The Trans Mongolian Railway
We caught train number 4 which is a Chinese train with Chinese staff. Departure was Tuesday 14th
October 2008 at 9.35pm. Moscow time. Our cabin was a deluxe with 2 beds
and a small armchair. We shared a shower room with the neighbouring
cabin although the shower was a trickle at most. The sink was quite
handy for washing our mugs and cups though. Each carriage had a toilet
(ours actually had 2, but the crew kept one locked for their own use),
hot water boiler (constant supply) and crew cabin. There was a
restaurant car and also the chance to buy all sorts of food and snacks
from people selling on the platforms as the train stopped en route.
This was a little hit and miss as sometimes there was no one there and
other times there would be people selling a wide range of things they
had made themselves from boiled eggs to bread and cakes. Some
stations just had a few small shops on the platform. The other variable
was how long the train would actually stop for. The train crew would
offer advice on this and usually get everyone back on board in good
time. But it appeared to be up to the train driver when exactly we
would leave. We had one occasion that saw us and other passengers
running to jump on board the moving train. At many of the stops coal
was taken on board each carriage to fuel the boilers for hot water and
heating. We soon learnt that while the old coal truck trundled along
the platform servicing each carriage, we were fairly safe to stretch
our legs and buy supplies without danger of the train leaving.
Most
importantly the various vendors kept us supplied with essential beer
for the evening’s card games and a toga party on the third night. The
vendors are not allowed to sell vodka on the platform, although it was
occasionally offered surreptitiously from vendor’s hold alls. The half
bottle of malt whiskey we brought from home and the better quality
vodka disappeared in the first few days. A bit too much cheap vodka
during the 3rd night’s toga party meant that no one emerged before 1pm on the 4th day. Food was mostly pot noodles, soups and porridge that could all be easily produced using the readily available boiling water.
Time
zones were a little confusing. The timetable is written on Moscow time
but we crossed 5 time zones by the time we reached Ulan Bator. We kept
our alarm clock on Moscow time and kept our watches adjusted to local
time. This enabled us to work out where we were most of the time.
Although the journey to Ulan Bator spanned 6 days, it began at 9.35pm
on the first day and ended at 7.30am on the last day. We also gained 5
hours on our departure time as the journey progressed through the time
zones. All together this made the journey pass quite quickly. It was
early in the morning on day 3 when the train descended from the Ural
mountains, leaving Europe and entering Asia. Around 2100 km from Moscow
this also marked the start of Siberia.
From
the first day of the train journey the views through the window were of
a very different Russia to what we had seen in Moscow and St
Petersburg. We passed through vast wooded areas dotted with villages of
small wooden houses. The towns and cities had an industrial feel, with
wooden houses and unpaved road on the outskirts and large housing
blocks in the centre. Some of these blocks looked like they had been
modernised and others looked quite rundown.
Our
book described the construction of the railway starting in 1891. Before
the railway the only route across Siberia was on the post road, a rough
and dangerous journey by horse and carriage. This was the route that
the so called “exiles” followed on their slow march to the Siberian
prisons. The discovery of massive salt, gold, silver and coal deposits
in Siberia in the late 17th and 18th centuries
meant that a work force was needed to mine these valuable resources.
All sorts of petty crimes were punished by exile in order to feed the
demand for labour. The exile system was abolished in 1900 only to be
replaced just 30 years later by Stalin’s concentration camps, again a
system to provide labour for construction and factories.
On
the morning of day 5 we saw the sun rise over Lake Baikal. Said to be
the world’s deepest lake (1637m) containing 20% of all the earths fresh
water (approx 20,000 cubic kilometres). Half of the lake previously
belonged to Mongolia but was “given” to Russia by the Mongolian
communist party.
We
arrived at the border area at about 9pm on day 5. The Russian border
officers came on board in numbers and took everyone’s passports away.
Then sniffer dogs were brought on, in our cabin the poor dog came no
further than Sarah’s sandals that were on the floor near the door. Then
the wait started. We had drunk a couple of beers whilst playing cards
in the afternoon and this gave us the courage to go for a walk. We
guessed the train wouldn’t go anywhere while our passports were gone. A
short walk along an unpaved road outside the station took us to a small
shop. The brusque women in the shop exchanged our remaining roubles for
chocolate and crisps while we and other twitchy passengers listened out
for the sound of a moving train. In fact it was a full 5 hours before
the border control officers returned our passports and allowed the
train to move on. The toilets were locked through the time that the
train stood stationary. Frustratingly I missed the 10 minute window to
use the toilet before we stopped again at the Mongolian border control.
Again passports were taken away, but this time we were on our way in
just 2 hours. The Mongolian customs officer was very smartly dressed in
a grey suite and extremely polite as he asked us if we had any
narcotics, clarifying his poor pronunciation of narcotics by pretending
to inject his arm and then to sniff something off the back of his hand.
Our reply of “oh no, no narcotics” seemed to please him as he said
“good” and moved on to conduct his next interview. A few hours light
sleep found us at Ulan Bator the Mongolian Capital 6304 km from Moscow.
