Day 18 - Vladivostok

9.08.09

My journey into China is on the cards today. I get in at about 8am to the train station in Vladivostok and decide to try and walk it to the Bus station as it's not that far, after about 10mins I realise I don't have an accurate enough map and I can't read Russian, so jump on a bus.

After asking the driver whether he goes to the bus station I sit down and wait to see this big bustling bus station. An hour later and the bus pulls into a depot, I ask the driver if this is the bus station and he looks at me as if I'm an idiot. Luckily he puts me on another bus and tells the driver to tell me when we get to the station and doesn't charge me a fare. When we get to the station it's hidden behind a market and I would never have spotted it if I wasn't told.

I fail to notice, but it's a Sunday and so the bus service is limited so I have to buy a ticket that leaves at 8.10 tomorrow morning.

After checking into a hotel for the evening I grab some food from the super market and for the first time on the trip feel very very very lonely. I'm on the same longitudinal line as central Australia and it's the furthest I've ever been from home and I am totally alone. I think a combination between lack of sleep and the day not going as planned is making me quite down, but after a nap I feel a lot better and then hit the sack to wake up for my early bus tomorrow.

Day 13 - Day18, Trans Siberian Railway pt.2

4.08.09 - 9.08.09

The train journey of epic proportions, 6000km and 5 nights on the train from Novosibirsk to Vladivostok. I'm going 2nd class this time as there were no bottom tickets available, which means it should be quite comfortable.

I'm on the top bunk and share my cabin with a mother (Alysa), her son (Yigor), her mother (Tatiana) and father (Sergei). They turn out to be going all the way to Vladivostok and we end up sharing food and having basic conversations, Alysa

speaks English and can understand me quite well. As for the rest of the cabin, they seem to be angry all the time and never smile, I can't quite figure it out, but it seems to be a theme on Russian trains. I end up chatting to a student called Irfim who informed me that it was just the Russian way on trains and people don't really smile.

On the journey, we pass by Lake B

aikal, which is absolutely enormous.

As my book tells me, it's the deepest lake in the world, contains more than 20% of the worlds fresh water, over a thousand plants and animals that inhabit the lake can't be found anywhere else and is the oldest lake in the world. As we went past you couldn't see the other side and it stetched out to the horizon in all directions, it was like an ocean and the scenery surrounding it was beautiful. I wish I got off here, but I chickened out when buying my tickets and went for the safe option of getting a ticket all the way to Vladivostok, at least I get to see the southern side of the lake as the railway skirts it for 180km.

Again, being on a train for so long and confined to such a small space is a weird

experience. You have your bed, about 6ft in length by around 3ft width to live in and that's it. You can stand in the corridor of the train if you wish or use the bathroom, but your allocated sp

ace is where you spend most of your time.

Also being thrown in with a family who I don't know for 5 nights and sharing

what is probably smaller than a prison cell between 4 people and a small child puts you in such close contact. I ended up playing with Yigor and making faces with him so much he started to call me dada, which was slightly worrying.

There are other families on the train, lone travellers, business p

eople and a whole host of characters. By the end of the journey I had made friends with the two train attendants, Julia and Marsha and also with a few other people in the carriage, some origami models distributed and eventually people were starting to look a bit happier.

I think in general people on the trains keep them selves to them selves and don't talk to people or interact much, I decided to go against the grain and it seemed to work.

I wouldn't call the trans Siberian a spiritual journey, but you definitely end up learning something along the way about people and social interaction.