I meet Sergei in the outer compartment at the end of the carriage as we approach Ishim. Depending on your choice of time zone, it was a bright and sunny start to the day. Sergei can be a man of few words, but his English is excellent. He breaks it down into two words for me today – “Cold, problem”. I’m not sure at first of the nature of the problem, but I think it is that the carriage outer door has frozen closed. Its clearly not insurmountable though, as he has a range of heavy metal implements to beat […]
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I woke to the smell of ham and fried eggs in my compartment. Unless I can now smell things like cooked breakfasts in my dreams, I think that Sergei must prepare his breakfast in the fire of our carriage samovar in the morning – well before I rise. I had to work quite hard to get up today, but we were due to stop in Krasnoyarsk at around 09.00am Moscow time. A 22 minute window for resupply of my onboard larder and to take some exercise. People often remark that they don’t sleep well on trains, but I think this […]
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It is perhaps a bit of an obvious subject, but I feel I have mention the temperature. It has been getting progressively colder at each stop for the last couple of days, and it has now reached the point where I can confirm to you that it is “proper cold”. This isn’t a technical term or an absolute temperature, but based on the fact that I can feel the air being sucked out of my lungs as I cough and splutter when making the perilous jump between carriages. Over the last 24 hours on average I would use Sergei’s carriage […]
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I woke this morning without any real expectations of the day ahead and have been rewarded with an amazing few hours staring out over Lake Baikal whilst drinking reasonable coffee in the restaurant. I chat to Valerie whilst Mrs Chef organises my blinis. This is my favourite place on the train. I feel very welcome here. Something between a Russian version of “Fawlty Towers” and “Robin’s Nest”. There are not too many customers today, just a thick set Russian chap eating a bowl of Solyanka accompanied with a small carafe of vodka. A range of officials and paramilitary pass by, […]
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I’m pretty confused about the border ahead – I can make no sense of the timetable and everyone has a different version of it, so I’m going to need to be flexible with my planning. Valerie has taken to passing me notes with helpful things written on, as his English is nearly as bad as my Russian. This morning his note says just one thing “-31C”. This kind of ties in with my bathroom experience, as the toilet had frozen solid. If you want a technical explanation, this is because the water supplying it should be heated, but my WC […]
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Sergei hurries me off the train once we reach Zabailask, I have no idea why. I literally just grab my day bag and get off the train. I’m not clear how this is going to work. There seem to be some immigration people here, but all they seem to be interested in at present is their lunch. I play it cool, and see if I can do the same. Once inside the station, all I find is an empty waiting room next to an empty immigration room. There seem to be about six of us and I think the others are […]
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My carriage fills up with a few Chinese passengers once we are on the way to Harbin. It’s good to have some company in the carriage, but they are mainly very noisy and not too social. Late in the evening I pass a short but very fit man in the corridor who now lives next door. He has tied back shoulder length grey hair and he bows deeply when he sees me, with his hands clasped together. He makes a sound like you hear in a martial arts dojo – “Ouooooooos”. Am I now in the company of a reincarnation […]
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I woke to a distinctly strange sensation. I wasn’t sure quite what it was at first. Then I got it. It was one of stillness and a total lack of movement in any direction. I reached for my clock to find out what the time was, but it wasn’t on the table next to my berth. In fact there was then a further incomprehensible discovery. There seemed to be no edges to my bed at all – it stretched on and on in all directions, well beyond the dimensions of my compartment. It took my brain about 30 seconds to […]
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If you have followed my blog on some of my other Chinese adventures you will know that I’m not a big fan of Beijing West railway station. Once you have managed to get into the place, the design is based around a number of huge waiting rooms. I don’t think “waiting room” describes it very well though. “Shouting Room”, “Spitting Room” or “Standing Room” would all all be better descriptions in my experience.I showed my ticket to a couple of guards and they concluded between themselves that my best shot was to hang around ticket check no. 4, where my […]
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Last night I went into a bit of a negative thought spiral. This annoys me as I like to think that one of my most precious skills on the rails is remaining positive and even madly happy in the face of adversity. The subject of my thoughts was the rapidly deteriorating state of the train. The toilets had become seriously bad so quickly that I secretly wished I wasn’t on the train. Then just to push me over the edge, I returned to my compartment to find an overpowering stench of stale urine. I lay in my berth desperately trying […]
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