---beep beeeep ----- --beep--- message coming in from Chengdu! ----beep--- --beeep-- Aniek speaking.---finally again......------
But anyway, after silence comes blogging and here we are again! Safely blogging from the vibrant city of Chengdu, in a too luxurous internet cafe with too slow internet ( because all the noisy Chinese are gaming and watching movies). Our last evening in this 'small' city (ok, it outcompetes A'dam and Copenhagen by far with its 4.2 million inhabitants), before we head off to the city of Bajoa, but all about our next step later. Take of your shoes, free your mind, get a cup of coffee, put aside your thesis, cancel your appointments and switch off your telephone, this will be a loooooong one!
Let's first go back to the moment we boarded our train to Beijing, our last etappe of the Transmongolian express. Now about two weeks ago ( but is feels muuuuuuch longer!). Do you remember the change that struck us boarding the train to mongolia? Sudden smiling faces, no russians around anymore...as if magic, the same happened in the Ulaan Baator- Beijing train. Although it started its long journey in Moscow, we were warmly welcomed by an all chinese 'shoupiaoyuan' (=provodniza), with even a bigger smile and no word russian/mongolian nor english. It got even better: in no time we were eating a spicy breakfast with chopsticks! Then we really knew we were heading for China!
But anyway, after silence comes blogging and here we are again! Safely blogging from the vibrant city of Chengdu, in a too luxurous internet cafe with too slow internet ( because all the noisy Chinese are gaming and watching movies). Our last evening in this 'small' city (ok, it outcompetes A'dam and Copenhagen by far with its 4.2 million inhabitants), before we head off to the city of Bajoa, but all about our next step later. Take of your shoes, free your mind, get a cup of coffee, put aside your thesis, cancel your appointments and switch off your telephone, this will be a loooooong one!
Let's first go back to the moment we boarded our train to Beijing, our last etappe of the Transmongolian express. Now about two weeks ago ( but is feels muuuuuuch longer!). Do you remember the change that struck us boarding the train to mongolia? Sudden smiling faces, no russians around anymore...as if magic, the same happened in the Ulaan Baator- Beijing train. Although it started its long journey in Moscow, we were warmly welcomed by an all chinese 'shoupiaoyuan' (=provodniza), with even a bigger smile and no word russian/mongolian nor english. It got even better: in no time we were eating a spicy breakfast with chopsticks! Then we really knew we were heading for China!
Hello again!
Well, it has been a while since we last found the time and energy to write up our stories here. From Chengdu, in an internet cafe with rather comfy chairs, here's an update. With apologies to the international readers, this part of the story will be in good old Dutch ;). With apologies to the Dutch readers, having at last found the time, place, and a damn comfy chair, we haven't at all limited ourselves in the length of our stories. They once again have become quite long and extensive. Sorry :)
Well, it has been a while since we last found the time and energy to write up our stories here. From Chengdu, in an internet cafe with rather comfy chairs, here's an update. With apologies to the international readers, this part of the story will be in good old Dutch ;). With apologies to the Dutch readers, having at last found the time, place, and a damn comfy chair, we haven't at all limited ourselves in the length of our stories. They once again have become quite long and extensive. Sorry :)
19/02: Irkutsk - Ulaan Baator
After pics with few words, it’s up to me (Aniek) now to send our words and thoughts of the past days all the way to you! ‘Again?’ I hear you think. Yes, we also have an addiction now….what do you do when you arrive in a new city? Or, as this morning , new country?Yes of course! You look for an internetcafe ;) No just kidding, we just take the opportunity to keep you posted whenever we get it, and this time this happened surprisingly fast after each other! The true part is that this posting and the attached reading of your comments has indeed become an essential part of our journey so far, that’s why the blogging picture appeared in between the red square and the views from the transsiberian express.
So let’s give in to the addiction, here, in this new country we got to. This journey to get here actually started shortly after we update you for the last time, as we needed to get up much to early to catch the Moskua-Ulaan Bataar express, but not before our host in Irkutsk (a ‘kordate’ russian woman, with a fair knowledge of english) prepared us an enormous breakfast at 4.30 in the morning (!). Anyone who is familiar with our getting-up capacities (not!) combined with Aniek’s breakfast capacities (not much in the early morning) can imagine that two fried eggs, yoghurt, chocolate, coleslaw and bread, was a bit far fetched. However, appearable the porridge, followed by three mornings of many many blinis ( russian fat pancakes) were perfect guides and trained us to enjoy the firm breakfasts the Russians like. Or it’s just the cold. Or it’s just our sleeping rithm that’s actually not existing anymore. Anyway, we enjoyed it and were picked up by Helena (yes! The girl with the sign ‘Mw Ivens’ at the station…yes HANS, it’s weird, it’s very weird. Unfortunately we never managed to sneak a picture of it, but we’ll try later in the hostel we are now. In this cold it’s a good system, havinf transfers each time arranged from and to your hostel, but we are also looking forward to the zero-level arrangements in China. It doubles the travelexperience, we suppose, and wasn’t that what we were looking for? Though till experiences enough….let’s continue..)
