Video: Russia

We've done very few videos during the trip, but here they are. First one is in Russia, excluding the two weeks we spent in the villages. It is a long video (nine minutes) representing the long time it takes to cross and enjoy Russia.

Public transport in the US

The trains exist, usually one a day. On the South only 3 per week, on the East between Boston and Washington one per hour. The first class is a 2-seats couchette you can transform into 2 beds and with all the meals included. Second class are reclinable seats with leg rest. For the night they provide a pillow. There are one and two floor trains, being the biggest difference only more toilets in the two-floors type. There is a panoramic-wagon and a restaurant-wagon where they serve you with throw-away dishes and cutlery. The trains seldom go full.
In the cities there are aceptable public transport, sometimes a bit confusing. Usually you pay to a box at the entrance which gives you the ticket. There are "transfer" tickets a bit more expensive and full-day tickets with a magnetic band and costing between 3 and 4 times the price of a single trip. The singe-trip is between 1,25 and 2,25USD, depending on the city.

First Amtrak Experience

After two bus rides in Malaysia (one in the back of a doubledecker bus with hot air blowing down my back), a long air trip (didn't remember that the air is so dry in airplanes - I felt like one of those dried fishes in the Chinese markets...) and surviving US immigration, we arrived happily to California. A few days after we got on a train again, which is always exciting in a new country.
To begin with, we had to take a bus because there's no train station in San Francisco. It took us over the bay bridge through thick fog to Oakland station. Getting on a train here is a bit like boarding a plane. You have to check in your large baggage, for example. When the train arrived, our tickets were checked first by a guy on the platform, who then directed us towards a lady who was responsible for one or two coaches. She assigned us our seats, and when the train had left she went through the coach checking the tickets again and sticking a note with the destination above each pair of seats - all this while talking loudly about anything that came to her head, and calling everybody "sweet", "honey" and "love", regardless of sex or age. During the rest of the trip we would learn about her lifestory which she told in several episodes to different passengers, as well as her complaints about her colleagues. After each stop, she would welcome the new passengers as the "new members of the family, please have your ticket ready!" She replaced the need for any TV entertainment! And to be sure we would not get bored, the train conductor gave regular comments about the scenery ("and to your left now, you can see some exceptional cows grazing in the fields...").
Around 9 am, there was another announcement: "Hello, this is Jane from the cafe, the cafe is open now and I'll be happy to see you...". Imagine someone saying this in a Swiss train!
(I did buy a coffee at Jane's cafe, and she was indeed very nice.)
For lunch we went to the dining car at 1 pm, our assigned time. We were seated with two other travellers, both american, and about 10 seconds after being seated we started a conversation, which went on until we had finished eating, then "ok guys, was nice talking to you, have a nice trip". Interesting.
I'm looking forward to our next trip tomorrow!

Sometimes...

This is the account of buying a train ticket at Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station.

We arrive at the ticket counter. The man who gives out the numbers asks where we want to go.
We: "Singapore, tomorrow 24th december."
He: "No more tickets to Singapore until the 29th."
We: "You sure?"
He: "Yes."

We don't quite believe him (one thing we learnt during our trip: never believe anything anybody tells you until you have a 100% proof).
We go to an Internet Cafe. We check the Malaysian train website, which takes about half an hour as it's so slow. We see that there are around 30 first-class tickets for the train we want (they are actually cheaper than most bus tickets). We go back to the ticket counter.

We: "There ARE tickets to Singapore. First class."
He: "I told you! No more tickets EXCEPT first class."
Hmmmm..... do WE have a hearing problem?
He gives us a number. We go to the assigned ticket counter.

We: "Two tickets to Singapore for tomorrow 2 pm please."
Ticket lady: "No more tickets for tomorrow."
We (trying to keep calm): "Yes there are. First class. Please."
She sells us the tickets (halleluja!).
Miguel: "Is there a dining car?"
Ticket lady: "Aahhh.... sometimes."

WAAA! Is this a joke?

