Hi All,
So we hopped on the train. This was different to the normal 2nd class 4 birth compartment. We were travelling in 3rd class open compartment. This compartment had beds but no doors on the compartments and had more beds next to the windows so the number of people who could sleep in the carriage had doubled. This didn't bother us as we were just travelling for the day. Most if not all others were Russian and probably more working class. Some had been on the train from Moscow in the more public and cramped conditions. The beds were shorter to fit more in the carriage. Makes sense right? We were amazed at how people could sleep with all the noise and lights but they managed quite fine.
There was a picture perfect scene out of a book we had read of people eating fish. There were fish sellers on the train and were selling the lake baikal smoked Omul fish. It was breakfast and one man was drinking a large beer and eating his fish. Perfect. Lucky it wasn't summer.
This was a lovely day. Finally we saw the thick siberian forest stretching as far as could be seen. We tracked along the eastern edge of lake Baikal which seemed to have been frozen for longer than at Listvyanka and there were piles of broken blue ice, 5cm thick, due to the pressure exerted on the ice sheet.
We were trying to work out how a 170km trip was taking 7hrs when we determined that the speed was about 70km per hour. The distance on the train was actually more like 800km so perhaps our map scale was wrong.
We arrived at Ulan Ude and were supposed to be met to be transferred to the hotel. No one arrived at the platform. Hmmm. We went upstairs and then I dropped my pack and went down to the platform again. When I returned Vanessa had been found by our transfer person. She was native Buryat which is almost a mongolian. Very distinctly Oriental, very nice and well spoken. Ulan Ude did not feel like Russia and we wished that we had more time to spend exploring the region but maybe it would be better in a warmer season.
Current temperature is minus 40 degrees and diamond chips are falling from the sky .........
We explored for a while but were defeated by the cold again and snuck into a supermarket to warm up. There were some nice wooden houses in the area. Later we went for lunch in a mongolian restuarant which obviously was run by the same company as the restuarant we dined at in Irkutsk. Later we realised that there was a cafe in a Yurt near the city centre but had already eaten unfortunately.
We headed off to bed for some sleep and an early start.
I have not been comfortable with any of the russian train stations during our stay and when I went to ask for help at the information desk and got a rude and dismissive 'Nyet', 'Nyet', 'Nyet' to any question even when I asked in Russian. I was getting quite stressed as we still didn't have the train information and it (the train) was minutes away. The train station information staff as a rule have been very unhelpful during our trip and this pushed me over the edge. I lost my temper and angrily let fly with some strong abuse words "$&/!***. Didn't help. Luckily it didn't invite interest from the police.
We got help from someone else in the station and found the platform and onto the train.
Regards,
David and Vanessa