When we entered our fourth train we entered a different world, a different atmosphere. This train maybe left in Russia, but moved to Mongolia and that’s what counts. The annoyed look of the previous provodniza was now exchanged for a friendly smile of our current provodniza. In our whole car was no russian passenger at all (besides us there were many mongolians, three travellers from the UK, and one from Armenia) and luxury level decreased as well. Our compartement was actually already full by the time we tried to enter. And it only contained one passenger: Namo, a Mongolian girl who just finished her MSc in economy, studying in Novosiberisk and who was now travelling back including all her possessions ( yes all! Bags with clothes, boxes with books, a PC and a few carpets (!)). Silently we tried to sqeeuze ourselves and our bags in, but it was unavoidable waking us up. We were happy to find our that she spoke at least a little bit of english and wore as the others, a very friendly smile. Crossing the russian border by train is a smuggly business, because it was not for long that a diamond smuggler entered our compartment. Luckily, his most important items were carefully packed in tiny packages, so he fitted in. (although namo had to move to sleep somewhere else, after extensive negotiation with all mongolian passengers involved, but with the smuggler being stubborn and she leaving all her stuff with us). Although he was cunning he didn’t speak english, but he could have been a theatersporter showed by the many wide an theatrical arm gestures he made, including a lot of sounds like ‘woejsjj’ ‘pssspspss’ ‘woeeeef’ enabling us to have quite a conversation.
However, the first hours we spent not talking at all, first sleeping, then being amazed by the view of the Baikal lake, which the train ran parallel to for 180 km. Simply beautiful. After the city of Ulan Ude (a big siberian city, where we rushed out to spend our last rubles on a bargain with a babooska), we left the Transsiberian express for the Transmongolian express. This meant mainly a change of view: from montains to steppe and long long waiting times at the borders (three hours russia, an hour mongolia). As we expected, our compartment was to be checked thorougly at the russian border because of all the packages. We were just send our (GET OUT!) when we heard a loud BAM and the douanier ( a big strong russian guy) sniffing: in checking all the luggage, the littl stairs turned, taking is knee with it. End of check. Poor guy, although the smuggler couldn’t stop laughing.
We slept perfectly this night and entered a completely deserted hostel this morning. Although the read ‘Flairs, Quote’s and TV sport’ silently show that in summer this must be a Dutch hotspot (the hostel being owned by our travel company) we were happy to find out we are the only guest right now. After another post-train nap, we went out to explore Mongolia’s capital Ulaan Bataar. We found:
• a city which won’t win a beauty contest, but with a lot of friendly smiles
• a city that WILL win the fit-the-most-people-in-a-small-car-contest
• beautiful wheater with temperatures around zero and a nice sun
• beautiful hills surrounding the city
• everything closed down: Mongolia’s Carnaval seems to be what christmas is to us: ulaan baator alaaf! No dressing up (although the tradional clothes would make up a nice outfit at home (see pic), but with Limburg in the supermarket!
• Mobile telephone with cable!
• This internetcafe, which I am going to quit soon, as I am with blogging for now.
Best wishes and for all those celebrating Carnaval: volgend joar doan ich weier mit!
So let’s give in to the addiction, here, in this new country we got to. This journey to get here actually started shortly after we update you for the last time, as we needed to get up much to early to catch the Moskua-Ulaan Bataar express, but not before our host in Irkutsk (a ‘kordate’ russian woman, with a fair knowledge of english) prepared us an enormous breakfast at 4.30 in the morning (!). Anyone who is familiar with our getting-up capacities (not!) combined with Aniek’s breakfast capacities (not much in the early morning) can imagine that two fried eggs, yoghurt, chocolate, coleslaw and bread, was a bit far fetched. However, appearable the porridge, followed by three mornings of many many blinis ( russian fat pancakes) were perfect guides and trained us to enjoy the firm breakfasts the Russians like. Or it’s just the cold. Or it’s just our sleeping rithm that’s actually not existing anymore. Anyway, we enjoyed it and were picked up by Helena (yes! The girl with the sign ‘Mw Ivens’ at the station…yes HANS, it’s weird, it’s very weird. Unfortunately we never managed to sneak a picture of it, but we’ll try later in the hostel we are now. In this cold it’s a good system, havinf transfers each time arranged from and to your hostel, but we are also looking forward to the zero-level arrangements in China. It doubles the travelexperience, we suppose, and wasn’t that what we were looking for? Though till experiences enough….let’s continue..)
When we entered our fourth train we entered a different world, a different atmosphere. This train maybe left in Russia, but moved to Mongolia and that’s what counts. The annoyed look of the previous provodniza was now exchanged for a friendly smile of our current provodniza. In our whole car was no russian passenger at all (besides us there were many mongolians, three travellers from the UK, and one from Armenia) and luxury level decreased as well. Our compartement was actually already full by the time we tried to enter. And it only contained one passenger: Namo, a Mongolian girl who just finished her MSc in economy, studying in Novosiberisk and who was now travelling back including all her possessions ( yes all! Bags with clothes, boxes with books, a PC and a few carpets (!)). Silently we tried to sqeeuze ourselves and our bags in, but it was unavoidable waking us up. We were happy to find our that she spoke at least a little bit of english and wore as the others, a very friendly smile. Crossing the russian border by train is a smuggly business, because it was not for long that a diamond smuggler entered our compartment. Luckily, his most important items were carefully packed in tiny packages, so he fitted in. (although namo had to move to sleep somewhere else, after extensive negotiation with all mongolian passengers involved, but with the smuggler being stubborn and she leaving all her stuff with us). Although he was cunning he didn’t speak english, but he could have been a theatersporter showed by the many wide an theatrical arm gestures he made, including a lot of sounds like ‘woejsjj’ ‘pssspspss’ ‘woeeeef’ enabling us to have quite a conversation.
