Russia!

  Ulan-Ude, Russian Federation
Friday, May 20, 2005

 Russia was instantly obviously different from Mongolia.  Fenced animals and house-like buildings.  No more tents.  As we've continued into the country a bit, it seems that my bed-side window looks onto a Mongolian-style landscape, whereas out the corridor side, it could be Canada.  Well, I don't know.  Maybe there are valleys and plains with rivers like that in Canada, but the pines on the rocky hills out the corridor-side windows certainly seem familiar.

I saw hill-houses, actually - like hobbit holes but different.  The hill didn't look natural in the least.  The house wasn't built out of the hill, the hill was built on the house.  But they're gone now.  That's the problem with being on a train or a bus; if there's something you want to look at longer, you can't.  It's gone. 

We've just passed Goose Lake.  The city at the end (and the view of the lake at that end) is dominated by a huge, horrific power plant.  Passing that, it appears that we are in a war zone.  The area surrounding the power plant is strewn with rusty, discarded machinery and, despite the grass, looks like a bomb has gone off here in the not-too-distant past and the area has been forgotten or just neglected or abandoned since.  The city, Gusinoozyorsk, is a mining town and is probably not much nicer close up - especially as it's a coal mining town.  This stop is Zagustay and, oddly, the view away from the lake is quite pleasant; a grassy valley and the surrounding treed hills belie the closeness of the grimy city.

Siberia

Train shot!

A town in Siberia

Since the power plant monstrosity, the countryside has been quite pleasant.  Quaint little wooden villages mark the stops - such as a particularly long stop at Arangoy.  The houses are dark wood with corrugate roofs, but the windows and shutters are all blue and white (with the occasional rebellious green or purple).

chikachiKE chikachiKE as we roll along....

5 Stars for Colour!

The sun is finally setting on us, and while the Selenge River valley remains a lush green, even in shadow, the hills are alight with the red sunset glow - the last rays of today's sun.

 We just crossed the river, actually.  Any fine photos were blocked by the girders of the bridge.  But whatever.  This valley is certainly lovely though.

There must be a lot of logging around here.  We've passed several lumber trains.

Sunset in Siberia

Our train, which was several cars long when we left UB, went down to only our one carriage to cross the border, and it attached to an Irkutsk-Naushki train at the border, so there're 4 cars again.  I went for a walk to the front of the train, and passed 2 platzkartny carriages full of Russians.  My first impression is that they stink.  Literally.  They friggin' reeked of B.O.  I noticed this in the bank in Naushki as well, but the walk down the train has only reinforced the thought.  OK.  No platzkartny, and DEFINITELY go for train 9/10 that has a shower.  Hmmm...

Welcome to Ulan Ude.  I figured (correctly) that this would be a long stop, so I got out and stretched my legs.  There was an old train on display here, and after taking a photo of that I had to take a photo of the train I was actually on for comparison.  Unfortunately it was kinda too dark for these photos. 

Ulan Ude!

The old train

My train