12.09.09
Departure day from my new best city in China and onto Guilin, a Chinese tourist haven. I leave the same way I entered, by train to Guangzhou East station, passing through airport style imigration and customs once more. When I arrive at Guangzhou I queue up to get my tickets and watch as an English guy and his friend buy their tickets onwards to Beijing, the ticket seller speaking a bit of English, but the transaction was far from smooth. When I eventually end up at the front of my queue I realise just how easy it is for me to communicate what I want and I even end up having a basic conversation with the lady behind the screen. I'm suprised that I can now effectively survive as a tourist in China and my Mandarin allows me to complete the essential day to day tasks. I thought I would have to go hard seat, but I manage to snag a sleeper berth on the 23 hour journey.
At Guangzhou station I await my train to Guilin and see what must be a team of beggars individually and systematically work their way around the hall. One an old woman, hunched over and shuffling around with hardly any teeth, a man with no hands who at one point had an arguement with his accomplice who was a young girl who had no arms at all, the last person, a man who dragged himself along the floor as his legs were not working. It may be a booming city in the south of China and one of the country's big economic powerhouses, but it still has all the poverty and bad care for people who have any kind of disability. Once on the train, I settle down on my bottom bunk and enjoy the gentle rock of the train to send me into a deep deep sleep.
Showing posts with label train. Show all posts
Showing posts with label train. Show all posts
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Day 46 - Wulingyuan National Park, Zhangjiajie
06.09.09
I get up at about 5am, jump in the shower and trek over to the top of Tianbo Mansion, which is one of the peaks in the park, my aim to catch sunrise. I don't see a soul in the whole park except for my trusty canine friend who somehow manages to find me and follows me again, except running ahead as if to check out the path 
for me and make sure it is safe. The scenery in the morning twilight is beautiful and it's phenomenal to have the whole place to my self. It would normally cost an extra 20 Yuan to get to the top of the peak, but no one is up yet to take the money.
After my peak expedition I am so paranoid about missing my train, that I hot tail it funky power walker style down to the entrance of the park and end up being 4 hours early for my train. The guy from Guangzhou writes a message out in Chinese characters for me asking the train attendant if there are any beds free that I can upgrade to, as when I bought my ticket 
there were only hard seats left and I really don't fancy a 14 hour journey on Chinese train hard seats. Once on board though, all is fine and the seats are actually very comfortable and not too hard at all, it must be a south China thing, as in the north the hard seats are horrific.
I get up at about 5am, jump in the shower and trek over to the top of Tianbo Mansion, which is one of the peaks in the park, my aim to catch sunrise. I don't see a soul in the whole park except for my trusty canine friend who somehow manages to find me and follows me again, except running ahead as if to check out the path 
for me and make sure it is safe. The scenery in the morning twilight is beautiful and it's phenomenal to have the whole place to my self. It would normally cost an extra 20 Yuan to get to the top of the peak, but no one is up yet to take the money.
After my peak expedition I am so paranoid about missing my train, that I hot tail it funky power walker style down to the entrance of the park and end up being 4 hours early for my train. The guy from Guangzhou writes a message out in Chinese characters for me asking the train attendant if there are any beds free that I can upgrade to, as when I bought my ticket 
there were only hard seats left and I really don't fancy a 14 hour journey on Chinese train hard seats. Once on board though, all is fine and the seats are actually very comfortable and not too hard at all, it must be a south China thing, as in the north the hard seats are horrific.
Saturday, 5 September 2009
Day 44 - Huang Shan, Hangzhou
4.09.09
A day of buses and trains is the main fare for today. We jump on our Hangzhou bound bus at 7.50am to catch our afternoon train to Zhangjiajie. At the train station it's the standard routine of everyone getting up and ready to rush the gates as soon as they open and then onto the platform like some kind of riot. We already have sleeper berths reserved, so don't really need to jump in with the Chaos, but it's fun to do, so we get stuck in anyway!