However, the first hours we spent not talking at all, first sleeping, then being amazed by the view of the Baikal lake, which the train ran parallel to for 180 km. Simply beautiful. After the city of Ulan Ude (a big siberian city, where we rushed out to spend our last rubles on a bargain with a babooska), we left the Transsiberian express for the Transmongolian express. This meant mainly a change of view: from montains to steppe and long long waiting times at the borders (three hours russia, an hour mongolia). As we expected, our compartment was to be checked thorougly at the russian border because of all the packages. We were just send our (GET OUT!) when we heard a loud BAM and the douanier ( a big strong russian guy) sniffing: in checking all the luggage, the littl stairs turned, taking is knee with it. End of check. Poor guy, although the smuggler couldn’t stop laughing.
We slept perfectly this night and entered a completely deserted hostel this morning. Although the read ‘Flairs, Quote’s and TV sport’ silently show that in summer this must be a Dutch hotspot (the hostel being owned by our travel company) we were happy to find out we are the only guest right now. After another post-train nap, we went out to explore Mongolia’s capital Ulaan Bataar. We found:
• a city which won’t win a beauty contest, but with a lot of friendly smiles
• a city that WILL win the fit-the-most-people-in-a-small-car-contest
• beautiful wheater with temperatures around zero and a nice sun
• beautiful hills surrounding the city
• everything closed down: Mongolia’s Carnaval seems to be what christmas is to us: ulaan baator alaaf! No dressing up (although the tradional clothes would make up a nice outfit at home (see pic), but with Limburg in the supermarket!
• Mobile telephone with cable!
• This internetcafe, which I am going to quit soon, as I am with blogging for now.
Best wishes and for all those celebrating Carnaval: volgend joar doan ich weier mit!
Hi there again!
With a beautifull train day, a good night (and morning) of sleep and some sightseeing of Ulaan Baatar, we suddenly bumped into a cheap Internet cafe. A city where we have no hurry at all, so there's a good opportunity to sit back and lean into the online world some more :)
While Aniek writes up some new diary, I'm happy to put some pictures up of the last two weeks.
First some reactions: Thank you so much for the skating tips. I am ashamed of being completely wrong, but now I know and will be happy to work on my butt-muscles. (My kneecap actually still hurts a bit when I lean on it. Silly things.)
Hans: the temp pic is right below. I was proud on snapping a -18 degree shot in Irkutsk, but due to some completely incompetent person trying to backup the photos, it got deleted. Pity. We also failed to snap any of the hosts with the 'Ms. Ivens' / 'Tiara tours' boards waiting for us at the platforms. The shame of being picked up by a host is actually not that huge, perhaps since we completely fail anyway in disguising ourselves as anything but Europese tourists. Amidst all the locals in fur hats and dark clothes, we are really a big exception on our walking shoes with big backpacks, in our synthetic Goretex walking gear. Furthermore, I admit it's a horribly lack of adventure to have all these things arranged, but I also have to admit it's slightly comfortable not yet having to hassle with taxidrivers in Moscow at 6 in the morning. It also helps a lot in getting around the city quickly. Nevertheless, this is the last city where things were arranged for us. From Beijing on we'll run around the city ourselves. It seems appealing. As of yet :)
Lastly, how was the Masters of Comedy performance??
And now on to the pictures...
Moscow's red square. Not as impressive as I had thought, but still fairly nice. The Kremlin is at the left (big wall). Unfortunately the view was somewhat killed by the temporary ice-skating ring built in the middle of the square :S. (Typically Moscow, I think).
Typical tourists on the red square.
Minus 15 ! A killer temperature, no doubt. Also, odd enough, near the lowest temperature we have experienced so far. It just about matches the warmth provided by our gear though, so we're not too sorry about that :)
Chael, Aike and Simon at the entrance to the Kremlin.
This picture somehow gave a good summary of Moscow for me: a big city, with a lot of beautiful and interesting buildings and culture, but mainly dominated (and thereby spoiled) by a lot of traffic, traffic and traffic. And economy. Ah well, it's a business city after all.
Aniek sending messages to the world from the Moscow hostel's computer. We (and many other guests) spent quite some hours there :)
Some station between Moscow and Irkutsk. Aniek peeking out of the train wagon, and to the right our provodnitsa - one of the two ladies responsible for running (cleaning, servicing and sometimes menacing) our wagon.
Same station, view of the platform.
The so very friendly grandfather we met in our compartment to Irkutsk (see my post below)
Arrival in Irkutsk
Apparently some snow plain, but actually the enormous, frozen Baikal lake. And some tourist standing on it.