The 8-hour trainride that took 26 hours

We continue on the Reunification Express, this time from Danang to Nha Trang, a trip of 524 km. Of course we knew about hurricane Mirinae, we had seen the flooded streets in Hoi An and people continuing with their everyday life.
We arrived at Danang train station at 10 am, having in mind to take the train at just before 11 am, but it was cancelled. There had been a landslide further down the line, but we got a ticket for the next train at 13:13 that should take 8 and a half hours to Nha Trang. We were told that we would have to change for a bus in Dieu Tri because the line was damaged, but that we would arrive in Nha Trang all right, with a delay. Ok, we thought, and bought the ticket.
The train left half an hour late but then went about the usual (slow) speed until it stopped at 5 pm in a small train station, 137 km from our departure. Soon many passengers got off to smoke, and very quickly some local women set up a couple of tables and small stools and started serving food and drinks. At 5.30 it was dark, so they lit small lamps. It looked very cosy but it didn't give me the impression that the train would start again soon.... I continued reading my book and opened a pack of Oreos. Miguel came back with the news that we were waiting for a train from the other direction (the Vietnamese train line is a single line with few crossing possibilities), but nobody knew when that train was going to be here and when we were going to start again.
Hmmmm... lack of communication. We've seen this before, no? In communist or post-communist countries...
At around 6 pm that train arrived, stopped for a few minutes and left again. Supposedly it should have arrived at this station at 3 am - which meant it was 15 hours late. Very encouraging.
After this, our train didn't leave. We were apparently waiting for another train to cross, but again nobody knew where that train was right now and when it would be here. Around 8 pm everybody was told to get on the train, but nothing more happened.
During all this time, I continued to read my book, trying to close my ears to the neverending noise coming from the loudspeakers of TrainTV. The programme was stopped several times and then re-started from the beginning, so we saw the same Hollywood movie twice (something about rattlesnakes) and a selection of Vietnamese pop that made me want to jump out of the window. In between, some sexistic advertisements for soft drinks.
Just when I was about to go and bribe the conductor to turn off this noise pollution, it went off. Heavenly peace.
As all the passengers had got back on the train, the ladies outside packed together their tables, chairs and food, and the platform went completely dark.
Around 9 pm the passengers in our carriage switched off the lights and everybody went to sleep. I was amazed by the ease with which the Vietnamese can sleep in all possible positions, lying down on 2 seats with their feet up against the window, or on the floor on a sheet of newspaper.
The funny thing is that during all that time, the train now being over 4 hours stopped, there was never an announcement or anybody trying to find out what was happening. It was as if it was the most normal thing, everybody settling for the night.
One of the conductors had offered us a bed in the sleeper carriage for a little "contribution" of 100000 Dong, which we declined, knowing that at some point we would have to get off and change to a bus anyway.
At 11.30 pm I woke up because suddenly there was complete silence. Bugger, they had turned off the air conditioning. Breaking into a sweat at once, I went to the front end of the wagon to find a window I could open, and settled there across 2 seats, under the open window, getting wet in the heavy rain that had just started, and tried out the different "Vietnamese" sleeping position, none of which worked for more than 15 minutes. Maybe we should have accepted the conductors offer for the sleeping car?
At about 1 am, the long-waited-for train arrived, stopped for a couple of minutes, and went on. My hopes didn't come true though, we stayed where we were.
I wouldn't have been surprised if the train crew had just decided to go to sleep, or had had too much rice wine.
Shortly after 4 am, as if there had been a signal, people started getting up, went to brush their teeth and wash, and switched the lights on. It was still dark outside, but the Vietnamese are used to getting up very early. At 4.30 am, the train moved. Halleluja.
At 6 am, we stopped again in a small train station, where another train was stopped as well. As our dining car was still closed, Miguel went into that other train to buy breakfast. He came back with two dry cakes and ice tea. At 7 am, there was an announcement that we had to change trains as ours wasn't going any further. The process of everybody getting off with their bags and cardboard boxes was long and complicated, especially as we almost had to jump off the train as the ground was so far below the stairs. In the other train, we got seats with a little help from one of the conductors, and soon after this breakfast was served, some kind of semi-liquid rice slush. I stuck to the dry cake and Oreos.
This train then went on to Dieu Tri, where we arrived just before 9 am. We were supposed to change to a bus here, but a conductor checked our tickets and told us the train was going on and we could stay on, which we did along with most other passengers. As soon as the train had stopped, several women got on trying to sell drinks, coffee and food. One of them wanted to sell her coffee so badly that she started shouting at the people (I think she was slightly crazy). After about 10 minutes the train started, but stopped again after 10 meters. We were told that finally we did have to get off, but none of the train personnel was able to tell us whether there would be onward transport or not.
Coming out of the train station, there did seem to be some sort of organisation. A lot of men in uniform were walking around with lists and paper and pens, and buses were arriving and leaving, taking the passengers to the next station where there would be another train. We waited around for a while, because every arriving bus was instantly full of people and luggage. Finally we decided to have a go, and we did it just like the locals: push all you can. When the bus stopped, I was right in front of the front door. It started to open, and a tiny lady next to me started pushing her big suitcase in front of me. No mercy, I forgot all my European manners, I was first. With my backpack I have both my elbows free and made use of them, jumped on the bus and threw myself on two double seats for us and a Dutch-Swedish couple we met on the train.
The one hour-and-a-half bus journey was actually quite scenic, with nice views of the sea, beaches and green hills. I just had to struggle to keep my eyes open. In the back somebody was constantly retching and vomiting, a normal event on a bus in Asia. They're either genetically more susceptible to motion-sickness, or maybe they travel less, in any case there's always at least one person vomiting.
We arrived at the train station and got on our new train, it was midday. We were lucky to get seats in the Soft Seat car, and soon after we were served a free (although not very filling) lunch of rice, 5 cm2 of meat and 2 shrimps. I was happy to get something different than Oreos.
The train finally left at 1 pm and went at a close to normal speed until Nha Trang, our destination, where we arrived at 3.30 pm, after a 26-hour trip.
The conclusion? Well, I still do not quite understand why nobody seems to communicate, the train crew knowing nothing about what's going on. But then, the locals don't seem to mind, I guess they're used to just "wait and not ask any questions" (again, this seems to be a characteristic of communist/post-communist countries...). They just sleep, just as they do in their shops or on their "cyclos" (sort of bicycle-taxis) when there are no customers. They are just so relaxed.