Once on the train I try and persist with some Mandarin learning on my MP3 player and then have my dinner consisting of the Chinese version of a pot noodle, customised by adding some sausage and fresh tomatoes. I think we have hit a carriage with a Chinese tour group as everyone is chatting to each other, playing games and eating together, like some kind of Chinese social club. It's fun to watch although we have to do it from our top bunks which probably have about 2 feet of room between the bed and the roof. The saving grace being that up high you are right next to the air conditioning, and on a hot train that's a god send.
A day of buses and trains is the main fare for today. We jump on our Hangzhou bound bus at 7.50am to catch our afternoon train to Zhangjiajie. At the train station it's the standard routine of everyone getting up and ready to rush the gates as soon as they open and then onto the platform like some kind of riot. We already have sleeper berths reserved, so don't really need to jump in with the Chaos, but it's fun to do, so we get stuck in anyway!
Once on the train I try and persist with some Mandarin learning on my MP3 player and then have my dinner consisting of the Chinese version of a pot noodle, customised by adding some sausage and fresh tomatoes. I think we have hit a carriage with a Chinese tour group as everyone is chatting to each other, playing games and eating together, like some kind of Chinese social club. It's fun to watch although we have to do it from our top bunks which probably have about 2 feet of room between the bed and the roof. The saving grace being that up high you are right next to the air conditioning, and on a hot train that's a god send.
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Day 39 - Xi'an
30.08.09
Today I leave my Xi'an home and make the journey to Shanghai, I could only get soft sleeper tickets, so it should be a relatively luxurious journey across to the cost. My body is punishing me for my mountain exploits and walking is painful, going up or down steps is just amusing. I pack out train food at the super market, leave my bags in the luggage room and then head out to the south of the city outside the walls with Mike, my Dane hostel friend. He's studying in Beijing for a few months and is visiting some places in China before he heads back to start studying. He climbed Hua Shan a couple of days before me, using the sensible day time method and was lucky enough to have clear weather. The City sprawls out past the walls much like other Chinese cities and doesn't really have any interesting points of note, but it's a good walk none the less and gets me stretching my legs out. I end buying one of those indestructible plastic water bottles for tea and drinking water and a SIGG flask to store hot water in.
In the evening when I board the train to Shanghai my 4 berth compartment is shared with an Aussie and a Chinese couple. It's a nice compartment with TVs, soft beds, individual lights and is very clean, what more can you ask for? The Aussie guy has some interesting stories to tell and as ever the Chinese couple offer us their food and are hospitable and friendly.
Today I leave my Xi'an home and make the journey to Shanghai, I could only get soft sleeper tickets, so it should be a relatively luxurious journey across to the cost. My body is punishing me for my mountain exploits and walking is painful, going up or down steps is just amusing. I pack out train food at the super market, leave my bags in the luggage room and then head out to the south of the city outside the walls with Mike, my Dane hostel friend. He's studying in Beijing for a few months and is visiting some places in China before he heads back to start studying. He climbed Hua Shan a couple of days before me, using the sensible day time method and was lucky enough to have clear weather. The City sprawls out past the walls much like other Chinese cities and doesn't really have any interesting points of note, but it's a good walk none the less and gets me stretching my legs out. I end buying one of those indestructible plastic water bottles for tea and drinking water and a SIGG flask to store hot water in.
In the evening when I board the train to Shanghai my 4 berth compartment is shared with an Aussie and a Chinese couple. It's a nice compartment with TVs, soft beds, individual lights and is very clean, what more can you ask for? The Aussie guy has some interesting stories to tell and as ever the Chinese couple offer us their food and are hospitable and friendly.
Friday, 28 August 2009
Day 33 - Pingyao
24.08.09
I really have nothing to do today, I've seen the sights and walked around the walls, been outside the city gates and explored and now am just killing time until my train leaves at 11pm. The only option is to sit back outside the hostel and attempt to learn some more Chinese with my Mandarin recordings and bask in the sun. When that gets boring I break out the Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, which was given to me in Novosibirsk by Sasha. I guess she
knew I would need it at some point.