A strange habit of the Russians: eating icecream while it's -12. Strange but delicious :). (And the icecream doesn't melt, quite clever.)
?The dinner provided by our dear Danya at the homestay near Irkutsk. The fish was freshly caught by her husband :)
When the ice is thick enough, anything can (and will) cross. From hoovercrafts to small busses to this motorcycle.
Taking a break during our hike through the hills near the lake.
Gandalf conquering the snow on his way to the top.
Group picture of us, our hosts, and Chael & Simon at the homestay.
Sunset between Irkutsk and Ulaan Baatar. (The dirt is on the window, not in the air.)
Mongolia from the trainwindow.
Typical communication in the Trans Mongolian Express: Aniek pointing on one of our maps where we come from (and where we are going).
View of Ulaan Baatar, taken from the staircase of some skyscraper we sneakily sneaked into.
Family picture in front of the parliament building in the city centre. About 1 in 5 people in the city actually walk in those great outfits you see in the middle. (Aniek quite shockingly took this photo without asking, like a real tourist paparazzi.)
Alaaf! Limburg in Ulaan Baatar.
Byebye and love from Ulaan Baatar! :)
Aike & Aniek
With a beautifull train day, a good night (and morning) of sleep and some sightseeing of Ulaan Baatar, we suddenly bumped into a cheap Internet cafe. A city where we have no hurry at all, so there's a good opportunity to sit back and lean into the online world some more :)
While Aniek writes up some new diary, I'm happy to put some pictures up of the last two weeks.
First some reactions: Thank you so much for the skating tips. I am ashamed of being completely wrong, but now I know and will be happy to work on my butt-muscles. (My kneecap actually still hurts a bit when I lean on it. Silly things.)
Hans: the temp pic is right below. I was proud on snapping a -18 degree shot in Irkutsk, but due to some completely incompetent person trying to backup the photos, it got deleted. Pity. We also failed to snap any of the hosts with the 'Ms. Ivens' / 'Tiara tours' boards waiting for us at the platforms. The shame of being picked up by a host is actually not that huge, perhaps since we completely fail anyway in disguising ourselves as anything but Europese tourists. Amidst all the locals in fur hats and dark clothes, we are really a big exception on our walking shoes with big backpacks, in our synthetic Goretex walking gear. Furthermore, I admit it's a horribly lack of adventure to have all these things arranged, but I also have to admit it's slightly comfortable not yet having to hassle with taxidrivers in Moscow at 6 in the morning. It also helps a lot in getting around the city quickly. Nevertheless, this is the last city where things were arranged for us. From Beijing on we'll run around the city ourselves. It seems appealing. As of yet :)
Lastly, how was the Masters of Comedy performance??
And now on to the pictures...
Moscow's red square. Not as impressive as I had thought, but still fairly nice. The Kremlin is at the left (big wall). Unfortunately the view was somewhat killed by the temporary ice-skating ring built in the middle of the square :S. (Typically Moscow, I think).
Typical tourists on the red square.
Minus 15 ! A killer temperature, no doubt. Also, odd enough, near the lowest temperature we have experienced so far. It just about matches the warmth provided by our gear though, so we're not too sorry about that :)
Chael, Aike and Simon at the entrance to the Kremlin.
This picture somehow gave a good summary of Moscow for me: a big city, with a lot of beautiful and interesting buildings and culture, but mainly dominated (and thereby spoiled) by a lot of traffic, traffic and traffic. And economy. Ah well, it's a business city after all.
Aniek sending messages to the world from the Moscow hostel's computer. We (and many other guests) spent quite some hours there :)
Some station between Moscow and Irkutsk. Aniek peeking out of the train wagon, and to the right our provodnitsa - one of the two ladies responsible for running (cleaning, servicing and sometimes menacing) our wagon.
Same station, view of the platform.
The so very friendly grandfather we met in our compartment to Irkutsk (see my post below)
Arrival in Irkutsk
Apparently some snow plain, but actually the enormous, frozen Baikal lake. And some tourist standing on it.
A strange habit of the Russians: eating icecream while it's -12. Strange but delicious :). (And the icecream doesn't melt, quite clever.)
?The dinner provided by our dear Danya at the homestay near Irkutsk. The fish was freshly caught by her husband :)
When the ice is thick enough, anything can (and will) cross. From hoovercrafts to small busses to this motorcycle.
Taking a break during our hike through the hills near the lake.
Gandalf conquering the snow on his way to the top.
Group picture of us, our hosts, and Chael & Simon at the homestay.
Sunset between Irkutsk and Ulaan Baatar. (The dirt is on the window, not in the air.)
Mongolia from the trainwindow.
Typical communication in the Trans Mongolian Express: Aniek pointing on one of our maps where we come from (and where we are going).
View of Ulaan Baatar, taken from the staircase of some skyscraper we sneakily sneaked into.
Family picture in front of the parliament building in the city centre. About 1 in 5 people in the city actually walk in those great outfits you see in the middle. (Aniek quite shockingly took this photo without asking, like a real tourist paparazzi.)