The Reunification Express

We're back on the trains again, and happy with it. Bus travel in Vietnam is either in public buses, which are old and bumpy and where tourists get ripped off as a rule, or in tourist buses, shared, well, with tourists.
Not many travellers in Vietnam seem to use the train, but there's actually a convenient train line between Hanoi and Saigon, the so-called Reunification Express. Ok, they are quite slow, but taken that the line was almost completely destroyed during the Vietnam War, it's quite an achievement to be able to ride the train here.
As in China, there's no first-second-third class system (we're in a communist country, no classes, no difference between rich and poor, right?), but there are "hard seats" and "soft seats". The difference is pretty self-explanatory.
"Soft seat" is comfortable enough for a long trip, with reclining chairs and small tables, and you can buy a meal for 1 Euro and have it delivered to your seat. It consists of a big dollop of white rice in a plastic tray, along with a piece of chicken and a ladleful of what you might call soup.
In order not to get bored during the trip, there are 2 TV screens showing "Rail TV". They basically take programs from other chains and show a mix of travel shows, Vietnamese singers trying to sing like Patricia Kaas, Casper the friendly ghost dubbed in Vietnamese, and "hidden camera" shows. All this, of course, with the sound turned up to the maximum. People here must be either genetically different to be less sensitive to noise, or else they all become somewhat deaf by being constantly exposed to it. Only the stupid foreigners seem to mind the blaring loudspeakers.
The trains are usually quite full. People travel with everything, but especially cardboard boxes and plastic bags. At major stations, the getting off - getting on process is loud and a big confusion. People get off at one end of the carriage, while others get on at the other end, pushing and shoving and shouting, with their motorbike helmets still on. Although the seats are reserved, it seems to be important to get on first. Then everybody climbs onto the seats to find a place for their cardboard boxes and sports bags. At some point half of the people would get off again - they were only saying goodbye to those travelling. After the train pulls out of the station, there will usually be some shifting of seats with the help of the conductor, and some ticket checking which also seems to have its complications although I haven't yet quite understood everything.
The train goes at a mean speed of around 50 km/h, which leaves plenty of opportunities to watch the countryside. It was beautiful between Ninh Binh and Dong Hoi, with lots of rice fields and green hills. People with conical hats were working in the fields with their bare hands, ploughing them with buffaloes. As a tourist one would like to stop the train and take a lot of romantic pictures, but these people are just leading their everyday life that is not so romantic at all, it's just about having enough food and a roof over their heads.
The trip from Hue to Danang is supposed to be the most beautiful stretch of train travel in Vietnam, maybe that's why there were so many tourists on this train. Anyway, it was beautiful, with a lot of nice views of the sea.
We will now continue until Saigon, with a few stops in between. There we will have to take buses again to cross Cambodia...