I'm starting to feel a bit ill today and my throat hurts and I think I have a cold coming along, which is seriously bad timing considering I have an eight hour hard seat journey ahead. It's nothing more than a small cold, but when you're perched on an uncomfortable, reasonably hard seat designed to hold 3, with 4 people on it; the gangways packed with people standing; no air conditioning; it smells and people spit and throw their rubbish onto the floor. It turns out to be a horrific journey and I get about 2 hours intermittent sleep, hugging my rucksack trying to use it as a pillow.
Chinese hard seat trains are definitely for day journeys and not long night ones, but when there are no tickets left it becomes the only option (although it is considerably cheaper, for a reason).
I really have nothing to do today, I've seen the sights and walked around the walls, been outside the city gates and explored and now am just killing time until my train leaves at 11pm. The only option is to sit back outside the hostel and attempt to learn some more Chinese with my Mandarin recordings and bask in the sun. When that gets boring I break out the Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, which was given to me in Novosibirsk by Sasha. I guess she
knew I would need it at some point.
I'm starting to feel a bit ill today and my throat hurts and I think I have a cold coming along, which is seriously bad timing considering I have an eight hour hard seat journey ahead. It's nothing more than a small cold, but when you're perched on an uncomfortable, reasonably hard seat designed to hold 3, with 4 people on it; the gangways packed with people standing; no air conditioning; it smells and people spit and throw their rubbish onto the floor. It turns out to be a horrific journey and I get about 2 hours intermittent sleep, hugging my rucksack trying to use it as a pillow.
Chinese hard seat trains are definitely for day journeys and not long night ones, but when there are no tickets left it becomes the only option (although it is considerably cheaper, for a reason).
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Day 30 - Datong
21.08.09
The Yungang Caves is today's task and it all starts off with a round trip on the bus much like my first Vladivostock adventure. Apparently the bus everyone told me to catch isn't running for some reason, so I have to catch a number 4 and then change for 3-1. I obviously have no idea where to get off and change, but charge on into the journey blind. 45 mins later and I'm back at the train station and asking people again, all of whom tell me to jump on the 4 and change onto the 3-1. The second time round I stand right next to the driver and bother him every few minutes so he doesn't forget me. He eventually tells me where to get off and change to jump on the 3-1 and I end up arriving at the entrance to the caves at about midday.
The Yungang caves are a series of Buddhist caves carved straight out of the cliff face and when you see a 17m high Buddha statue sitting in a cave that's all be carved out of the cliff face over 1500 years ago, it's phenomenal. In contrast I also take a more extensive walk around Datong when I get back and come to the conclusion that it's a bit of a rough city. I jump on my hard sleeper at night and totally paranoid that I will my miss my stop at 6am I wake up ritually every 20 minutes and freak out. Although there was no need as the attendant wakes you up when you get to your stop anyway.
The Yungang Caves is today's task and it all starts off with a round trip on the bus much like my first Vladivostock adventure. Apparently the bus everyone told me to catch isn't running for some reason, so I have to catch a number 4 and then change for 3-1. I obviously have no idea where to get off and change, but charge on into the journey blind. 45 mins later and I'm back at the train station and asking people again, all of whom tell me to jump on the 4 and change onto the 3-1. The second time round I stand right next to the driver and bother him every few minutes so he doesn't forget me. He eventually tells me where to get off and change to jump on the 3-1 and I end up arriving at the entrance to the caves at about midday.
The Yungang caves are a series of Buddhist caves carved straight out of the cliff face and when you see a 17m high Buddha statue sitting in a cave that's all be carved out of the cliff face over 1500 years ago, it's phenomenal. In contrast I also take a more extensive walk around Datong when I get back and come to the conclusion that it's a bit of a rough city. I jump on my hard sleeper at night and totally paranoid that I will my miss my stop at 6am I wake up ritually every 20 minutes and freak out. Although there was no need as the attendant wakes you up when you get to your stop anyway.