Alaaf! Limburg in Ulaan Baatar.Byebye and love from Ulaan Baatar! :)
Aike & Aniek
17/02: Moscow - Irkutsk
Hi there!
Although we still haven't really covered Moscow, we'll continue our story with the train leaving there. It's easier and more pleasant. Perhaps we'll fill in the Moscow days some other time, or perhaps we'll tell you some day ;)
(Aike:)
From Moscow on we have been increasingly accompanied by Chael and Simon, two Dutch guys of our age who appeared to have an overlap with our trip during several days. As Chael wrote later, indeed bound to happen when you book at a Dutch travel organisation :).
They were also coming from St. Petersburg, staying for a few days in Moscow, and taking the trans-sib to Irkutsk/Listvianka like us. From Moscow to Irkutsk we have travelled together the last few days. From Irkutsk we take the Trans Mongolian Express to Ulan Baatar and Beijing, while they'll take the Trans Siberian Express to Vladivostok, continuing to Beijing, Harbin and in the end Ulan Baatar.
Where I at first was shaken by the idea of meeting Dutch tourists in a hostel in distant Russia - a fear probably shared by many travellers leaving home far behind - they turned out to be quite brilliant company, having a great friendly attitude and horribly dry humour that left us laughing our ears of from time to time. Meeting them frequently during our shared route we had a lot of fun (too much silly jokes about the icons in the Kremlin), talks (about ants, Russians and other aspects of life) and games (rainworms, (p)aniek in the meadow, poker).
It was a late Moscow night when we departed the TransSiberianHostel in Moscow, and said goodbye to the few people left who gave us quite a good time (and in the case of Matt, some less good moments of waking up at 4am because he was drunk). We were brought to the 23u-something Baikal Express bringing us in three days to Irkutsk. Simon and Chael had managed to get a 3rd class ticket, rather nice because it seats you between the bulk of the Russian travellers who simply take the cheapest places. We had 2nd class places, rather similar to the St Petersburg-Moscow train, having less interesting Russians but the slight advantage of some more comfort (you sleep with 4 people instead of 50).
Our compartment company this time was a beautiful old man. His face looking a bit like a wrinkled potato (as many Russian faces do), he was endlessly patient and friendly. We never got to know his name, although we communicated a lot with him. Since he spoke a few words of German, this communication actually got beyond the 3 facts-per-hour rate that we seem to accomplish usually when playing dictionary seek-and-find with Russians. After an hour of puzzling dialogue, we concluded that he was heading for Irkutsk to see his son, or grandson, who is an officer in the army. He himself we understood to be either retired, or something like a concierge at some educational institue (the arm gestures for these are, as you can imagine, confusingly similar).
We had a fine first night of sleep, being woking cautiously by the slobbering sound of our company having breakfast. The evening before we already learned that he hadn't packed his travelling food supplies lightly, having a midnight dinner with chicken legs, soup, cheese, bread and large pickles. His food he eats enthousasticly with a slurping sound so amazingly loud I often woke up during our journey imagining that a large dog was drinking water somewhere near my ear - no problem ofcourse :)
His eating habits are also quite interesting. He tends to make a big bowl of tea (all trainwagons around here have a samovar, a kettle with constantly boiling water), in which he grates cheese from a big lump he brought with him. After this melted, he eats it out of the tea with a spoon (slurping a bit). This, we learned afterwards, is actually not a Russian eating habit, but just a way to eat molten cheese, which he likes.
Our days of travel brought once again a great feeling of adventure, rest, and wonder. It is so delicious to know having three days of having to do near nothing - probably even more for us who tend to fill up every inch of time with several yards of ideas. It was still hard sometimes to choose whether to read a book, keep our travel journals up to date, sleep, play a game, or look at the world passing by the window. Nevertheless, it's delicious. We wouldn't have minded if the journey had lasted a few days longer, although Listvianka provided a quite similar easy and even more beautiful time, as Aniek is currently writing down on the PC next to me.
Often, although perhaps never often enough - we kept reminding ourselves that this was half Siberia passing by - we sat looking out of the window. Snow, trees, small villages with old creaky wooden houses in varying colors. They appeared quite cold to live in. We looked for animals but saw none save a few birds. Sometimes small dots with fur hats walked through the snow between the houses, forests or large spaces of nothing. Sometimes there was some elevation; especially the last day got quite beautiful when the heights, sights and perspectives grew and changed more. It was beautiful and delightful. Doing nothing except observing the world through a little window.
Ofcourse, there was the obligatory drinking Russian on our wagon. Several sources already informed us of the rather strong inclination Russians have to feed you vodka, and so did this one. After meeting him a few times in the corridor, I accepted his offer to come by and have a drink - a bit politeness, a bit curiosity. He appeared to be a nice guy, a bit strong tempered, and speaking nearly no English at all. But his enthousiasm to talk with us compensated this and we gestured, dictionaried and pictionaried a merry lot. Meanwhile, he went through quite some effort to make sure we could drink a lot, instantly leaving to buy beers when I was in doubt to have a beer instead of vodka, offering me cognac as an alternative, and opening a new pint for Aniek while we were already standing on the doorstep saying goodbye. It was an interesting evening; tough but fun chat at first, but annoying in the end when we tried to leave in a polite way while he kept insisting (having got slightly drunk himself) to pour us more drinks. We were intrigued how to handle such people in a polite way. A probable conclusion is that we still have to become genearlly more rude to people. We'll keep practising :)
(I also got trained in this by interacting with the worst of our two provodniks, who seemed to snarl and growl at every of our actions, from asking for our tickets up to using the toilet, or simply looking at her with a polite questioning look.)
