Hi All,
Our train was a flash no 20. It was the Moscow to Beijing train and had a neat interior and even a TV screen which blocked access to some of the upper storage area above the door. I felt that the new improved version was not as good as the old train compartments but was still quite nice.
We were sharing with Larissa a nice Russian lady who spoke limited English and was on her way to visit her daughter in Hong Kong.
So it was expected to be about 3hr train trip. 12hrs to border, 6hr border crossing and 12 hrs to Harbin from the border.
So we slept and then had fun spotting foxes on the vast snow covered plains.
Border crossing. This has to easily be the most time consuming crossing that I have ever encountered. I checked the schedule on the wall of the carriage and it indicated 300+ min stop at the Russian border and then 300+ minutes at the Chinese border. I thought it must have been a mistake as this was 10 hrs.
So the train pulled in to Zabaikask, Russia and we were met by some stern Russian officials including military Barby who checked our faces against our passports. I cringed when Vanessa couldn't keep a straight face as I thought that they didn't have a sense of humor but there was no trouble from it. We had paperwork to fill out that was in Russian and Vanessa struggled through it with Larissa's help. Then our cabin was locked and we were kicked off the train and headed to the waiting room at the station for an unknown amount of time. The train carriages physically had their axles changes from wide guage to narrow gauge so we saw the train pass back and forth as each of the 19 carriages was backed into the changing area. This took about 3 hrs.
Who did we find in the waiting room? More Australians. A couple of mature women from Adelaide. Both very Australian. One told a story from their border crossing at Mongolia where a guard was playing chasey with his guard dog and it looked cute so she started taking pictures of him,the dog and the border fences. Game over. He was not impressed and made her delete all the pictures on her camera. She got off lightly as technically she could have been locked up.
There also was a Belgium girl whose Columbian boyfriend had been taken away for questioning. She found him a couple of hours later waiting outside the customs office but aparently the customs officers thought they were finished with him. Language difficulties. She had been interrogated and he fingerprinted.
Vanessa struck up a conversation with a Russian lady who was a school teacher taking her family on a shopping trip and then a chinese cook sat down and did some english practice as well.
Then the train stopped and we wandered out and the doors were open. Excellent progress. We boarded and got into our cabins again and then got our passports returned. Then customs officials came through and checked our bags and almost all the compartments in the train both on the inside and exterior. A burly drug officer wandered through with a happy looking cocker spaniel wagging its tail and we thought that it would be eating the food on the floor in no time but it was well trained and just sniffed away.
Finally we got going after about 6hrs and then covered a few km in no mans land before stopping again at the Chinese border Manzhouli. Very popular town with Russians for cheap shopping and obviously quite prosperous. Classic chinese lighting on the buildings.
Lots of Chinese officials and the same checking procedures but for some reason we did not get off the train. The toilets are locked during time at stations and after about 4-5 hrs I was starting to get anxious. Eventually I asked the provodnitka and she opened the toilet to my and many others relief. The train didn't leave for 6hrs from reaching Manzhouli, China.
We headed off for the remainder of a nice but uneventful train trip.
Dasveedanya Russia. Neehow China.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