Day 29 - Beijing & Datong
20.08.09
It's hard seat time! On Chinese trains, you essentially have 5 modes of travel, soft sleeper, hard sleeper, soft seat, hard seat and standing. I asked for the cheapest fare to get Datong and she wouldn't sell me standing, so I got a hard seat. I'm at the station nearly two hours early, to make sure I have no chance of missing my train and join a mass of people already waiting. As time ticks on more people arrive and they start queuing to get on the platform about an hour before the train is even leaving, I join in as I've got nothing else to do. The queue gradually turns from a line into a general mass all facing the same direction and then a general free for all once it's a few mins to go, with people pushing to get closer and what was a 50m or so reasonably ordered huddle, immediately condensed into around 15m of concentrated super eager Chinese travelers. When the gates finally open it's just pure chaos, but because I'm roughly 6ft1 which puts me at about 5ft1 taller than everyone else I join right in and make my way to the platform in good time.
Once on the train I get talking to a Chinese school student called Danny who was in Beijing studying English. She's 16, lives in Datong, her name is blatantly not Danny, but everyone seems to have a Chinese name. It's funny how everyone wants to speak to a foreigner to practice their English and when we get to Datong, she insists on helping my buy my next train ticket and then shows me around the city centre, introduces me to her family and gives me some food and tells me how to get to the Buddhist Caves tomorrow. Once again another show of brilliant Chinese friendliness and hospitality and in return all that she asks is that I speak to her and help her improve her English.
It's hard seat time! On Chinese trains, you essentially have 5 modes of travel, soft sleeper, hard sleeper, soft seat, hard seat and standing. I asked for the cheapest fare to get Datong and she wouldn't sell me standing, so I got a hard seat. I'm at the station nearly two hours early, to make sure I have no chance of missing my train and join a mass of people already waiting. As time ticks on more people arrive and they start queuing to get on the platform about an hour before the train is even leaving, I join in as I've got nothing else to do. The queue gradually turns from a line into a general mass all facing the same direction and then a general free for all once it's a few mins to go, with people pushing to get closer and what was a 50m or so reasonably ordered huddle, immediately condensed into around 15m of concentrated super eager Chinese travelers. When the gates finally open it's just pure chaos, but because I'm roughly 6ft1 which puts me at about 5ft1 taller than everyone else I join right in and make my way to the platform in good time.
Once on the train I get talking to a Chinese school student called Danny who was in Beijing studying English. She's 16, lives in Datong, her name is blatantly not Danny, but everyone seems to have a Chinese name. It's funny how everyone wants to speak to a foreigner to practice their English and when we get to Datong, she insists on helping my buy my next train ticket and then shows me around the city centre, introduces me to her family and gives me some food and tells me how to get to the Buddhist Caves tomorrow. Once again another show of brilliant Chinese friendliness and hospitality and in return all that she asks is that I speak to her and help her improve her English.
Day 26 - Beijing
17.08.09
It's Beijing embassy district time, which also turns out to be the Russian quarter of the city and most shop signs are also in Russian, which is weird.
I need to go to the Vietnamese embassy to get a visa. It's like a small village and every embassy is protected by a Chinese soldier standing to attention at the gates, with more soldiers in groups patrolling around all marching in time with each other. Some embassies are ridiculous: the Thai one looks like a country club; the American like a fortress with extra fencing, walls and a massive satellite dish; although the best of all has to be the British, which just resembles some kind of colonial style country house and looks so stereotypically empirish it's amazing.
I venture to Beijing Xie station to get my onward travel tickets, it's the biggest station in Beijing and I am seriously impressed. It is like a small airport and makes all the other stations seem miniature.
