler) restaurant car and drank cold beer until we could summon up the courage to head back to our bunks. Fortunately, this 1st leg of the journey was only 15 hours of duration and we were soon disembarking in the Tatarstan capital of Kazan which, it turned out, was even hotter than Moscow.
After a failed attempt to upgrade our tickets to the more usual 2nd class which involved significant shoulder-shrugging, annoyed gesturing, gabbling in Russian, “Nyet, Nyet” and requests for millions of dollars from railway staff (only finished when a very helpful 13 year old girl who seemed to be the only person to speak English within a 100 mile radius intervened to translate) we set off to explore Kazan. There was a very impressive Kremlin complete with Russian Orthodox church side by side with a brand spanking new mosque, a few very pretty churches, a riverside beach and a McDonalds with free Wi-Fi.
After one night in Kazan we then re-boarded another train for our marathon 50 hour journey through to Krasnoyarsk during which the temperature finally cooled enough for us to be able to sit on a train in relative comfort. Despite being a completely random choice of stop-over city (eliciting puzzled looks from anybody, Russian or foreign, to whom we mentioned that this was where we were stopping) it was a fun stay. The Bandit had pointed us towards a ski-resort outside of town where in the summer you can get a chair lift to the top of a hill and do some walking in and around some rocks and also use a swimming pool (yes an outdoor swimming pool, in deepest, darkest Siberia). The perfect antidote to sitting on a train! We'd read in the Lonely Planet though that tics carrying the fatal japanese encephalitis virus are a problem in the area so we did our walk in suitable anti-tic clothing including socks tucked into trousers - see the photos for our full glory.
By the time we boarded the 3rd train (24 more hours) to Irkutsk and Lake Baikal we felt like seasoned 3rd class travellers, surprising the provodnista (who was giving us the usual incredulous “tourista?!?”) by quickly and efficiently packing away our stuff, setting up our bunks and insisting that we will pay 30 roubles like everybody else and not 50 roubles for the drinks, thanks very much you cheeky chappy.
The train journeys themselves were..... well interesting. Perhaps it was because of the slightly random route we had chosen or the fact we booked direct with a Russian travel agent, but we seemed to be the only foreigners on every one of our three trains. We know this with some certainty as we hung out in the restaurant car waiting for someone to show up and walked slowly down the train listening at carriage doors for English voices (or any voices apart from Russian ones!). We didn’t find any. It also seemed that the lonely bandit’s assertion that the locals were all friendly, would ask you questions, chat to you, share food with you and try to ply you with vodka was well.... misleading. It seems they do all of these things but only if you speak Russian (as all of the authors of the book do, we discovered on further reading). Mostly they just ignored us. We did try to interact a bit with them, but it’s quite hard neither of you speaks a word of the others language. This was evidenced by the one occasion where one guy expressed an interest in the backgammon board we were carrying. We shared a bit of food & vodka, but then soon found that we played completely different games on the board and couldn’t explain to one another the rules, or have any conversation at all. There followed 5 minutes of embarrassing silence before everyone simultaneously concocted an excuse to get the hell out of there. One group did provide some amusement when one of them pulled out an accordion and everyone started singing local folk songs.
Fortunately, we were well equipped to amuse ourselves, alternating between reading, backgammon games (Gordon is winning 9-2), listening to audiobooks and watching DVDs on the laptop as well as alternating our location between our compartment(rammed full of people) and the (nearly always 100% empty) restaurant cars. These activities were interspersed with relatively regular 20 minute stops where you could leap off the train and haggle for freshly baked food from the babushkas who would set up stall by the carriage entrances. These stops were definite highlights and provided a welcome change from Pot Noodles which we are now thoroughly sick of! By the time we got off the 50 hour train and made our way to much needed showers even Sarah’s hair smelt of them!
Finally we arrived in Irkutsk and Lake Baikal looking forward to doing something other than sitting on a train or waiting for the next one! It’s been a long, hot and at times wearying but absolutely epic trip!
Comments
Love the beard gordo - how long are you planning on growing it then? :-) Photos look amazing. Can't believe you've gone so far already! Pity, but I wont be around on the 6th... Will just have to keep reading your blog instead and hope to catch up with you guys in the US next year! A xx