Trans Siberian Railway
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2007
1
13
17
Trip End
Ongoing
St. Petersburg,
Russia
Monday, May 5, 2008
Trans Siberian Railway
I have to say that I wasn't looking forward to going back to China, but I arrived in Beijing on April 13th and hopped in a taxi to go to the hotel where my tour of the Trans Siberian Railway would start. Traffic was awful, and at one point the taxi driver turned off the engine, and went to talk to other taxi drivers who were also stuck in traffic. After we got going again, I watched the scenery for a bit, then had a look at a tourism brochure to figure out how I was going to spend the little time there that I had before the tour started. As I glanced up from reading the brochure, we were driving by the huge picture of Chairman Mao at Tianamen Square! We turned left just past Tianamen Square, and my hotel was just down the street. After I checked in and got in to the room, I turned on the TV, and within a minute or so, the video 'We Are Ready', came on. It is the video that was made for the Beijing Olympics and when I saw it, it immediately brought back so many good memories of teaching at No. 1 Middle School, as Jenna and I used it when we did our lesson on the Olympics.
After I got settled in my hotel room, I went out wandering. When I was walking through Tianamen Square, I was approached by a guy and girl who asked me all the usual questions - where are you from, how long are you in Beijing, etc. After talking to them for a bit, they told me that they went to art school, and their school was putting on an art exhibition, and would I like to go and see it. Of course I said yes, and when we got there, they both showed me the beautiful work 'they' had done. They asked me if I had a Chinese name, then the guy proceeded to write it in Chinese characters. Of course they asked me if I wanted to buy a piece of their art, but I told them that I didn't have enough room in my pack. When we came out of the exhibition, they asked me what I was going to do. When I told them I was going back to the hotel, they said they wanted to practice their English with me, and perhaps we could go out for something to drink. We decided to go for tea, as I had never experienced a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. We were taken in to a private room, and a girl came in and proceeded with the ceremony - sterilizing the tea cups (which were a tiny bit bigger than a thimble), then pouring six different kinds of tea over the 30 - 45 minutes we were there. After we had all had enough to drink, we decided it was time to go. The bill came and the total for each one of us was the equivalent of about $30-$35 Cdn. I was shocked at how expensive the tea was, but I politely paid my share of the bill. As we were leaving, I kept trying to work out how it could have been so expensive because each tea that we tried resulted in about six sips. When we got outside, the girl told me that she needed to go to the bathroom, and that I probably didn't want to wait for her because 'it might take a while'. Besides, she was going to catch the bus and go home after that. We bid each other farewell, and I made my way back to my hotel getting madder and madder at myself for being taken by such a scam. The next day when I joined my tour, I discovered that the same thing had happened to three other people on the tour. It's funny, because Beijing keeps saying that they want 2008 to be the best Olympics ever, but I wonder how the many tourists are going to feel about Beijing when they too, are taken by the tea scam.
The next morning I went downstairs to have breakfast and met Gemma, a girl from Australia who was on the same tour as me. She was heading out to the Summer Palace so I quickly had my breakfast, and joined her for a few hours. After the Summer Palace, I went to the Forbidden City. It was so big and there was no way that I was able to see everything there. When I was buying my ticket, I started talking to a guy who was from Alaska. We chatted for a bit, and then when we parted company I warned him about the art/tea scam. He thanked me, but I wonder if he to had been taken as I saw an art container sticking out of his backpack.
Later in the afternoon, I met up with the tour group at 5pm at the hotel. Our tour leader, Michael, was from Beijing. Although he was very knowledgeable about Beijing and it's history, I wasn't too impressed with his skills as a tour leader. He didn't even get us to introduce ourselves to each other!
The next day we went to the Simatai area of the Great Wall. We met early in the morning, and then drove for 2.5 hours to get to where we would start our climb. We all started out at a pretty good clip, and not long after we got started, we were joined by locals who accompanied us on our climb, then of course, tried to sell us something at the end. Michael had warned us that these people would approach us, and if we weren't interested, to just tell them. I thought it was funny because it seemed like many of them weren't able to keep up with us as they were breathing pretty heavily! I didn't have the heart to tell my guide 'no', and she took good care of me. She kept telling me 'MAMANDO' - slowly. Maybe it was for her benefit instead of mine! Whenever we got to one of the towers to take a break, she would bring out her big fan and start fanning me to cool me down. How could I say no to that???? We finally made it to the top, and I was surprised that it didn't take as long as I thought it would. On the way down, my guide, of course, started her sales spiel. I wasn't interested in a book or a fan, but I did end up buying a t-shirt from her - my new pajamas!