After getting my onward ticket to Datong, which was £3 for a 7 hour train journey (BARGAIN), I explore the narrow alleyways and parks around the station. What's amazing are the daily exercise routines that people do. They walk backwards, clap their hands while walking, swing off trees and use the communal exercise equipment provided in the parks, and the people are all over 60 and still keeping very active. Inspired by the sight of exercise I take a late night trip to the Olympic Park. All that needs to be said is we don't have a hope in hell, it's phenomenal.
It's Beijing embassy district time, which also turns out to be the Russian quarter of the city and most shop signs are also in Russian, which is weird.
I need to go to the Vietnamese embassy to get a visa. It's like a small village and every embassy is protected by a Chinese soldier standing to attention at the gates, with more soldiers in groups patrolling around all marching in time with each other. Some embassies are ridiculous: the Thai one looks like a country club; the American like a fortress with extra fencing, walls and a massive satellite dish; although the best of all has to be the British, which just resembles some kind of colonial style country house and looks so stereotypically empirish it's amazing.
I venture to Beijing Xie station to get my onward travel tickets, it's the biggest station in Beijing and I am seriously impressed. It is like a small airport and makes all the other stations seem miniature.
After getting my onward ticket to Datong, which was £3 for a 7 hour train journey (BARGAIN), I explore the narrow alleyways and parks around the station. What's amazing are the daily exercise routines that people do. They walk backwards, clap their hands while walking, swing off trees and use the communal exercise equipment provided in the parks, and the people are all over 60 and still keeping very active. Inspired by the sight of exercise I take a late night trip to the Olympic Park. All that needs to be said is we don't have a hope in hell, it's phenomenal.
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Day 23 - Shenyang, Shanhaiguan, Beijing
14.08.09
Travels to an ancient walled city are on the cards today where I can visit the start of the Great Wall and see the only stretch where it was built over water. The town of Shanhaiguan is an old walled settlement between Shenyang and Beijing, may D class (which I think stands for 'Damn!' as it's so fast and plush) train arrives there in two air conditioned hours.
Today has to be the hottest day so far and I take a walk through the town walls and up it's main street in search for my hotel. I am immediately pestered by a guy who is trying to get me to stay in his hotel, at this point in time I wish I knew some more aggressive Chinese.
I finally arrive at the point where this guest house should be only to find out it has been bought out by a tour company and is now their headquarters. One guy essentially tells me to leave, but a young man called Li Xiao Yong comes and talks to me. He knows enough English to communicate and walks around town looking for a cheap hotel, but unfortunately all the rooms are booked out. We then drive around the town to the hotels that the tour company has links with, the aim is use their weight to get me a cheap room in what seems like all 4 star hotels, but every one turns out negative.
I mention that if I can't find anything I will just go to Beijing that night and forget about Shanhaiguan, it turns out Xiao and his friend Yu Jie are going to Beijing that night as well and the deal is sealed.
They introduce me to other people who work for the company and feed me and give me water, their hospitality is phenomenal. On the train there are only standing tickets left, so we buy dinner and sit in the restaurant car for the six hour journey.
When we arrive in Beijing Yu goes to his grandmas and me and Xiao head up to the University where his girlfriend has managed to find me a cheap room in University accommodation. It's about £11 a night, right next to a Subway station and I get my own double bed, so not too bad.
I go to bed feeling inspired by their kindness and how they can be so hospitable to an absolute stranger.
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.
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Day 13 - Novosibirsk, Berdsk and the train
Tonight is my departure for Vladivostok, so I need to get back reasonably early to pack and prepare my things. We wake up reasonably early in the morning feeling a bit fuzzy and after our bed sharing experience.Another walk around Novosibirsk centre and a trip to give Sasha back her keys as she is already at work when we rouse from our slumbers. We take a trip towards home on the bus, but make a stop off at the Railway museam, which is an open air camp filled with Russian locomotives. Some of the older steam models are ridiculously big and a comomon theme with Russian trains seem to be that they are about a mile high and sit so far off the ground. The tracks are also a lot wider then any other country and if you travel to or from Russia by train they have to change the wheels at the border to match the track size.
