July 12 2010 it is currently 36 degrees Celsius in our train cabin and Rosie one of my cabin mates is sitting across from me sewing paper cups and scraps together making her hat for the hat party tonight in our train car. Entertainment at its finest when you are on a 40 hour train journey. We are now in Siberia and finally through the boarder and its nonsense. We arrived at the Mongolian boarder at four in the morning and started the immigration stuff around eight. That then took until 11 am at which point the train moved and therefore the toilets opened again. Not too bad this time as we were allowed to get off the train at 7 am and pay to use the ones in the station. We then moved to the Russian side and the process started again and finally at 4:30pm we are on the move again. So now they would say we are on the Trans Siberian Trail leaving behind the Trans Mongolian trail.
Mongolia is fantastic. We were there for Nadaam a national festival where everyone is out in traditional garb. We went to the opening ceremonies and then watched some for the main events. They included archery, ankle bone toss, crazy but they throw ankle bones at a target, wrestling and there is also horse races. It was awesome, awesome.
In Mongolia there are two million people and half of them live in the capital city Ulaan Bataar. There are a total of five very small cities and then the rest of the people live nomadically. Unbelievable but there are gers (tent like structures) all over the country side and even in the suburbs of town. It is such an interesting country and such neat traditions. The infer structure needs work in this town, an engineering nightmare or challenge. It is a crazy town with no grid road system, drainage or good walking paths, but yet there is a Louis Vuitton and a Burberry shop that did 1 million in profits in the first three months. Crazy, if you are rich you are really rich they say and these people are few. They get their money from mining.
We went to a cultural show where they played very unique instruments and throat sang. You will have to look it up and interesting sound to say the least.
Everyone is buying a sheep or goat for their family to have during the festival, so there are herders at the edge of town where you can pick yours and have it skinned right there at the side of the road. We saw them slitting their throats and then selling the skin at the side of the road. You can get a “fresh” and I mean really fresh sheep skin at the side of the road for $2.
We went and stayed in a ger, it was an excellent experience. Our ger was in the national park and was not the most authentic location as I say we were in a ger trailer park, but still the real thing as far as accommodation. While there I went horseback riding through the hills and valleys, it was spectacular. Has a horse ever bit your knee? Well a Mongolian horse bit my knee. We were riding and one of the horses just reached over and chomped down on my knee cap, crazy thing. We had already nicknamed it Killer. It was a long way from the heart and I am fine.
July 15, 2010 we are back on the train again for another 40 hour trip and have one night in on the train already out of the two night journey. One would think a long ride like that would be daunting but we actually look forward to getting on the train. We have come up with some good entertainment. The hat party was excellent and everyone enjoyed their Russian Vodka that night. We were in a car with the Intrepid group for that journey too, so they joined in on the party, we are the Gap group. They have spent another night in Listvyanka so will miss our Christmas party tonight.
Groud is our tour leader and she is Thai. We played I have never the other night and she has never been to a Christmas party so hence the theme for tonight’s leg of the journey. We weren’t able to buy any real Christmas decorations so part of the day will be spent making the cabin festive with paper snow flake s and streamers. One would think this is all my doing, but I have met like minded people and they are all over this. It is a group effort. We even have the free socks from the airplane to use as stockings.
Moving on, in Listvyanka our group was split up into groups of 1, 2’s and 3’s and sent to a Russian home or apt for a home stay. It was great. Home cooked meals and we had the only host that spoke English so Rosie and I got them to do a little laundry for us. The others were so jealous, most want to burn their train cloths from the last 40 hour journey at 36 degrees Celsius and ours are nice and fresh and clean. Listvyanka is a small village on Lake Baikal. It was a gorgeous setting. We did lots of waking around the lake and ate some excellent fish that are only found in this lake. Lake Baikal has 22 % of the world’s fresh water in it. Our apt was an authentic Russian one. We stayed with an older woman and her daughter that is close in age to me. She is the one who spoke English. The apt was packed full of stuff and has that old charm to it. Not very modern, but their hospitality was excellent. The girl was actually a teacher, but doesn’t like teaching and she enjoys her job at the souvenir shop.
We went on a city tour of Irkutsk and saw some very interesting churches that during the communist time housed potatoes and onions and that is how they were saved.
Later the same day or I guess the early morning of July 16, 2010. Our Christmas party is just rapping up and it was a hit. Groud enjoyed herself as well as us. We had a stocking filled with goodies for her and we played a secret Santa pass the present game. The cabin was decorated to the nines with red and green balloons and a Christmas tree we made out of a sarong to name a few things.
Our train journeys are interesting. Our guide was concerned one night and told us to make sure we didn’t leave our car as during the night we would be losing cars and she was concerned we would be lost. Some legs of the journey don’t have a food car so we have to hit a supermarket and buy enough food to last us the 40 hours. There is hot water on the train so two minute noodles are a very popular item.
Today we have passed through three time zones. It is currently the 16th of July and we are 44 hours into a 46 hour trip that I thought was going to be 40 hours. No worries we have some interesting individuals in the rail car with us that we can chat about and some more scenery out the windows. This leg of the Trans Siberian has been interesting. There are forests upon forests of Birch trees and then the odd wooden shack that someone lives in. I can only imagine those shacks in the winter and how isolated those people are. In this 44 hour journey we have only passed through six cities and the rest has been this vast land of trees and greenery. We have now entered into the Ural region on our way to Ekaterinburg. Ekaterinburg was only opened up to tourists in 1992. It was or is a large military region and a big KGB area, thus they didn’t want any foreigners in. You can tell we are entering a military region as we just went by a couple of fields of tanks and had the longest cargo train we have seen pass us with military vehicles on it.
Click on the following links for photos
Pictures of Beijing, Mongolia and the Nadaam Festival in Mongolia
Pictures of Lake Baikal Russia and our train parties
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