The first day we had dinner in the restaurant wagon with Simon and Chael (who I ran into on the platform while refilling our food stocks during one of the 20minute stops): a high cuisine of omelet with green peas. 2/3rd of the more interesting part of the menu (including our favorite, borsjt) was unavailable, a quite common thing in Russian horeca places.
The second day we had a nice visit to the 3rd class wagons, where Chael and Simon were staying in a crowded but oddly quiet wagon. It is one big dorm in there, but while expecting a busy chattering and drinking group of people, it was a silent group of travelling people, occupied with sleeping, reading, and staring at the two foreign Dutch guys, while filling the void of getting from here to there.
The third night I refused to stop reading my book, our company kept having midnight slurping snacks, and I was awake. While lying on my back I could see the stars clear and bright through the window - I could just see the Great Bear, which somehow always appears to be in sight while being the only stellar body I know - turning left and right while the train did the opposite. It was like a giant compass. We were travelling through Siberia and ready to get to Irkutsk, Listvianka and Lake Baikal. I didn't mind having a bad night sleep at all :)
(Aniek:)
The sun was already brightly shining when we arrived at 9 o’clock in the morning (the time difference now increased as promised to 7 hours ahead of you guys). Brightly shining means beautiful, yes, but here in Siberia also freezing cold, with another minus 15 ahead of us, this temperature was anyway far above the by us for Siberia expected minus 25 or so.
After some grumpy last conversation with the provodniza (grumpy Russians start to be almost normal to us) about our tickets, we had not problem to find Simon and Chael (the other dutchies) and Helena, the (not grumpy!) Russian girl who brought us all the way up to little village Listvianka where we would spend the next days. All the way and what a way it was! Our sleepiness vanished by the sight of the desolated beautiful, virgin as they seemed, hills, covered with berches and a lot of snow, and through these mountains a side track of Lake Baikal curled, already being a prelude to Lake Baikal that was awaiting us. Soon we tried to snap some nice pictures, although they could not really catch the view. (If we manage we’ll post them either today or soon in Mongolia.)
After an hour drive we were warmly welcomed by a russian couple that made up for all the grumpy Russians so far with giving us smiles and warmth two days long.
Finally we reached what we were looking for: completely nothing. Only now we found out that, even though the last two weeks in the cities were wonderful, they were still not relaxing enough for our exhausted minds……the sight of the enormous frozen lake, the large forests and the absence of any museums or churches of interest eased our minds, forced us to breath in and breath out and again and again…..we wandered around on the boulevard….hiked a bit in the hills….threw snowballs….walked on the lake……played a lot of games ( teguuhwormuhhh…paniek in de wei (gently renamed as Aniek in de wei) and enjoyed the excellent cooking skills of our host Danya, who prepared the endemic fish species Omul that her husband just caugth for us in the lake and pancakes in the morning. Brilliant indeed. But this isn’t all. If you’re surrounded by snow, in almost untouched nature, what do you do if you are Aike ( yes, this is Aniek calling..;)): you go skiing of course! :D, that is to say just for an hour…but ok ;) Yes, pictures follow. And then…last but Ab-so-lu-te-ly not least: we experienced the real Russian Banya experience! (Banya is a Russian sauna) Our hosts had one in their backyard (or actually, their neighbour’s it seemed, but anyway, we could use it). Luckily Chael and Simon already took a banya in Moskou so they taught us the whole ritual: Crawl into the sauna and inhalate the steam. So far nothing new. But then the berch twigs come in: take a bunch of them and start hitting your body with it, or your neighbour’s body..(can you imagine sitting them in moskou between the Russian old men, that kindly ask if they would like to be hit by them with the berch twigs???:D:D:D). Sounds strange, is great, as it stimulates your blood circulation, resulting in an even better sauna experience. Next step is go out, stand in a bucket filled with snow ( yes indeed!) and then the big moment…run outside and go and roll in the snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, with view on the frozen lake and minus 20 whaaaaaaaa :D then run inside again, take a nice warm footbath and the ritual starts all over again. Can you imagine we felt relaxed, clean and blessed after these two wonderful days? And can you imagine that we felt sorry leaving again this morning…but it was worth it, because in a few hours we will be heading for even more nature: Mongolia! But before that we visited the open air museum about Siberian architecture in the old days, that was flooded with Russians, because of Russia’s carnaval: a sort of Koninginnedag in minus 15 (jumping in bags...that sort of games and a lot of beer) and then arrived in Irkutsk, where we spent this afternoon walking around and saying goodbye to Russia. Tonight we have again a homestay and a too early breakfast at 4.45 will send us off to the station….bye Irkutsk….bye Russia….hello Mongolia!
Greets from Irkutsk!
