The Diary

Km5185, Local time18.20, 24/06/05, Day 1
As I expected, there are no other Westerners on the train. The provodnik found me a bed sharing a 4 berth cabin with another woman. This car at least appears to be half empty. The provodniks (P1 and P2) are male which is a first for me. This train is the oldest and least well fitted out that I’ve been on. Everyone seems to be quite well behaved and sober at the moment. This could be a long trip.

Km5170, 18.45
We’ve left! I’m on my way to Moscow. P1 has already lectured me on not wearing shoes inside the train. Have managed to establish that my cabin mate is called Zina and speaks no English. This took about 5 minutes with help of P1 who also speaks no English. The P’s are the guardians of the carriage. They kept the car and toilet clean, make sure the samovar is full of hot water, open and shut the carriage doors at platforms and provide bed linen. Basically they rule. Be rude to them at your peril!

Km5061
P1 thinks pot noodles are thumbs down (my dinner). Thought he was going to be quite stern and scary, but my habit of laughing after everything I say appears to have disarmed him. He’s an older gentleman, maybe late 50’s whilst P2 is younger and quite good looking apart from a mouth full of metal. Many Russians have bad teeth and the dentist solution for all is to replace the teeth with brass ones??! It’s quite a shock the first few occasions you see this. A student came round selling jewelry and pictures to raise money for the school. We talked to each other in French and I bought a bracelet and an olde mappe of the worlde which turned out to be made in the UK! I probably paid too much but its for a good cause.

Km4990, Games of Patience: 1, G of P won: 1
Just been chatted up by my first drunk, overweight Russian, whilst I was standing in the corridor and enjoying the view. Urgh! His breath stank. He tried to enlist the help of a small boy, who is traveling with his family, to translate but he couldn’t speak any English either. Think both of us were just trying to get away from him. Managed to slip away and retreated to the safety of my cabin and bed. There are 4 bunks in each cabin (2 down, 2 up) with a small table that juts out under the window. There are mattresses to roll out, pillows and blankets. Usually you roll the mattresses away during the day so all 4 passengers (and any passerbys) can sit on the bed/seats, but as there are only 2 of us, don’t think we’ll bother. Zina is an elderly lady, older than I first thought. She is probably in her 70’s and very timid. Our conversation has regressed to her whispering me the name of the station we’re at.

Km4375, 07.15, 25/06/05, Day 2
The beds are narrow and comfortable. I slept quite well with the hum of the train although the white nights are disconcerting. The sky doesn’t darken until 23.30 and only stays dark for a few hours. I read a little of My Antonia, a US classic before going to sleep. I’m trying to read very slowly as I’m worried that my 2 books will not last the trip. Should have brought War and Peace. There are far too many hours to fill and I don’t know what I’m going to do with my time.

Yesterday was bright sunshine that folded the grassy fields and silver birch trees in a golden shimmer as the sun slowly arched its way down. Simply stunning to observe. Today is overcast, gloomy and cold. The terrain remains the same open fields dotted with wooden houses and thick forests of fir, silver birch and taiga. Without the sun to warm the carriage, it feels cold. This is more akin to my image of Siberia, albeit an unwelcome one.

I had to wait one and half hours for the toilet as the train pulled into a station as I woke up which was rather tedious. This morning I breakfasted on a round loaf dusted with nuts and sugar and spread with honey. I bumped into the drunk (D1) at the samovar – he’s having pot noodles for breakfast. P1 will not be impressed!

Km4298
P2 offered me my own room. He tapped me on my leg as I was snoozing (actually I was thinking about how to reform the prison service) and motioned for me to come with him. I’m thinking, “what have I done? I haven’t done anything to get into trouble!”. I refused his offer because that really would feel like doing time in a cell, even if it was on a train. Zina might not say much but at least she’s company. I think I might have offended P2 though by saying no as he doesn’t smile at me anymore.