The next morning we met at 5:40am to walk to the train station with our bags and board the train. This particular tour did not include an escort on the train, and Michael dropped us off at the train with no instructions on what to do on the train or what to do once we got to Ulaan Baatar. Hmmm, not impressed . . . . .
The train was similar to the one I took to Lhasa, except that there were only four people to a compartment instead of six. Luckily, we were in compartments with other people from the tour and not with any burping or farting Chinese people!
We went through customs in Erlian, China late at night, and had to wait about three hours for the process to be completed. You have the choice of either staying on the train, or getting off and going in to the station, but you can't get on and off the train as you please, as they change the 'bogeys' so that the wheels will fit the tracks in Mongolia. Everyone on our tour chose to go in to the station where there was a small duty free shop, a small supermarket and a bar. I made a trip to the duty free shop and bought my first bottle of Vodka - Stoly! After that, we all went in to the supermarket where it was crowded with passengers buying food for the train, or to take home to Mongolia. The Mongolians seemed to be buying milk, fruit, etc., by the caseloads, and all you could hear was the sound of masking tape taping up box after box of supplies. After we had all spent most of our Yuan on food, we went upstairs to the bar to sit and wait until we could get back on the train. Noel, one of the guys on the tour kept talking about a bottle of Jack Daniels that he had seen in the duty free shop and how cheap it was. He had some Yuan left, so we encouraged him to go and treat himself if that was what he really wanted. He finally relented, and went and spent the last of his Yuan on his bottle. When he got back on the train he decided to have a bit of a tipple. He thought it tasted very weak, and on close inspection of the bottle, discovered that it was in fact Jack DANIEIS, not Jack DANIELS!!! We all had a good laugh, and got lots of mileage out of Jack Danieis for the remainder of the trip. All we would have to do is mention 'Jack Danieis' and we'd start laughing all over again!
Immigration procedures for Mongolia were a bit shorter - only two and a half hours! We all sat on the train as the Customs Officer came through the carriage collecting our passports. It was hard to take her seriously, as she certainly didn't look too official in her uniform with a short skirt, high black leather boots, and patterned black stockings. Some people commented that they were waiting for her to bring out her whip!
After a night on the train we arrived in Ulaan BaaTar and were met by our local tour leader - Man. Everyone instantly liked him - he was a young, cool guy who was friendly, knowledgeable and had a great sense of humour. We checked in to the hotel, and discovered that there was no hot water available after being overnight on the train! However, they did have free wifi! After getting settled in the hotel, Man took us out to change money. It was very windy, with dust blowing all over the place, and Man told us we had arrived in the 'brown' season. As we walked around town, I noticed that the women were dressed very fashionably, and that boots were very popular.
We went out for dinner as a group that night, and discovered for the first time that service in restaurants is extremely slow! It's probably not a good idea to go out for dinner when you start to feel hungry; as you will be starving by the time you finally get your food! Ulaan Baatar is similar to Vancouver when it comes to restaurants, in that you can get almost any kind of food. After dinner we headed back to the room for an early night, but were awakened at 2am when a girl came in to our room. I was woken up when I thought I could hear someone trying to open our door, so I sat up to be able to hear a bit better. Just after I sat up, a girl opened the door and walked in to our room. I screamed out, 'what are you doing?' and I think she was just as shocked as I was! She quickly ran out and slammed the door behind her. The next morning we told the front desk what had happened, and they checked their video security footage. It looked like the girl was staying in the same room on another floor and got a little confused, but it was a little unsettling that her key was able to open our door!
My first impressions of Ulaan Baatar were not that great with the dust and all, however, when we woke up the next morning to a gorgeous sunny day with blue skies and white puffy clouds, my opinion changed pretty quickly! We were taken on a city tour, and apparently it was graduation day for many university students. Everywhere we went, students were dressed up and cracking open bottles of champagne. After the city tour, we made our way out of town to a ger camp where we would spend the next two nights.