We eventually get home and I have to rapidly pack and grab a shower before leaving for the train station. Igor's dad gives me a old traditional Russian glass from Berdsk old town that is now flooded and a mosquito nead net as I seem to have tasty blood. He also gives me a special gift, a blue and white striped top, which is the trademark clothing that the Russian Airbourne Forces wear and his Russia SAS. It's not an imitation and is one of his own ones, I am so touched and my gifts of chocolate and food that I bought from the supermarket seem to have no value, but I make a promise to myself to send the family something special from my travels.
It's been an eye opening and fantastic week and their hospitability has left a mark.
Onto the train and a 4 day journey awaits.
Onto the train and a 4 day journey awaits.Saturday, 1 August 2009
Day 7 - Novosibirsk
29.07.09
Today as Igor's dad puts it, is business day. We have admin stuff to do and bits and bobs around town. The main tasks for me are to buy my train ticket and also register my visa.
I manage to get my ticket to Vladivostok at the train station without too much trouble, except the lady at the ticket window seemed to have woken up on the wrong hemisphere, let alone the wrong side of bed. I should also probably state, that I didn't get my ticket, Igor got it as my Russian skills would still have her barking at me now. A train ticket bought from Novosibirsk to Vladivostok takes just over 4 days, and you travel about 6000km in total to the east crossing 4 time zones. It cost me 9430 Rubles which is about 197 quid, not so cheap, but for such a long journey and travelling second class (Out of 4), it's not so bad.
We also try and get my visa registered today, but the police station is closed, so put it off until tomorrow afternoon.
Igor's dad is quite creative and creates mosaics and makes medieval armour and swords, so we obviously don the chain mail helmets and take a few snaps.
Tomorrow is mushroom picking day and a 6am start, so we call it a day quite early in preparation for our forest adventure.
Today as Igor's dad puts it, is business day. We have admin stuff to do and bits and bobs around town. The main tasks for me are to buy my train ticket and also register my visa.I manage to get my ticket to Vladivostok at the train station without too much trouble, except the lady at the ticket window seemed to have woken up on the wrong hemisphere, let alone the wrong side of bed. I should also probably state, that I didn't get my ticket, Igor got it as my Russian skills would still have her barking at me now. A train ticket bought from Novosibirsk to Vladivostok takes just over 4 days, and you travel about 6000km in total to the east crossing 4 time zones. It cost me 9430 Rubles which is about 197 quid, not so cheap, but for such a long journey and travelling second class (Out of 4), it's not so bad.
We also try and get my visa registered today, but the police station is closed, so put it off until tomorrow afternoon.
Igor's dad is quite creative and creates mosaics and makes medieval armour and swords, so we obviously don the chain mail helmets and take a few snaps.
Tomorrow is mushroom picking day and a 6am start, so we call it a day quite early in preparation for our forest adventure.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Day 3,4&5 - 3335km on a train
25.07.09
So we got on the train last night at a station in Moscow. On Russian sleeper trains there are 4 different classes: 1st class or SV, which is the top and compartments of 2 beds; 2nd class , tourist or Kupe, which has compartments of 4; Plaskartny, which is essentially 3rd and is a wagon of open plan beds; and the bottom one which is just unreserved seating. All the guide books and internet basically say the same thing, go for SV if you can or Kupe should be good enough, don't do Plaskartny for anything longer than a day and if your a tourist then avoid it. We obviously went for the Plaskartny for our 3 night journey.
The train wasn't actually that bad at all. It was open plan with bunks of two running across the train and then a corridor at the foot of the bed with bunks of two running down the length of the train. It was clean when we got on, quite cosy and I couldn't lie outstretched on the bed or my feet stuck out into the corridor. It was interesting as a lot of people seemed to have this problem and as the top bunk was at my head height, moving the carriage later in the evening meant dodging bare feet or getting them in the face.