China - Episode 2

From the centre of Hong Kong, we took the metro to the last station one rainy morning, and crossed the border to Shenzhen. At the train station we had to queue a bit - we could have bought our ticket in Hong Kong, but for a ridiculously high commission. Getting our sleeper tickets in Shenzhen was as easy as it gets in China - a bit of queueing but that was it. Shenzhen is one of the "Special Economic Zones" in China, so probably a bit better off economically than other cities, although our guidebook mentioned that there was quite a lot of poverty. There's not much to see there, so we sat around in a Chinese fast food outlet before spending much of the rest of the afternoon at McDonalds, which was the only place where we could get decent coffee. The train station was less of a mess than other Chinese train stations, so everything went easily and fast.
We arrived in Guilin in the early morning. We had chosen to go there because it was supposed to be one of the top tourist sights in the country, surrounded by beautiful karst scenery.
Well, we were not as impressed as our guidebook. The city was ok, with some nice places to walk around, a good amount of cafes and restaurants and outdoor seating, but that was about it. Many places were full of Chinese tourist groups, with tour guides yelling into megaphones. We rented bikes and cycled out into the countryside - fortunately there were enough helpful people around to help us find our way. The air was dusty and polluted, but we did find some nice spots with rice fields. Miguel's bike chain was coming out all the time so he went around with his hands all black...
After 2 days we had enough and took a bus to Yangshuo. Already at our hostel in Guilin we were reminded of the many tourist scams in Yangshuo, like taxi drivers taking tourists to the wrong hotel.
Nothing like this happened to us. We got off the bus, a few people wanted to take us to their hotel but we said no and walked away, and they left us alone. We checked into a quiet hotel with an adorable manager, it was cheaper than most places we had stayed, but it was clean, it had a window that opened and a comfortable bed. Perfect. The town was, yes, touristic, but it seemed more like individual tourists and less groups. It was also much more quiet than Guilin, and after arriving we walked along the river on a quiet path and got some really nice views (photos coming later...). We spent the next day walking along the river from one village to another, again a lot of nice views. Fortunately we met a guy from Hong Kong who helped us negotiate with the boatmen who had to take us across the river (and wanted to get as much money as possible...). Along the way we were regularly greeted by "Hello! You! Bamboo!" (meaning "I want you to take my bamboo raft") but we managed to just ignore them and walk on.
We could have spent much more time in this place, but we felt like moving on. I felt we were going to fall into the trap of running after tourist spots, and not following a certain line or path any more. So we decided to get back on the trains and stick to them as long as possible, and try to ignore other travellers' advices ("oh you MUST go to X, and DON'T miss Y") because I don't see a sense in "collecting" tourist spots all over the world for months and months.
So we took a bus to Nanning, from where we knew there would be a train to Hanoi. Nanning is quite a modern city with lots of modern architecture everywhere and lots of shops, but not a lot to do otherwise. We were lucky having found a nice place to stay at an Australian couchsurfer's place, which became a "home away from home" for 4 days.
We boarded the night train to Hanoi on Friday night, the train station was full and noisy and a mess as usual, but our train (at least the overnight part of it) was almost empty, we were 12 passengers travelling to Vietnam, and 9 conductors! The border crossings were easy and people were friendly.
We arrived in Hanoi at 5.30 am local time, waited at the train station for 15 minutes for the sun to rise, and walked into the centre. Already at 6 am the city was awake, people doing exercise, alone or, more commonly, in a group, and it was a young jogger who showed us the way into the centre.
So here we are, on the trains again. The plan is to go all the way down to Singapore, using trains as much as possible.