Km4086, 13.45, Games of Patience: 12, G of P won: 1
Lunch time! Meals are one of the few pleasures on this train even if the choice is limited. Today I have smoked (rather tasteless) cheese, white bread and a packet of ready mix rice. Starting to get very fed up waiting for the toilet all the time. They locked it 30mins before the station stop and then kept it locked 20min after. Bloody Russian bureaucracy and grand-standing! P1 sounded off at me again. This time I think it was on the lines of, if I can’t get back onto the train in good time after a station stop, then I should just stay in my cabin!

Km3912
Napped for a couple of hours. Earlier we passed though valleys with villages on the hilly slopes. Wooden houses that look like Swiss chalets, all with their own, considerably large, vegetable patch. From the train you can see people walking though the tall grass on rough paths near the railway tracks. All appears to be focused on living by living ie. you make what you need rather than working for money. Apart from the railways, which must be one of the largest employers, one wonders what paying jobs there are to be had out here? At the large towns there are frequent industrial plants with large smoke towers polluting the air (Russia has a major pollution problem – apparently most of the country is radioactive!). Loggings is another industry and open-cast mining, but I’ve yet to see any of the latter from the train.

We’re back on flat plains with the occasional tree. The scenery is pleasing but suffers in comparison to Mongolia. Crossing a river is an exciting moment. One massive river had an equally fortifiable bridge, apparently built to withstand iceberg that float down the river for a few weeks every year. Now that would be a sight!

Km3809
How much longer would this trip seem if it was winter and there was only a few hours of daylight each day? Then you wouldn’t even have the opportunity to watch the world go by. Even after just 24 hours, my legs feel lazy and unused to walking. For the most par I lie on my bed. Occasionally I move to the window in the corridor for a change of scene. The windows slide down and it is invigorating to stick your head out and let your hair blow in the wind, always watching carefully that a pole does not come too close! The majority of Russian trains are electric which results in many poles.

Km3750, Games of Patience: 2, G of P won: 1
I’ve made a rule when I start playing patience that I have to keep going until I win a round, so depending on my mood I play easy or hard patience!

Km3712, evening
We stop at Mariinsk for 20 minutes. Unexpectedly there are sellers on the platform. I brought enough food with me to last the trip as I’ve heard different stories about the quality and abundance of food from platform sellers or babushkas. I purchased something that looked like a doughnut. It out to be a doughnut, but filled with pickled vegetables. Another time I bought a roll with cheese on top to discover the cheese was potato! At a kiosk on the platform I tried to buy toilet roll. The lady refused with a smile (silly tourists). I pleaded. Still no. I pointed at something else, she shrugs, gives in and hands me a toilet roll!

Back on the train, the Drunk and P1 found it amusing that I would buy toilet roll, but this is the first train I’ve been on where the provodniks actually keep it stocked up and I’m not taking any chances. D1 is not too bad. Our conversations which are devoid of intelligible language provide a break from the monotony of train travel. He’s invited me to dinner but I’m not going. I think small doses are best.

I love to watch the ploughed fields in the evening when shadows are long. As we pass by on the train, the shadows turn like a furrowed sundial bringing to mind the feel of the field as if your hand was stroking an earthen blanket.

Km3486, 22.15
D1 (Sergi) came into my cabin to tell me to go for a walk on the platform – we have a whole 24 minutes! His friend (D2) has started talking to me too. He knows some English – Lennox Lewis, good boxer, Michael Sting – Sting?? The conversations are difficult to understand and encompass bizarre topics. I’m not sure they are worth the effort. It’s time for bed.

Km2845, 08.10, 26/06/05, Day 3
The P’s are very clean and take good care of the car. They vacuum every morning (just woken me up) and give the toilet a thorough rubbing down with disinfectant three times a day. They also empty the rather small bin located at the end of the car, opposite the toilet – another first in my train travel experience.

Today we pass through 2 times zones making the day 2 hours longer : ( My train goes though a total of five time zones (there are 10 in Russia), each zone is one hour different. All train timetables are in Moscow time to save confusion, assuming you know which zone you are in! There are km posts, supposedly every km but not always so. If you press your nose up to the glass window and wait, you can usually catch one. I find it easier now to read them but maybe the train is just slower. Apparently the average speed from Moscow to Vladivostok is just 69kph (43mph). My train originated in Vladivostok, there are posters on the side of the train in some windows. To me that adds an extra dimension as if my train has achieved more than if it had just originated in Irkutsk. But then maybe cabin fever is just starting to set in.