A&A
PS - thanks for your comments again, good to hear what's happening there :)
Although we still haven't really covered Moscow, we'll continue our story with the train leaving there. It's easier and more pleasant. Perhaps we'll fill in the Moscow days some other time, or perhaps we'll tell you some day ;)
(Aike:)
From Moscow on we have been increasingly accompanied by Chael and Simon, two Dutch guys of our age who appeared to have an overlap with our trip during several days. As Chael wrote later, indeed bound to happen when you book at a Dutch travel organisation :).
They were also coming from St. Petersburg, staying for a few days in Moscow, and taking the trans-sib to Irkutsk/Listvianka like us. From Moscow to Irkutsk we have travelled together the last few days. From Irkutsk we take the Trans Mongolian Express to Ulan Baatar and Beijing, while they'll take the Trans Siberian Express to Vladivostok, continuing to Beijing, Harbin and in the end Ulan Baatar.
Where I at first was shaken by the idea of meeting Dutch tourists in a hostel in distant Russia - a fear probably shared by many travellers leaving home far behind - they turned out to be quite brilliant company, having a great friendly attitude and horribly dry humour that left us laughing our ears of from time to time. Meeting them frequently during our shared route we had a lot of fun (too much silly jokes about the icons in the Kremlin), talks (about ants, Russians and other aspects of life) and games (rainworms, (p)aniek in the meadow, poker).
It was a late Moscow night when we departed the TransSiberianHostel in Moscow, and said goodbye to the few people left who gave us quite a good time (and in the case of Matt, some less good moments of waking up at 4am because he was drunk). We were brought to the 23u-something Baikal Express bringing us in three days to Irkutsk. Simon and Chael had managed to get a 3rd class ticket, rather nice because it seats you between the bulk of the Russian travellers who simply take the cheapest places. We had 2nd class places, rather similar to the St Petersburg-Moscow train, having less interesting Russians but the slight advantage of some more comfort (you sleep with 4 people instead of 50).
Our compartment company this time was a beautiful old man. His face looking a bit like a wrinkled potato (as many Russian faces do), he was endlessly patient and friendly. We never got to know his name, although we communicated a lot with him. Since he spoke a few words of German, this communication actually got beyond the 3 facts-per-hour rate that we seem to accomplish usually when playing dictionary seek-and-find with Russians. After an hour of puzzling dialogue, we concluded that he was heading for Irkutsk to see his son, or grandson, who is an officer in the army. He himself we understood to be either retired, or something like a concierge at some educational institue (the arm gestures for these are, as you can imagine, confusingly similar).
We had a fine first night of sleep, being woking cautiously by the slobbering sound of our company having breakfast. The evening before we already learned that he hadn't packed his travelling food supplies lightly, having a midnight dinner with chicken legs, soup, cheese, bread and large pickles. His food he eats enthousasticly with a slurping sound so amazingly loud I often woke up during our journey imagining that a large dog was drinking water somewhere near my ear - no problem ofcourse :)
His eating habits are also quite interesting. He tends to make a big bowl of tea (all trainwagons around here have a samovar, a kettle with constantly boiling water), in which he grates cheese from a big lump he brought with him. After this melted, he eats it out of the tea with a spoon (slurping a bit). This, we learned afterwards, is actually not a Russian eating habit, but just a way to eat molten cheese, which he likes.
Our days of travel brought once again a great feeling of adventure, rest, and wonder. It is so delicious to know having three days of having to do near nothing - probably even more for us who tend to fill up every inch of time with several yards of ideas. It was still hard sometimes to choose whether to read a book, keep our travel journals up to date, sleep, play a game, or look at the world passing by the window. Nevertheless, it's delicious. We wouldn't have minded if the journey had lasted a few days longer, although Listvianka provided a quite similar easy and even more beautiful time, as Aniek is currently writing down on the PC next to me.
Often, although perhaps never often enough - we kept reminding ourselves that this was half Siberia passing by - we sat looking out of the window. Snow, trees, small villages with old creaky wooden houses in varying colors. They appeared quite cold to live in. We looked for animals but saw none save a few birds. Sometimes small dots with fur hats walked through the snow between the houses, forests or large spaces of nothing. Sometimes there was some elevation; especially the last day got quite beautiful when the heights, sights and perspectives grew and changed more. It was beautiful and delightful. Doing nothing except observing the world through a little window.
Ofcourse, there was the obligatory drinking Russian on our wagon. Several sources already informed us of the rather strong inclination Russians have to feed you vodka, and so did this one. After meeting him a few times in the corridor, I accepted his offer to come by and have a drink - a bit politeness, a bit curiosity. He appeared to be a nice guy, a bit strong tempered, and speaking nearly no English at all. But his enthousiasm to talk with us compensated this and we gestured, dictionaried and pictionaried a merry lot. Meanwhile, he went through quite some effort to make sure we could drink a lot, instantly leaving to buy beers when I was in doubt to have a beer instead of vodka, offering me cognac as an alternative, and opening a new pint for Aniek while we were already standing on the doorstep saying goodbye. It was an interesting evening; tough but fun chat at first, but annoying in the end when we tried to leave in a polite way while he kept insisting (having got slightly drunk himself) to pour us more drinks. We were intrigued how to handle such people in a polite way. A probable conclusion is that we still have to become genearlly more rude to people. We'll keep practising :)
(I also got trained in this by interacting with the worst of our two provodniks, who seemed to snarl and growl at every of our actions, from asking for our tickets up to using the toilet, or simply looking at her with a polite questioning look.)