Night Train Philosophies - Shenzhen to Guilin

After hanging around at Mc Donalds for half of the afternoon, we boarded our night train in the early evening in Shenzhen, a Chinese city close to Hong Kong. We shared our compartment with a Chinese man who fell asleep very early, so we didn't make much noise, did a bit of reading and then also decided to have an early night. I had just about managed to fall asleep and was in the kind of bizarre dream that one has on trains, when I was woken by a ringing mobile phone. It was our neighbour's. It was just before midnight. When he finally replied he talked very loudly on the phone, making no effort whatsoever not to wake us up. This went on for some time, he did regular phone calls without bothering to leave the compartment. Around half past one in the night, the train stopped and our neighbour got off, leaving his reading lamp on. Miguel finally turned it off, and the rest of the night was quiet. As I'm usually unable to sleep in any moving object, like planes, buses and trains, I spent the rest of the night lying on my back and thinking about what had just happened. The guy looked nice enough, probably a businessman. He surely didn't have any bad intentions when waking us up with his phone calls and when leaving on the light. He probably just didn't think about it. And that's just the point. This is something so typical in China. Call it cultural difference or whatever you want. The result: People smoking in front of a non smoking sign and blowing the smoke in other people's face, talking loudly on the phone in every possible situation, leaving their cigarette butts in the washbasin for somebody else to clean, pushing and shoving to get into a train where they have reserved seats anyway, letting an empty water bottle drop on the floor the instant they've finished drinking it. Nobody ever complains about anything, although you can sometimes see in people's expressions that they are annoyed by, say, the cigarette smoke. We westerners get an impression of a serious lack of consideration of others, a "not-giving-a-sh**-about-others", and no sense of community. If I dirty the public toilet or throw my garbage on the floor, somebody will clean it (but this somebody probably hasn't chosen his or her job and we could do just a little effort to make his or her job less disgusting). I've been trying to find an explanation to this, and I've got a theory that might explain at least part of it. Our western world is heavily influenced by Christan thought, whether we believe in God or not. The basis of Christianity is taking care of others, not do to others what you wouldn't have done to yourself, not take revenge. Of course, I'm not talking about the less than glorious doings of the Christian church all around the world, but rather the basis of Christian thinking, that is again reflected in western philosophies like Humanism. In practice, this means that we have all more or less been brought up to be considerate to others, don''t hit your little friend and be generally nice to others, even if you don't know them, so we try to keep our trains clean, stop to let people cross the road and offer our bus seat to the granny or the mother-to-be. Christian sects and other communities have a huge success in many parts of the world (including Asia) because they often promote the community aspect - singing together, dancing together, praying together. China's religion and philosophy have been heavily influenced by Confucius. In Confucianism, there are precise rules concerning the relationship between people: the son pays respect to his father, the wife to her husband, the employee to his employer. Relationships between people who don't know each other (the "community") don't play any role. Even Buddhism is more like an "individualist" religion: to attain "enlightenment" you have to do the work all by yourself, by mediating and leading a "pure life". For me, there's not much room for a community spirit in there. And that's how I explain (at least part of) this behaviour of what I call egocentrism and individualism. I do what is just right for me, without thinking any further. (As I am writing this, the guy next to me at the internet place has just lighted a cigarette, about half a metre from my face, with ash blowing on my computer mouse. I'm delighted.) You might tell me now that this is just the way they are and that I can't change the world and just have to accept different cultures. Well, I'm having a lot of trouble accepting behaviour like not stopping your car to let cross a mother carrying a small child on her arms, or other examples that are everyday scenes in China. Maybe it sort of scares me, a nation so individualistic and egocentric. It's so far away from my own convictions. It also means that we can do all we want to protect the environment, but if China continues polluting without any consideration, we will be close to a natural catastrophe in a couple of decades.

By the way, we discussed this topic with our Australian host last night. She has been living in China for 10 years but still hasn't found a good explanation for all this.

We got off our train in Guilin at 7 in the morning. After shaking off the taxi drivers and map-sellers, we walked towards the city center, loudly spitting men everywhere, smelling again the constant stink that is part of Chinese cities, and then along the modern and slick pedestrian street that was just waking up. There, we saw a couple with a child maybe 2 or 3 years old, who was just doing his business (big one) right on the pavement in the pedestrian street, his father hurrying around with a roll of toilet paper. I don't know for sure but I can imagine they didn't pick up the "business". Welcome back to China.

I need to leave this country, I can't take it any longer.

Japanese trains

This time in Japan we took only three trains. We did not have Japan Rail Pass, which is a must if you want to go around Japan, as trains are expensive like in Switzerland. Unfortunately in Russia you can only get this rail pass in Moscow and we were a bit far away from it. You cannot get it in Japan.

1) From Wakkanai to Sapporo - a simple diesel train with the omnipresent seats that you can put in the direction of the train. It was a 5 hour ride for 60euros/person.

2) From Sapporo to Kyoto - The Twilight Express night train bound to Osaka. Pulled by two diesel locomotives (at least in Hokkaido), had several classes, going from the queen size bedroom with huge LCD to a 4-berth compartments where you have individual curtains to increase your privacy.
We were in a 2-berth compartment for which we paid around 200euros/person for the 20hour ride. There was a gourmet restaurant, a wagon as living room, couple of drink machines and two showers. The Japanese trains are nice but lacking some features of the Russian trains - there is no towel included in the pack; it misses small shelf to put your small belongings; there was no timetable posted to see where big stops would be; there was no way to turn off the never-ending announcements in japanese that started at 6am; there was no samovar with hot water to do coffee (and, being Japan, there should have been also a microwave); there was still a - almost empty - smokers wagon of 4-berth compartments, while the rest was full.

3) From Kyoto to Hakata (Fukuoka) - the state of the art from the Shinkansen trains, the so called Nozomi N700 which goes up to 300km/hour. It took three hours to do 500km. It was completely full in the non-reserved wagons, but after Osaka we got a seat. Inside it is 3 seats on left and 2 on the right side of the train. There is a smokers compartment in one of the wagons and also drinks machines somewhere. It was 120euros/person.