Have just been paid a visit by fur traders. One babbled away at me until Zina told her I spoke no Russian. Assume they are real fur. They had the big hats and everything! But even if I was feeling fully awake and ready to bargain, I would not buy real fur. For Russians, especially Siberians, to wear it though seems more appropriate than a Paris catwalk model.

Km2789, 08.34
Breakfast was quite good. I bought peach porridge mix in a packet and it was very tasty. I went for a slightly more expensive brand after the lady in the supermarket spent 2 minutes shaking her head and waving her finger at the packets I already had in my hand! Language barriers are not a problem in Russia when it comes to giving you your 2 cents worth.

09.30
D’s1+2 have been drinking again and this has spurred them on to find out more about me. D2 is taking an active role now. Told me that the Cutty Sark is very fast (how does he know that?). I explained with photos that I work in diving and via a crudely drawn map, that I’ve been traveling from New Zealand to England.

Km2625, 11.05
Just spent 1 hour in with the Russians. D1+2, an Asiatic man whose father was a sniper and killed 400 fascists in World War II, another man and his 9 year old daughter. They are all drinking and Alyona (the daughter) seems remarkably unfazed by it all. Trying to make any converstation took a long while - D2 studied English at school a long time ago, I have a boyfriend (to try and stop D1 from putting his arm around me all the time – although does seem to be a Russian custom. A female P from another carriage came in and they were doing the same with here, but not flirting. Its like a male/female thing, the man will “guide” a lady around when they walk). Apparently I am very sexual. “This is not a compliment but a fact”. All of them including the 9 yr old girl kept on trying to give me food – gherkins, pickled fish, apple, chocolate, chewing gum, some kind of tea. They snack all the time whilst drinking, after every shot of vodka, presumably to absorb the alcohol. They’ve been trying to get me to drink since we joined the train, but I keep on turning them down, which they find very odd! Before they drink they bang the glass against the edge of the table for a successful train journey.

It was an entertaining time but I had to get out of there. It’s exhausting! As I write, D2 has just popped in to kiss my hand again and tell me I’m a “good woman and very sexual” again. Neither of them are particularly threatening. It’s more amusing/potentially annoying. The Russian custom is to hit a guy around the head if he goes too far. I found this out from the female P who had problems with a guy in another car. I shall keep that in mind!

Km2364, 13.53, Games of Patience:9, G of P won:1
The D’s have gone all quiet – must be sleeping it off. Stretched my legs oh so briefly at a rare station stop. Lunch today was bread and golden caviar (they have 3 types – red, black and golden). It came in a tube and I thought it was taramasalata, which I guess it sort of is. Very good! And cheap at US$1 for the tube. Zina leaves the train today. Although the train doesn’t arrive until 10pm (unless I’m mistaken) she’s already packed up all her belongings and it’s only 14.00. I asked if I could take her photo. She was very pleased to be asked although she isn’t smiling in the picture. Afterwards she kissed me on the cheek and said something like (I think), “If we both could talk Russian we would have got on very well”. She’s quite sweet and motherly. Only 200km left until we leave Siberia.

Finished My Antonia about immigrants growing up on a prairie farm in the New World (near Nebraska, USA). Moving story. The conditions were very different but the spirit of the settlers must be similar to those who came, through choice, to Siberia in order to make a fresh start. Funny how I read books that are akin to my current area of travel. It sometimes makes for a blurred reality. I finished Crime & Punishment (Doestovesky) and was amazed to learn that prisioners wives would often come to Siberia with them, so they could be close by! There is a prison in the Philipines where wives can pay to live in the prision with their husband (and their children if they have any). Astounding.

Km2215, 16.05
The days grow interminably long. Until the last I had reckoned on some English speaking companionship to while away the time with. Like the rest of my car, I nap for as long as possible. It is easy to sleep, lulled by the steady rumble of the train and warmed by the sun rays through the windowpane.