The first day we had dinner in the restaurant wagon with Simon and Chael (who I ran into on the platform while refilling our food stocks during one of the 20minute stops): a high cuisine of omelet with green peas. 2/3rd of the more interesting part of the menu (including our favorite, borsjt) was unavailable, a quite common thing in Russian horeca places.
The second day we had a nice visit to the 3rd class wagons, where Chael and Simon were staying in a crowded but oddly quiet wagon. It is one big dorm in there, but while expecting a busy chattering and drinking group of people, it was a silent group of travelling people, occupied with sleeping, reading, and staring at the two foreign Dutch guys, while filling the void of getting from here to there.
The third night I refused to stop reading my book, our company kept having midnight slurping snacks, and I was awake. While lying on my back I could see the stars clear and bright through the window - I could just see the Great Bear, which somehow always appears to be in sight while being the only stellar body I know - turning left and right while the train did the opposite. It was like a giant compass. We were travelling through Siberia and ready to get to Irkutsk, Listvianka and Lake Baikal. I didn't mind having a bad night sleep at all :)
(Aniek:)
The sun was already brightly shining when we arrived at 9 o’clock in the morning (the time difference now increased as promised to 7 hours ahead of you guys). Brightly shining means beautiful, yes, but here in Siberia also freezing cold, with another minus 15 ahead of us, this temperature was anyway far above the by us for Siberia expected minus 25 or so.
After some grumpy last conversation with the provodniza (grumpy Russians start to be almost normal to us) about our tickets, we had not problem to find Simon and Chael (the other dutchies) and Helena, the (not grumpy!) Russian girl who brought us all the way up to little village Listvianka where we would spend the next days. All the way and what a way it was! Our sleepiness vanished by the sight of the desolated beautiful, virgin as they seemed, hills, covered with berches and a lot of snow, and through these mountains a side track of Lake Baikal curled, already being a prelude to Lake Baikal that was awaiting us. Soon we tried to snap some nice pictures, although they could not really catch the view. (If we manage we’ll post them either today or soon in Mongolia.)
After an hour drive we were warmly welcomed by a russian couple that made up for all the grumpy Russians so far with giving us smiles and warmth two days long.
Finally we reached what we were looking for: completely nothing. Only now we found out that, even though the last two weeks in the cities were wonderful, they were still not relaxing enough for our exhausted minds……the sight of the enormous frozen lake, the large forests and the absence of any museums or churches of interest eased our minds, forced us to breath in and breath out and again and again…..we wandered around on the boulevard….hiked a bit in the hills….threw snowballs….walked on the lake……played a lot of games ( teguuhwormuhhh…paniek in de wei (gently renamed as Aniek in de wei) and enjoyed the excellent cooking skills of our host Danya, who prepared the endemic fish species Omul that her husband just caugth for us in the lake and pancakes in the morning. Brilliant indeed. But this isn’t all. If you’re surrounded by snow, in almost untouched nature, what do you do if you are Aike ( yes, this is Aniek calling..;)): you go skiing of course! :D, that is to say just for an hour…but ok ;) Yes, pictures follow. And then…last but Ab-so-lu-te-ly not least: we experienced the real Russian Banya experience! (Banya is a Russian sauna) Our hosts had one in their backyard (or actually, their neighbour’s it seemed, but anyway, we could use it). Luckily Chael and Simon already took a banya in Moskou so they taught us the whole ritual: Crawl into the sauna and inhalate the steam. So far nothing new. But then the berch twigs come in: take a bunch of them and start hitting your body with it, or your neighbour’s body..(can you imagine sitting them in moskou between the Russian old men, that kindly ask if they would like to be hit by them with the berch twigs???:D:D:D). Sounds strange, is great, as it stimulates your blood circulation, resulting in an even better sauna experience. Next step is go out, stand in a bucket filled with snow ( yes indeed!) and then the big moment…run outside and go and roll in the snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, with view on the frozen lake and minus 20 whaaaaaaaa :D then run inside again, take a nice warm footbath and the ritual starts all over again. Can you imagine we felt relaxed, clean and blessed after these two wonderful days? And can you imagine that we felt sorry leaving again this morning…but it was worth it, because in a few hours we will be heading for even more nature: Mongolia! But before that we visited the open air museum about Siberian architecture in the old days, that was flooded with Russians, because of Russia’s carnaval: a sort of Koninginnedag in minus 15 (jumping in bags...that sort of games and a lot of beer) and then arrived in Irkutsk, where we spent this afternoon walking around and saying goodbye to Russia. Tonight we have again a homestay and a too early breakfast at 4.45 will send us off to the station….bye Irkutsk….bye Russia….hello Mongolia!
Greets from Irkutsk!
A&A
PS - thanks for your comments again, good to hear what's happening there :)
