Russian Railways and the Bored-er Crossing..

We've been on the Trans-Siberian railway all this time, but so far we've not said much about the trains!

Me, Seamus and Simon (and some random Chinese guy) stretching our legs after a lengthy crossing into China....

Here we are in front of the train which took us into China!


The trains themselves vary greatly from journey to journey. We have had fairly basic trains which are starting to show their age and are a little worn around the edges, all the way through to much newer carriages with air conditioning, much clenaner toilet facilities (with soap AND toilet paper!) and a window you can see out of, which helps!

We've travelled in the soft sleeper section which consists of four bunk beds, a table, a window and storage compartments above and/or under our bunks for our luggage. Their are around 8 of these cabins in one carriage and at each end is a toilet with wash basin but not much else! At one end is the carriage attendant's lair (or 'provodnista' in Russian) where we tentatively approach to ask questions with phrase book in hand. At the same end is the lifesaving 'samovar' or coal heated hot water dispenser which has kept us in hot drinks and more importantly packet noodles and soups!

On every journey except the the last one over the border between Russia and Mongolia we have we been placed amongst Russian travellers heading in the same direction and there has been the occaisional perplexed look from the locals as we drag oursleves and our oversized backpacks onto the train to find our cabins.

I mention the border crossing because this turned out to be a bit of an ordeal in the end - we had boarded our train at Ulan Uday early in the morning and soon realised that most of the english speaking travellers we had met en route were also in our carriage. It turned out that all the people in our carriage were non-russians and rather than dwell on this revelation we thought nothing of it, putting it down to good fortune enabling us to catch up with everyone we had met so far.

Several hours later we reached the outskirts of Russia and the border crossing at which point we had been assured by our guidebooks that the train would stop for a couple of hours while Russian officials checked our passports and visas etc then wishing us on our merry way with a cheery smile....

not likely....

We arrived and after a substantial wait heard some sudden clanking noises which after investigation turned out to be the railiway workers disconnecting us from the rest of the train. It now became clear why they had put all us foreigners in a carriage of our own - the rest of the train, presumably carrying smug Russian travellers had skipped across the border far quicker than us and we had been left isolated, our one lonely carriage sitting on the tracks at the mercy of the Russian border officials!

To cut a (very) long story short it took us 9 hours to travel the very short distance over the Russian border into Mongolia. We were visted by three sets of far from cheerful Russian customs, immigration and other assorted officials who even went as far as checking for stowaways in each of our cabins! What made matters considerably more astounding was that whilst the train is in a station, the toilets were shut and after 9 hours this became far from amusing for us and our fellow travellers!

To add insult to injury once safely across the border and into Mongolia (Mongolian border control taking a mere half an hour) we were told that the new train did not have a restaurant car for much needed refreshments, the provodnista then locking us in our carriage to prevent us from finding out for ourselves!

As you can imagine we were far from pleased at this point and having formed a band of English and American 'allies' we set about trying to find this illusive restaurant car by whatever means possible in true 'Great Escape' fashion. Despite some very cunning moves, and some less than graceful pleading we resigned ourselves to our imprisonment and hunger until arrival in Ulan Bator the next morning.

However, whilst the provodnista was prowling outside our American friends' cabin after 'lights-out' they noticed that she had delved into a hatch and fished out ice cream (!!) which she had taken back to her cabin and shared with her provodnista colleagues. Word spread fast amongst the hungry but before we could tunnel our way in (or something?!), the provodnista sensed her ice-cream was in danger moved it out of the hatch and transferred it to the section between our carriage and the next carriage, from which we were definately locked out. One small consolation for our friend Joe who, when going out for an early morning cigarette between the carriages, realised that the previously locked passageway between the trains was now open and before he was rumbled by the provodnista helped himself to as much ice-cream breakfast as he could manage!

So a little excitement on the journery into Mongolia but quite a bit of boredom too - apologies if a little a dramatic but we were stuck for nine hours so we needed all the entertainment we could get!