Km2161
The landscape now is dense forest for the last part, interspersed with the occasional bog. It is unusual for the tracks to be walled in, even at stations. Watching people walk besides the railway line or clamber over the tracks as they go about their way reminds me of E.Nesbits, The Railway Children. The Russian Railways are on a mammoth project to replace all the wooden sleepers with concrete ones. I’m sure that concrete is more practical but the wooden ones have much more character.

Km2136, 17.30
Another woman has joined my carriage. D’s1+2 asked if I wanted to come in with them but took it on good faith when I declined. The P’s do try to keep independent travelers same sex (at least these P’s do) which is a relief. I find it odd that the passengers in this car do not talk to each other. On the other trains, everyone would know everyone else’s business by now, even after 24 hours. Here, though, everyone keeps much to themselves usually with the doors to their cabins closed.

Km1816, 23.05, Games of Clock Patience:16, G of CP won:1, G of CP won without cheating: 0 (stupid game)
I stayed up to help Zina off the train. She is strong for her age, despite her appearance. Her bags are heavy! We kissed and hugged our goodbyes under the approving gaze of our fellow passengers. I don’t think we exchanged more than 3 minutes of conversation in 48 hours! Much of our car disembarked at this station. There are only 4 of us left, including myself, from the original car.

Km957, 12.55, 27/06/05, Day 4
The babushkas (large surly looking women with kerchiefs around their head) seem to be more plentiful the closer we come to Moscow. They sell everything from plastic cups full of new strawberries, baskets of nuts, fresh dill and spring onions to a cooked chicken leg with potatoes and carrots! Naturally there are several beer and vodka sellers too.

This morning I breakfasted with the D’s, who, courtesy of the babushkas, had chicken with potatoes, potato/beetroot/sour cream salad, cucumbers, smoked fish and beer. I contented myself with bread, honey and coffee (much to their amusement). After breakfast, D2 lectured me on poets, Russian ice hockey players and different makes of gun. Then we played cards, a Russian game whose rules are still not clear to me which is probably the deciding factor in my losing so many games.

My hayfever has worsened, that or it has been joined by a cold and I lack the energy to stroll far on our station stops. We are no longer in Siberia but the scenery is much the same except for the towns and cities which are larger than before with sprawling industrial sectors.

Km666, 17.00
Three Russian males joined the train earlier today, and having been informed of my Englishness by P1 and D’s1+2 are keen to socialize with me. I, however, am reluctant to impose my sneezing, snuffling self on anyone at this time.

D1 entreated me, a few hours before, to have lunch with them. This invitation I partially accepted, refusal was not an option. I merely tasted their smoked fish soup (they eat a lot of smoked fish!) but it was delicious, flavoured with dill, onion and lemon juice and served with rice and potatoes. D2 was proud to inform me that he made it.

I have barely glanced at the passing landscape, preferring to sleep or read. I have nearly finished Charlotte Bronte’s “The Professor”. It is a very agreeable book and has undoubtedly affected my current writing style!

I have discovered that D’s1+2 work for the railway at Chita (their home town). I still don’t know why they are going to Moscow. D2 knows the names of all the English Grand Chessmasters and is quite shocked (and almost angry) by my lack of knowledge!

We have crossed our last time zone and are now on Moscow time. They call Moscow, Mocba. I have always found it peculiar that we call cities (and countries) by different names to those of their countrymen. Russians call Bejing, Peking still which flummoxed me for a while when I was trying to explain my route.

Km558
I paused for a moment to regard the landscape and note its’ beauty. I have been spoilt this last month with nature that I forget this is not so commonplace anymore. Thick forests, emerald fields, and bright purple foxgloves line the track. There are paths which people must use often, so they come to know every inch of the land that surrounds their home. Filled with Charlotte Bronte and My Antonia, I reflect how sad it is that progress, and without doubt the life of today is easier and holds more possibilities that those before it, has to come at the price of our gardens’ heritance. To walk daily through an urban sprawl instead of amongst a wooded glen. England was once a beautiful country, and in parts still is, but they are to be preserved and visited in, not lived in and taken for granted. How many English people, how many English children have never beheld a foxglove in its native glory? When once the land was full of them. As I stand and watch this gracious flower streak past me in nonchalance of what could be it’s fate too, I feel sad for its loss. In England, in countries everywhere who have created a new landscape to replace the nature before it. This loss has occurred so quickly that people do not even know to mourn its passing. I did not understand before. I do now. And so I mourn.