36-hour train to Severobaikalsk

Thirty-six hours, the longest so far. It was two-nights on a train with only two or three stops worthing to strech the legs outside. Buying same day ticket meant to go on kupe, 2nd class, which means closed compartiments of 4 berths. Beds are larger, softer and long enought for being stretched. In 3rd class, when doing it, people passing in the corridor would hit my feet.

We embark at 22:45, leaving at 23:00. From the beginning a young women, probably on the 30's, shares the compartiment. Her quite open t-shirt shows permanently her bra and soon after she puts on half transparent tights, with which she walks around in the train and its stops, showing all the drawings of the underware (not tanga, tough). The high-heeled shoes complete the description.

One hour later a mid-age women joins. I was already half asleep. This women talks more and next morning she tried some conversation to which I replied in my minimalist russian - where we are from, our strip so far and short terms plans. 

This trains takes us into the BAM line, paraller to the Trans-siberian, but North of the lake Baikal. This line was mostly built by Soviet prisioners working in concentration camps (gulags). The line was open only in 1991, same year as the Soviet dream come down.

Otheradvantages of kupe is that there are less people competing for the two toilets of the wagon and the provodnitsa are nicer, they even offered me a coffee in the morning, while I was in the corridor waiting my compartiment companions to wake up. 

About one hour away from the next big stop (+15min) the provodnitsa warns the toilet will be closed for 1h30. It's from 30 minutes before to 30 minutes after the stop, the so called hygienic zone. Eva was sleeping but our companions tell me that I should tell her. At same time one the mid-aged women starts to repaint her lips and eyes. For some Russian women seems important to be beautiful (in their way) for the duration of the stop, when everyone goes out of the train, who knows you will meet the person of your dreams (hopefully not buying beer or vodka).

As there is no restaurant wagon I bought a small dinner of smashed potatoes in the shop inside the station and bread from a women in the platform. The next long stop would be only in 12h, at 21:00.

During the dinner our companions also bought some dry noodles package and the middle aged person seems not to know how they work. Also next morning, 10minutes after the carriage attendant comes to announce the soon arrival - at 6:40am for arriving at 8:20 - and which I tryed to ignore, our companion (the other had left during the night) wakes me up saying that the toilets will close soon. But I knew they would not close before 7:50. We have been doing many more train rides in the past weeks than any average Russian person. But well, I got up and so I decided to have the brakfast still in the train.

Train stops 2

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Originally uploaded by eva_p

This is just one of the many ladies that wait for trains on the platforms in small train stations, to sell their food to the passengers. I liked the hat of this lady :-)

Moscow time

Now is 7:30am, Moscow time. This is the only time we can see if we go to Ulan-Ude's train station, at all the screens, all the clocks, all the guichets.

In Russia, like many other things, also the trains run as Moscow. In this case using Moscow time. It means that, when we are in Ulan-Ude, where now is in reality 12:30, and use the machine to check train timetables, all the times that appear have a 5 hours decallage. So if we want a good train to leave from here in the morning, let's say, between 9 and 12, we should look for trains leaving between 4 and 7am. Then if we want to arrive to Vladisvostok, which is MT+8, we have to pay attention that trains arriving later than the 16:00 in the computer, means they arrive later than midnight, local time.

But which makes things more crazy, is that usually the ticket windows have a strict timetable, each window a different one. Example: opens at 8, closes at 18, lunch break from 11 to 12, technical break (or pissing'n'smoking break) from 10 to 10:15 and from 15:15 to 15:30. BUT... these are MT - moscow times. So let's make the conversion and hope, that after your 30 minutes wait in queuing you do not hit one of the break times and have to wait a bit more. Or else just do like Russians, look at timetable of all closed windows, check which one will be open soon and just queue there.

Well, we already found that is easier to buy ticket on the internet (with help of a Russian person) and then just go and pick at the station, where they are creating special boths only for this. But no one knows about them, not even at the station (as we realized in Omsk), so you just have to go around and discover yourself where they are (usually in the service center which works from 9 to 17... MT).

Ah, also the dinning-car in the trains have a timetable, Moscow time we believe. But not always specified and we did not try them yet.

The picture on the bottom is the train timetable which we find inside the train we are taking. This timetable had two columns, it was a 5 nitghts train from Moscow to somewhere really in the East. We just did about 24hours, from Omsk (Омск) to Krasnoyarks (Краснояск).

Train stops

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Originally uploaded by eva_p

During the long trips, trains sometimes stop for more than the usual 2 minutes, which means that everybody gets out to strech the legs, make their little children run around (so they will be tired and sleep) and buy food. This picture was taken during one stop somewhere in Siberia.