When we were driving to the ger camp, we had to go through a checkpoint where there was a guard who lifted a gate for us to get through. He was accompanied by who I presumed was his son, who was wearing a Spiderman costume with dark sunglasses. He must have been all of about four years old. I figured this was a perfect opportunity to bring out my balloons. It was so cute as he slid his sunglasses down his nose to watch me blow up the balloon, probably wondering if it was going to be for him. When I finished blowing it up, I stepped off the bus and handed it to him. No sooner had I given it to him than the wind blew it out of his hands. He immediately went running after it, and when I realized that he wasn't going to be able to catch it, I started calling out to him to let him know that I had more balloons. However, he was too focused on trying to catch the balloon, so he kept going. The balloon was moving at a pretty good clip, and when he realized that he wasn't going to be able to catch it, he sat down and started to cry. It just broke my heart, so I quickly started blowing up another balloon. Gemma dug in to her bag and brought out a piece of string, so I tied it to the balloon and ran over to the little boy. As I was approaching him, I kept calling out to him to show him the balloon, but he was too upset to look up. When I finally reached him, I touched him on his knee, and said 'look'. When he looked up to see the balloon, the tears stopped, and he broke in to a big smile. I tried tying it around his wrist, but he wouldn't have any of it, so I tied the string through the zipper of his jacket, and that way, he could hold it in his hand. I then asked him to turn around, and we waved to everyone on the bus who had been watching. I hopped back on the bus, and we all bid farewell to a very happy Spiderman.
En route to our ger camp, we came across two gentlemen with their horses, and an eagle. We all got off the bus and took turns taking pictures holding the eagle. I always thought I was pretty strong, but I couldn't believe how heavy it was and almost dropped the bird when it was first placed on my arm! When we first met up with Man, I had asked him if we were going to get a chance to ride camels, and he had said that it wasn't part of the tour. As we were all standing around taking pictures with the eagle, Man came up to me and said the men were going to get their camels. I looked off in the distance, and a couple of camels came prancing towards us. They are so different from the camels in India. They are very fluffy, have two humps, and keep whimpering. I fell in love with them instantly and of course, had to have a ride!
After our brief stop, we continued to the ger camp, and arrived in the late afternoon. I was surprised at how roomy the gers were inside. There were three beds, a small table, and a small metal stove in the middle with a pipe that went through an opening in the ceiling. Beside the stove was a well stocked bucket of wood. We had a couple of hours to get settled, then made our way to a larger ger where we ate all our meals. I was surprised at how warm it was inside. After dinner, we headed back to our ger to go to bed and discovered that a cold wind had picked up. As we got settled in to bed, a woman came in and proceeded to stock the stove with wood, and then light a fire for us! We went to bed snuggled up under the comforter, watching the shadows of the fire from the stove dance on the walls, while listening to the howling winds outside.
The next morning we awoke to thunder, lightening and pouring rain. Two guys came in around 7am to cover the opening in the ceiling and to light the fire in our stove. I was in my glory all cuddled up in bed as the storm raged outside. Later in the morning it turned out to be gorgeous, and you never would have known that there had been a storm earlier on.
We spent the day taking it easy, then going horseback riding. Later in the evening it seemed to get quite cold, and the next morning when we woke up, it was so cold that the rainwater that had gathered in the plastic the day before was frozen. Again someone came in to the ger to light our stove before we had to get ready for breakfast.
On our last day at the ger camp, after we had packed up, we went to visit a nomadic family. I was surprised how roomy, homey and warm their ger was. We were given tea and curd as the old man told us about his son/daughters and how they were studying abroad. Here we were in a traditional Mongolian ger in the countryside of Mongolia looking at pictures of this man's family members standing in front of the Eiffel Tower. He would tell Man about his family, and then Man would translate for us. After talking about his family, he would say 'that's the news', and we'd all laugh.
We stayed one more night in a hotel in Ulaan Baatar before boarding the train to head to Siberia. When we boarded the train, a gentleman came around changing our remaining tugrik in to rubles. If we had too many smaller notes, he would hand them back and say 'souvenir'.
Going through border patrol in Russia was a little unsettling. While the Customs Officers were checking our passports, there were guards going through the train lifting up floorboards, and checking the ceilings. After the Customs Officer took our passports, her assistant asked us to leave the compartment, and he proceeded to search under our beds, then pulled the ceiling panels down and searched the roof.
After two days on the train, we arrived in Irkutsk where we were met by our local tour guide Ivan, who whisked us off to two days at a home stay in Lake Baikal. I wasn't sure what to expect but was pleasantly surprised when we were taken to an A-frame log cabin right across the street from Lake Baikal. We got settled in to our rooms, and then went downstairs for a much appreciated breakfast of Russian pancakes, tea and coffee.
After breakfast, we walked to the Lake Baikal museum, and then went on a chairlift ride for a gorgeous view of the lake. It was pretty cold outside, and the lake was still frozen. However, the signs of spring were on the way, and when you walked alongside the lake, you could hear the ice cracking as it started to melt.
