Travelling on the Trans-Siberian Railway the way we did was very relaxing. Our time was spent watching the scenery go by, dozing, reading, trying to converse with fellow passengers with the help of a dictionary and smiles, and eating.
Dividing our journey into short-ish stretches of a couple of days at a time was a good idea. The final section from Irkutsk to Vladivostok was a little long, and doing the whole line from Moscow to Vladivostok in one go would have been too much of a good thing.
When planning the trip I was a little worried that the train might be full of young westerners drinking and carousing across Russia but in fact we met very few western tourists - one Chinese American going from Kazan to Ekaterinburg and a group of elderly Australian tourists from Adelaide, who were returning from Mongolia to Australia via Korea. Most of our fellow travellers were families with young children and the retired. People we shared our cabin with included a renal specialist from Moscow, a police communications technician from Barnaul in the Altai area (somewhere, based on photos we were shown, probably worth visiting), a retired welder, who thought we'd run out of money and phoned his daughter so she could act as a translator and ask whether he should lend us some cash, and a silent lady, who said hello and goodbye and nothing else for nearly three days.
I wondered a little where the western tourists had gone but I suspect that we didn't meet them partly because of our choice of route and partly because we didn't frequent the restaurant car. We ate there once - the food was terrible - and on the last stretch to Vladivostok went there twice for a drink to alleviate the boredom.
Before setting off, some of my friends were a little worried about safety. However, the train felt very safe, the carriage attendants are there to make sure everything is ok, and when visiting the towns I didn't drink strong alcohol nor go out to the bars. I suspect that many of the problems young travellers face in Russia are a result of over-indulgence.
Below are a few photos from the train.
Such a long trip places some strain on your 'sitting muscles'.
Train 002 'Tatarstan' arrives in Kazan.
Typical Scene 1.
Typical Scene 2.
The western part of our trip was mainly birch forest and the shocking thing, for people from Finland, is how poorly kept the forests are. The trees are left standing in water, which means that they rot, snap in storms and are generally useless for anything other than firewood. If Russia wants to develop its forest industry, the first thing would be to start a massive programme of drainage.
There is a great difference in attitudes to the environment in Russia and in Finland, most probably because Russia is so huge. The way of thinking seems to be that there is no need to worry about litter because you are unlikely to come across it again and there is no need to look after the forest because there is plenty to spare.
The eastern part of Siberia was more grassland, and one could easily imagine Genghis Khan charging across the land with his Mongol hordes.
Perhaps one of the most imporatant lessons of our trip was getting some understanding of how big Russia really is. There is more to Russia than Moscow and St. Petersburg, and going by plane gives a false impression. One of the spurs for this trip was Yuko pointing out that there was only one country between Finland and Japan, even though they are on different sides of the globe.
Typical Scene 3.
Trains, trains, trains...
Diesel engine moving carriages into position.
A typical engine.
The Russian railways never sleep...
... unlike the 'kvass' sellers.
Typical Station 1.
Typical Station 2 (Chita).
An orthodox cathedral in Chita.
Soldiers leaving the train, equipped with that most important piece of military gear, a yellow plastic bucket.
One of the more interesting moments on our train journey was when the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. We looked out of the window and saw that the carrriage was surrounded by armed men. We looked on but didn't dare take any photos. After about ten to fifteen minutes the train continued on its way. I don't really know what was happening but suspect that prisoners were being transferred by train, what with Siberia having a long tradition of being the home of prison camps.
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