Transiberien - a pinch of adventure?
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2006
1
42
551
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
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Tayshet - Zima,
Russia
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
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Just before Tayshet, Sucha realises that her cellphone is missing. She shouts a bit, the militsia arrives, they talk for a good half hour. Having difficulties coping with their helpnessness, one of the policemen wants to search all my luggage, certainly so that he can say they did something.
Although I have received a really good and repeated training with the nigerian customs, I have to say they pissed me off to some extend. But still everything going smoothly (except when he tried to grab my passport and money bag... but he stopped). Sucha tells them it's not me, they say its their job, etc... I open little by little my daypack, until they are tired with it.
I had seen a foreign traveller in the next compartment, who had got on the train recently. I go to ask him if he has seen anything. No, of course, he was out of the train at the same time as us. He's french, retired, and going to visit his son in Shangai. We chat for a few minutes, until we arrive in Tayshet: I join Sucha to go get beer and food with her, as she needs some calming down and cheering up: all her pictures/videos/contacts were in her cellphone.
So there we go, on this I-thought-to-be-20-minutes-stop. We cross above the rails, except for the last railway where we cross in front of an incoming train, who stops between us and the baikal. We buy 4 beers and noodles, go back to the steps over the tracks... just in time to see our baikal train leaving... but not in time to catch it, even with a lot of running and shouting... errr... that was in fact a 5 minute stop...
So, a quick assessment of the situation: I am wearing a t-shirt, pants, and flip-flops (which I had to remove to run). I also happen to have with me my passport, camera, credit card, and money. Sucha is in pyjamas, with a pullover and running shoes (all in red and pink). Well well well... Oh, yes, also, all our equipment, bags, clothes, are lying in our compartment (luckily, it is closed... but still running away from us). Well well well well well .....
Almost immediately, we come accross the station employees, who take us to another train to discuss with the train director. They make a few phone calls and tell us to board their train, for 300 roubles. I ask about trying to catch our train by car... not a good idea apparently. I ask Sucha to call her mom so that she can at least retrieve our luggage when our train arrives in Irkutsk. Not possible either, apparently.
There I had my first cigarette in one year, and I appreciated it in full serenity. I was a bit cold in t-shirt, though.
Sucha asks me what I want to do, but we do not seem to have much of a choice. I pay the 300 roubles to the provodnik, and we get into that train. Another guy from our train joins us shortly after. He does not have his shoes, but he has his jacket...
I tried to figure out the delay between our baikal train arrival time in Irkutsk and our's. No real answer...
Well, at least that just confirmed that passport and money only are vital, as I did not see any reason to panic on the loss of all my other stuff.
Shortly after, the provodnik had changed back to civilian clothes and joined us. We drank and ate. They sang russians songs and smoked lots of cigarettes too. After a few hours I wanted to sleep, but that's when the guy who missed the train with us started being annoying to the lady. So I stayed with Mark, the provodnik, just to make sure things were ok. So I ended up not sleeping and continuing to drink, as apparently Mark eventually found out that he would be better alone with Sucha, and me sleeping. Well well well... I sure got the first one drunk and sleeping, then I stood up to the second one until there was no beer left, but at a high price, as I was well impregnated with alcohol too. At this point it was around 1am, Moscow time. That is, 5 or 6 am locally. I had to make a choice between leaving drunken Sucha with drunken Mark, or not. As a little bit of lucidity had survived in my brains, I remarked that we were stopped in a station. I asked Mark about where we were, if we were far behind our train, etc... no real answer, I think he knew but did not want to say... So I went out in the corridor. The train next to ours was blue. I walked a few meters... THE BAIKAL !!!!
Wow, said thanks, jumped from one train to the other. We almost forgot the other annoying drunk guy, who was sleeping in the other train.
We travelled our way up the baikal to our wagon. In every wagon we went through, we had remarks and signs of relief from the provodnitsas... we were famous in the Baikal !
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Comments
Tynoymho
I would have paid soooo much to see you worried when the train left, to see you asking acurate questions and getting only broad answers. Oh my ... i am rolling on the floor laughing thinking about your face as the train leaves, thinking about all consequences of this miss. Good thing you have been able to catch it, though.