We were stocked up on fruit, noodles, porridge, bread and enough food to last us to Novosibirsk and back. Usually having porridge for breakfast, bread and soup for lunch and maybe noodles for dinner or buckwheat porridge. I was also given some traditional Russian food to try by some older guys on the train.
We made friends with the people who slept opposite us, one getting off the night before us and one taking the train to its final destination. Pacha and Inya, they were really nice and gave us food to try and we ended up sharing all our food together mostly. They didn't speak any English, so found my Russian attempts amusing and also tried to help me out with my learning.
Opposite us and spread throughout the carriage were around 6 old men who got together every meal time and made a communal salad or a dish called okroshka, which is a salad made of vegetables and dill, sour cream and then turned sort of a cold soup, by adding a brewed drink called kvas. They chatted away to Igor about a whole host of subjects, one of them an engineer and one was an academic and had lots of information to convey.
It was quite weird being on a train for so long and totally messed with the UK conception of a train journey, which if your going very far might last for 8 or 9 hours. This one on the other hand was about 55 hours, and people lived their lives and they daily routines. As Igor put it, it was a stationary microcosm of people living and eating, sleeping and doing their daily business, but on a platform that was hurtling at probably over 100km in the middle of no where. There were the family dramas and incidents in some cars with people arguing and so many stories. On the final night we were having a midnight cup of tea in the restaurant car with a girl who worked the car and she was explaining the situation's history, when right before our eyes it played out, the classic 'man loves a woman but she doesn't like him and goes off with someone else in front of his eyes'.
So we got on the train last night at a station in Moscow. On Russian sleeper trains there are 4 different classes: 1st class or SV, which is the top and compartments of 2 beds; 2nd class , tourist or Kupe, which has compartments of 4; Plaskartny, which is essentially 3rd and is a wagon of open plan beds; and the bottom one which is just unreserved seating. All the guide books and internet basically say the same thing, go for SV if you can or Kupe should be good enough, don't do Plaskartny for anything longer than a day and if your a tourist then avoid it. We obviously went for the Plaskartny for our 3 night journey.The train wasn't actually that bad at all. It was open plan with bunks of two running across the train and then a corridor at the foot of the bed with bunks of two running down the length of the train. It was clean when we got on, quite cosy and I couldn't lie outstretched on the bed or my feet stuck out into the corridor. It was interesting as a lot of people seemed to have this problem and as the top bunk was at my head height, moving the carriage later in the evening meant dodging bare feet or getting them in the face.
We were stocked up on fruit, noodles, porridge, bread and enough food to last us to Novosibirsk and back. Usually having porridge for breakfast, bread and soup for lunch and maybe noodles for dinner or buckwheat porridge. I was also given some traditional Russian food to try by some older guys on the train.
We made friends with the people who slept opposite us, one getting off the night before us and one taking the train to its final destination. Pacha and Inya, they were really nice and gave us food to try and we ended up sharing all our food together mostly. They didn't speak any English, so found my Russian attempts amusing and also tried to help me out with my learning.Opposite us and spread throughout the carriage were around 6 old men who got together every meal time and made a communal salad or a dish called okroshka, which is a salad made of vegetables and dill, sour cream and then turned sort of a cold soup, by adding a brewed drink called kvas. They chatted away to Igor about a whole host of subjects, one of them an engineer and one was an academic and had lots of information to convey.
It was quite weird being on a train for so long and totally messed with the UK conception of a train journey, which if your going very far might last for 8 or 9 hours. This one on the other hand was about 55 hours, and people lived their lives and they daily routines. As Igor put it, it was a stationary microcosm of people living and eating, sleeping and doing their daily business, but on a platform that was hurtling at probably over 100km in the middle of no where. There were the family dramas and incidents in some cars with people arguing and so many stories. On the final night we were having a midnight cup of tea in the restaurant car with a girl who worked the car and she was explaining the situation's history, when right before our eyes it played out, the classic 'man loves a woman but she doesn't like him and goes off with someone else in front of his eyes'.It was definitely a train journey to remember, but I wasn't even half way to Vladivostok
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