That night we went out for dinner to a restaurant close to our home stay. I was surprised at how expensive everything was, and how unfriendly the waitresses were. Ivan explained that they are there to take your order, not to be your friend.
The next day we went for a hike with Sacha, a retired school teacher. We hiked for a couple of hours, then had lunch on the beach which consisted of mashed potatoes, sausage, salami, cucumber, tomato, dark chocolate, oranges and Russian cakes. It was so good! We hiked back along a different trail. Sacha explained that if we had been there two weeks earlier, we would have gone back by walking on the lake, but it was starting to thaw and not really safe for walking.
After our hike, Patrick, Juanita, Herman, Simon and John went for a dip in frozen Lake Baikal. I was a big chicken, and decided to take pictures instead of partake. They all got in to their bathing suits, went in to the sauna to get warmed up, then came out and dove in to the lake. The people where we were staying had made an opening in the ice for them to go in. After a dip in the lake, it was back in to the sauna. Simon, John and Herman went in for a second time, and Patrick went in for a third time!!
On our last day at Lake Baikal, we went to see the wooden church - Church of St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas for Russians is the same as St. Christopher for Catholics - protector of travelers. After that, we headed back for a night in Irkutsk. After we checked in, Noel, Lee and I went out in search of the internet. Ivan gave us directions on how to get to the closest internet café. Now most of the time, I admit that I am directionally challenged, but this time I swear that I went exactly where he told me to, but we couldn't find the internet café anywhere. He told us that it was in a language institute, but after asking a handful of people by saying 'internet café' and pretending to type, we were finally lead to a computer classroom in the school!! Oh well, at least we got to check our e-mail and it didn't cost us anything. How strange that we were in a language institute, and nobody could speak English!
I had to keep watching myself from whistling whenever I was inside a building in Russia. It's habit for me to whistle to a tune that I hear, but Ivan explained that apparently when the soldiers were coming through to destroy homes, they were whistling, so whenever Russians hear whistling in confined spaces, it's not a good thing.
We didn't go to many Russian restaurants, but I did try some Borsch. It was okay, but certainly nothing to write home about. They like to use sour cream in a lot of the dishes served there, and it was really tasty. Whenever you order a meat dish in Russia, you also have to order any side dishes, at an extra charge. It can get very frustrating eating at restaurants, as many of the things that are listed on the menu are not available, or they will tell you that it's 'finished'. Once you have finally decided what you want to eat after you discover the selection is now very small, it usually takes an hour or more from the time you order your food to the time it finally arrives. You definitely need to go to a restaurant BEFORE you start feeling hungry.
We boarded the train for our four-day journey, and were in a car with quite a few Russians. In the two cars beside us were two young boys - Maxsim, probably age 4 and Danielle, probably age 6. They were not brothers, but they were close enough in age that they automatically became friends. Maxsim had blonde hair, and wandered up and down the corridor rambling on and on and on in Russian. Whenever he talked to any of us, we would speak to him in English, but it didn't seem to bother him that we couldn't understand what he was saying, and he just kept rambling. He was absolutely adorable! Danielle was also cute, as he was missing his two front teeth. On our first night, I brought out my bag of balloons, and it provided a couple of hours of entertainment for them and for me. Balloons certainly have a way of bridging the communication gap. By 9pm, they were both out like a light.
The next day we spent the day playing cards, Maxsim and Danielle joined in. It was so funny because Maxsim was still rambling - he just never stopped!
As much as I love train travel, I have to admit that I wasn't too crazy about the idea of having to spend four nights on the train. However, I was surprised at how fast it went. It was kind of nice not having the pressure of having to do anything or go anywhere. The highlight of the days were stops where we could get off and load up on more junk food, or waiting for the meal car lady to come around selling meat pies, potato pies, or pizza (beer too!).
A typical day on the train consisted of getting up around 9am, then going to get some hot water to make coffee. After having breakfast, I'd make my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I think it's important to note that there are no showers on the train, and toilets are locked when the train is at a station. One has to be very careful to time bathroom breaks appropriately. After that I would read, play cards, visit other compartments, listen to music or have a nap. After all, it can get quite tiring doing absolutely nothing!
After three nights on the train, Maxsim and his mom were getting off. We didn't get to their stop until about 11:30 pm, and most of us stayed up to say goodbye to him. His mom had him all bundled up for the cold weather, and he was still rambling on and on. I was so sad to see him go. I just wanted to put my arms around him and never let him go. The next morning was so quiet without hearing his little voice. Unfortunately, Daniel got off the train as well, but we don't know when, and never got a chance to say goodbye to him.