Russian trains

This is to give you an idea about Russian 3rd class wagons. Usually there are also some pairs of feet sticking out :-)

Train ride with Buddhists

In order to complete our "train marathon" to get to Ulan-Ude in time, we took another 24-hour train trip from Krasnoyarsk to Ulan-Ude. I was already very tired from two bad nights on an uncomfortable couch in a dirty flat and somehow regretted having bought 3rd class tickets again. During one of our last trips we were seated close to a group of young men drinking beer, one of them completely drunk... I was not keen to repeat the experience.
When we entered our wagon, we noticed a bit number of couples and families with children who seemed to know each other. Later we learned that they were all Buddhists travelling from Tomsk to Irkutsk, where an important buddhist meeting was going to take place. We learned this from a man that we had already noticed because he was smiling more than the average russian. He came towards us asking whether he could just talk to us a bit. Of course! So he talked about Buddhism and we about our trip and our impressions about Russia, he thanked us and went back to his group.
I don't know much about Buddhism but I just noticed that hardly anyone in the wagon was drinking alcohol, and nobody had beer for breakfast (and also, the smell was not as bad as usually).
Later in the afternoon, somebody took out a guitar and started singing russian songs. It was very nice and looking out of the window at the Siberian countryside with its green fields, low hills and birch trees while listening to the music was undescribably beautiful.
Close to us was a family with a small blond boy of about 3, who pretended to be driving a car with an imaginary steering wheel every time he walked down the corridor to go to the bathroom. Later on the corridor was transformed into an imaginary motorway for toy cars with his older brother and another small boy.
In the compartment directly next to us, two pre-adolescent brothers occupied mostly by peaceful card games, interrupted about every 2 hours by a friendly but noisy fight.
During this trip we received an sms message saying a hotel room had been reserved for us in Ulan-Ude (arranged by Ayuna, our Moscow friend). When we arrived there, the owner (a lady with violet hair) was already waiting for us at the door. The room is cozy, there's a private bathroom and hot water, and this morning we got each 3 fried eggs for breakfast (poor Miguel...).
So, even if our last train ride was nice, we're taking a break here for a few days before leaving for our Summer School in Buryatia.

Train ride with Sergei

During our train ride from Omsk to Krasnoyarsk, we met Sergei. He was in the same compartement and going to Novosibirsk. Thanks to our dictionary we managed to communicate a bit with him, even if he didn't speak any English. He had been in Germany (but didn't speak any German either). I don't know how old he was. From the state of his teeth I would have said he was at least 70 and badly in need of third teeth, but I guess he was not even 50.
(I have never seen so many people, even young, with such bad teeth as in Russia).
He offered us home-baked cakes and sweets.
In this train a young woman came regularly pushing a cart with some food, the usual instant noodles, packs of biscuits and Snickers. We had already two bulging bags of food and drink with us, but Sergei always wanted to buy something for us. First it was biscuits (we already had a big box) and a bottle of water (we already had 1.5 litres). Later it was a pack of crisps (to accompany our beer...).
When we had our dinner, Miguel just about managed to persuade him to take a sandwich of ham and cucumber, but he wouldn't accept anything else from us.
When he left the train in Novosibirsk, he left all his food and drink for us (the biscuits, the sweets, the bottle of water, even his tea bags). We took part of it but had to leave the water and tea in the train, it was just too much.

Train ride from Kazan to Omsk

This was our first really long train ride. 28 hours, 3rd class, side berths (which are more comfortable for a long trip during the day, but less comfortable for sleeping).
In a compartement close to ours, there was a group of young male Russians who spent the whole trip drinking beer (I actually saw one guy eating instant noodles once during 24 hours) and sleeping. One of them got completely drunk at 2 pm and had to be lifted into his berth by his friends, from where he tried to "escape" twice but then fell asleep for the next 12 hours.
In the compartment next to ours, two women (who I took to be mother and daughter). The mother, already elderly (but I'm sure she was not more than around 40), was wearing light blue pijamas that were a bit too tight around her (slightly fat) bottom and also a bit too transparent, showed off every time she went to the toilet. She spent the time sitting on her bed, trying to talk to her daughter and playing with her mobile phone.
The younger one (the daughter) was in bed, wearing a very short silky bathrobe with red roses, and looking very sullen all the time. She spend all the time in bed, either sleeping or playing with her mobile phone, except for a few moments when she sat up gracefully, put on her very high heel leopard sandals, to eat a yogourt and then brush her hair, before lying down again.
Further back in the wagon, a middle aged woman with a slightly crazy look on her face, travelling with a very tiny dog that was shivering most of the time and being photographed a lot by his owner.
Russian women usually dress up a lot, but in the trains most of them are about as un-elegant as possible, wearing sports clothes (at the best) or tight pijamas (at the worst).