Km476, 19.30
So the final word. The sun has started its long descent and is casting a golden glow all around. Mongolia was truly magical at this time of day. I guess it will be a long time before I’m in such a vast tract of nature again.

Traveling by train here is not the same as on the continent. They seem like toy trains in comparison, the Eurostar as futuristic as time travel. You do feel like you are part of something old, something timeless. The grumpy provodniks who fussily guard the carriage as passengers alight or disembark, the bubbling samovar, the constant changing of locomotive for no apparent reason, the sheer size of the undercarriage (1m high!), the babushkas on the platform, the Russians emerging from their cabins at 7am with an open beer in their hand. On all trains we’ve had military personnel traveling in one of the cars. Once I saw a line of tanks on a passing train. Another time, we went past a military depot. Very close to the train. It was full of tanks and other equipment, covered rather badly by dust sheets. Goods trains pass constantly and old disused trains can frequently be seen derailed and turned into an impromptu home. Massive sidecars with sliding doors that you could imagine carrying thankless convicts to their prisons in Siberia.

Would I do this trip again? Perhaps if the need arose, but with companions please! On the train from Ulan Batar to Irkutsk, we passed another passenger train. Those in my car were nonplussed but I was excited to the core, eagerly taking photos to mark the occasion. Can you guess? It was the Orient Express! What it was doing here, I shall never know. I believe it’s route is from Paris to Istanbul, so it is a little off course. It was humbling and magnificent to be on one of the Greatest Railway Journeys and to have a glimpse of the other. I think my budget would have to be a little higher for that particular trip! Now it is time for the final sleep. We arrive in Moscow at 04.13

Afterword
Of course, that was not the final word. P2, who never smiled at me again after I refused the cabin to myself, woke us up at 03.20 to go to the toilet before he locked it for the last time. Then he called us again at 04.00 when we started to pull into the station. I had packed all my belongings the night before, so it was a simple matter to pull my clothes on, clear my bed and put my bags together.

Last night, I didn’t go straight to sleep but went and sat with D’s1+2 again for a short while. D2 was very tired but they wouldn’t let him sleep. He had his head on my leg and was stroking it and calling it “tasty”. They and Uri (the asian sniper) all have children! This was quite a surprise. Uri had 4, Sergi (D1) had one who was 5 and Sergi (D2) and one who was beautiful and 12. I’m not sure if they were married. Think Uri is. They were always funny about me taking photos of them. Uri pointed at the uniform and think it was to do with them being railway officials so shouldn’t have photos taken out of uniform, although clearly they weren’t working on this trip. I only ever got a good photo of Sergi 2. He looks very Russian, down to his brass teeth! They all smoke like chimneys. Sergi 1 has a chubby face with twinkly eyes – think he fancies himself as a bit of a ladies man. They didn’t want to let me go to bed but I was too tired to stay up with them.
When we arrived the next morning, Sergi 2 helped me with my bags on to the platform – “I am the man” (I carry the bags…). We hugged and kissed our goodbyes. Uri had already disappeared as had most of the others. I was worried about where Sergi 1 was but he appeared in full uniform. We hugged and he finally got his kiss that he’d been after all yesterday. I shook P2’s hand (he was the nightwatchman) to say thank you and goodbye. P1 and 2 were up together, and in uniform, at the same time yesterday afternoon and I was thrilled when they let me take a photo of them. Then it was a final “good woman” from Sergi2, a touch on the arm and off I went. It was pre-dawn so light enough but still quite dark, with people all around. As I walked down the platform my eyes filled with tears, whether at leaving the journey or leaving Sergi 1+2 I don’t know. Probably both.

Their persistance forced me to spend time with them, when my reticence would have set me aside. They showed me a side of Russian hospitality and friendship I would never have seen otherwise. Later that day I cried again. The Trans-Siberian Railway touched me far more than I ever thought it would. I hope I’ve managed to show just a little of that in this diary.