We arrived in Moscow at 4am, and were picked up by the driver and taken to our hotel. At the hotel, our tour leader Svetlana, for the last leg of our tour, met us. We were given a couple of hours to have a sleep, and then we were to meet in the lobby at 10am for a tour of Red Square and the Kremlin. After being on the train for four days, Juanita and I pooled our dirty clothes and started filling out the form to have our laundry done by the hotel. Once we added everything up, we calculated that it was going to cost approximately $198Cdn! We nixed that idea, and I got out my laundry soap and started doing it by hand. Unfortunately, Noel and Lee put their laundry in to have it done by the hotel, and it ended up costing them $250Cdn. The worst part is that they don't have dryers in Russia, so everything came back to them wet!! We knew that everything in Russia is outrageously expensive, but that was ridiculous!
We all met in the lobby for the city tour, and it was absolutely amazing seeing St. Basils' Cathedral and the Kremlin in person. At the end of our tour, we wanted to go and see the Faberge eggs, but Juanita and I had booked tickets to see Mama that evening, so we were unable to go.
When we booked the tickets, we never thought to ask if the performance would be in Russian or English. Sure enough, the performance, including the music, was in Russian! Even though we couldn't understand the language, we still really enjoyed the performance. I was seated by a large, older, Russian gentleman who was very serious and seemed to never smile. Once the lights went down and the music started, I could see him tapping his hand on his leg to the rhythm of the music, and his whole body shook when he laughed. By the end of the performance the whole audience was dancing and clapping to the music, and even the gentleman next to me was shaking his booty! On the way out, he gave us a nod and a smile. That was my fourth time seeing Mama Mia. I could see it ten more times and never get sick of it.
The next day was a free day, and after a leisurely morning, a group of us went out and saw the inside of Christ the Savior Cathedral, wandered around looking at souvenirs, then went back to Red Square to see the GUM Department Store. It was huge, and absolutely beautiful inside! May 1st was a holiday, and Red Square was packed! It was interesting to see the women all dressed up for a day of shopping.
The next evening, we hopped aboard our last train to take us to St. Petersburg. This was an overnight trip, and very short compared to the last one I had done. We arrived in St. Petes at 7am, and were picked up by our driver and taken to our hotel. Svetlana gave us a couple of hours to shower and have breakfast, and then we met in the lobby for a city tour.
Everyone seemed to keep saying that St. Petersburg is much better than Moscow and they weren't wrong. If I had been shown pictures of St. Petersburg and asked to guess where it was, I would have never guessed that it was in Russia. It is an absolutely beautiful city with lots of parks, waterways, restaurants, etc. Although Nevsky Prospekt was pretty busy on a Saturday afternoon, it certainly didn't seem like a city of 4 million. Besides the cold winters, I would imagine it would be a great city to live in, and I could definitely see myself teaching English there. It might not even be that bad in the winter if the homes have central heating. The only thing I didn't like about St. Petersburg (or the rest of Russia for that matter) is the fact that it is legal to drink beer on the streets, and it wasn't uncommon to see someone walking around the streets with a beer as early as 7am. We also saw quite a few people who had a few too many.
After our city tour, Gemma and I went for a boat ride along the Neva River, then headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner. Although the tour wasn't over for another two nights, Melissa and John were leaving the night before the last one, so we all went out for a last group dinner.
The next day we met Svetlana at the Hermitage, and saw only a small portion of the 3 million pieces on display. After that, there was time for a quick lunch, some souvenir shopping then back to the hotel to get ready to go and see Swan Lake - in St. Petersburg, Russia!!!! I consider myself a seasoned traveler, but there are still times when I say to myself 'here I am in (fill in the blank) doing/seeing/going to (fill in the blank). Seeing Swan Lake was one of them.
As we wandered back to the hotel after the ballet, I kept thinking that three weeks had gone by way too fast, and I definitely wasn't ready to leave St. Petersburg yet - there was still so much exploring to do, pictures to take and restaurants to try!
When I first considered taking the trip, I weighed the pros and cons between doing it on my own, and doing it on a tour. I don't really consider myself a tour person, but am glad that I decided to do the tour instead of on my own. I think it would have been very lonely being on the train for the long stretches by myself. Not only that, if I hadn't booked the tour, I probably wouldn't have gone back to China, and probably would never have ended up taking this incredible journey.
As our friend in the ger camp would say, 'That's the news'.
Until next time,
Gaye