Russian train experience

Train left on time - 22:02. First carriage was 3rd (plaskartny) class. We got the wagon edge upper berths. Russian third class has not closed spaces of 6 beds. Two lower ones where we sit during the day; two upper ones where all matresses and blankets are during the day and two on the other side of the corridor (russian trains are larger than europeans ones), being the lower one transformed on 2 sits and table during the day. The luggage can be put under the lower sits or on a shelf above the upper berths.
The side berths is 180cm long which makes turning and staying with straight legs a bit unconfortable for me. After checking the tickets for second time (first time with passport at entrance of the train), the wagon responsible distributes a bag with towel and bed sheets. This responsible can also serve tea from a wooden fire heater at one edge of the wagon. We can all use this hot water, and we plan now to buy a small mug to make tea/coffee ourselves.
Tickets are quite cheap in third class, we paid 575R each (about 13EUR) for night train to Petrozavods (about 600km).
More train experiences will go in other posts. Last night on the train to Moscow we talked for a while with a Russian guy which at some point, while Eva was on the toilet, told me 'Maybe you want now to make the berth to your lady?'... And Eva got her bed nicely done by me.

Train trip with Oleg

We took the overnight train from Petrozavodsk to Moscow. We got the 2 side beds, the lower bed can be converted to a table and 2 chairs. It was very hot in the train, forbidden to open the windows. As before, the ventilation is turned on about 45 minutes after departure. We read, eat, look out of the window. After an hour or so, the train stops (for 30 minutes, sais the announcement). People get out, walk on the platform, buy food (one can even buy a whole smoked fish there...).

On one of the seats next to us, there's a man of around 65. After some time he starts talking to us, using the title of the book I'm reading as an "excuse". He introduces himself as Oleg. He speaks very good english, that he has learned from a canadian teacher back in the 60ies, when people came to the Soviet Union from the USA and Canada as volunteers to "help" the Soviet people. "That's how I learned proper pronunciation". He wanted to become a teacher, but had to go to the Army. He lived in Eastern Germany and Czechoslovakia for some time, then worked for Intourist (the Soviet travel agency).

"Why don't you travel business class?" he askes us (meaning second class, with 4 bed compartments). He has never seen foreigners travel 3rd class...

At some point I go to the bathroom to change clothes and prepare for bed. When I come back Miguel is making my bed (which means folding down the table, unrolling the "mattress" and prepare the sheets and pillow). Me: "??" Miguel: "He suggested I make the bed for my lady while you're in the bathroom". :-)

Later on, I'm already in bed but still reading (yes, there was still light at 11 pm, thanks to northern latitude). Oleg comes back from the bathroom and sits on his bed. After a few minutes: "If you don't mind, please don't look in my direction. I will get changed." Ok with me, I'm reading anyway. After 2 more minutes: "You are now free to look where you want."

And he goes to sleep, his feet sticking out from under his cover.

A word about trains

Wherever we can, we try to take a train. In Poland people told us several times that trains are slow, expensive and uncomfortable. Well, I don't agree....
It's true that in Poland trains are slow, mainly because they usually stop at every possible train station, quite often for as long as half an hour and they can't go very fast (60 km/h is good). In the Baltic States the train network is quite poor, with infrequent trains and not many train lines.
Still, there are so many advantages...
- In a train you can: eat, drink, sleep, read, go to the toilet, walk around, talk to somebody, talk to nobody, look out of the window at the nice countryside, play cards, re-organise your backpack, buy a coffee from the lady who passes in the corridor, take photos, read your guidebook.
- In a train you're not in the hands of a half-criminal driver (well maybe the train conductor is crazy, but at least he can't overtake and risk a head-on crash)
- It's interesting to watch people in a train. You can discover something about the country just by seeing the trains, train stations and travellers.
- One can (usually) open the window (which allows to somehow neutralize other people's smells)
- Ok, the air conditioning never works (but then it doesn't exist at all in Eastern European buses)
- You can usually take the bike on a train (but not on a bus, unless the driver is in a very good mood and you buy him chocolates)
- ALL the trains we took so far were on time (which means that the 30 minutes stops in the countryside were included in the timetable), wheareas some buses took ages to get into bigger cities because of traffic

Sadly, tomorrow we will have to take yet another bus from Riga to Estonia, because there simply doesn't seem to be any trains.