Article Two
Day Two
Journal Entry Four
We spent most of the daylight hours starting out at the Siberian Landscape. It is totally different from what we anticipated; we thought there would be long sweeping plains with lush grass as per films of the Russian Steppes and Cossack dramas. No, scrubby patches of birch trees and the occasional conifer and the only ‘Steppes’ scenes were cleared farm areas with haystacks built where the grass was cut. As the day passed, the views changed to more hills and some bigger rivers plus more conifers and less of the white-trunked Birch and Spruce.
Tried out a few of the Russian beers available on the train…very good and surprisingly, somewhere between 5-12% alcohol per volume. Back in the cabin, I contemplated sleeping on this cripplingly narrow bit of hard mattress and it suddenly dawned on me that the backrests could be removed. They can, by sliding them vertically up! Not lifting them like swinging up an extra bunk as I did. There I was trying to grapple with the surprisingly heavy padded backrest board, which had popped its screws and was dragging me to the floor! Quickly pushed it outside and down the corridor about three compartments and returned to hide in our apartment!
The backrest board simply disappeared during the night. Nothing has been said by any of the Train Crew? Me? I had a wonderful sleep, finally able to lie flat on my back or choose any side and actually turnover without falling out of bed! I slept in until 0830! Mostly I was catching-up from last night. I have realised that I may have to do it all again because we will be on a different train after our Irkutsk stop-over. Patricia was horrified last night when it all simply “ …fell apart in me ‘ands Chief!...” let alone doing it all again…next train I might ask if these backrests can be removed so that we sleep during the night(s)?
Day Three
Journal Entry Five
Had ‘brunch’ today at 11 am, to save loading on the unnecessary extra calories with having both breakfast and lunch. Its amazing how quickly one’s life and routine is dictated to by the availability of meals at fixed times? However, other than read or use the computer, there is not very much to see or do…all the Russians seem to spend their time simply drinking! While having brunch, no fewer than five passengers and three staff members, including the young Stewardess from our carriage, called into the Buffet-car and had a very large Vodka…about a standard Australian double! All of them knocked the Vodka back with just two gulps! Was their need a collective heart-starter?
The scenery has now changed to be almost totally fir trees and there are a lot more lumpy hills appearing on the horizon. The temperature is also dropping as we head inland. We are now headed South-West to Lake Baikal where we will spend two nights and one day (Irkutsk is the Lake Baikal town). This will be a chance to have a proper shower, do some washing and sleep in a proper sized bed! In addition, searching to find an internet access point.
The strangest part of the scenery is the dilapidated condition of most of the buildings. Some are actually leaning over about twenty degrees and look a though they have recently been razed by fire…then, stuck on the outside of this hovel is a brand-new satellite dish!
We have also noticed the absence of any horses or cattle. We have seen one dog, one calf and three cows going into a barn in the entire time we have been on this train. Where are they all??? This is prime rural grazing land, covered with thick lush dark-green grass! There are haystacks everywhere so that must be winter-feed for the animals but none are to be seen?
Day Four…Train to Irkutsk
Journal Entry Six
Awoke to a bright sunny day and it was already half-past-eight! There are now sweeping plains and closely cropped hills…much more Steppe-like. Along the way are small towns with most ornate edifices as stations. Far too grand and ornate for the small towns they serve. Perhaps they were also the Party Headquarters. One such station had a whole building covered in picture-murals done in coloured glass pieces…showing courtroom scenes where judges and notaries take evidence from people (peasants?) in traditional costumes all clutching bundles of documents but also, all chained hands to ankles and to each-other. No one available to explain and no mention in any of the guidebook literature either. Most of these ornate station buildings have equally large and ornate statues of Political Founders…mostly of Lenin who is in the guidebooks…so that’s how we know it’s him!
Many of these stations are very brief stops for the train, often no more than a minute, just enough time to drop off a passenger or pick something up. Tried to take photographs but the windows are filthy, double glazed with moisture in between the glazing so that is out. The train staff also keep the outside doors locked at all times, unless there is a fifteen minute stop, then only one door per carriage is opened, possibly so the staff can count the passengers, off and returning onto the train. There is not much real chance of taking photographs of the things that we want to record…the open door is always opposite a crane structure, large tree or another train and blocking the photo-target completely!
Finally, we sight some cattle being driven somewhere else in the early morning mist, more rivers are crossed and then a large lake swings by with clouds of mist drifting upwards from the gleaming water. More small towns, many seem to have been built around sawmills with piles of cut timber being stacked for seasoning…the sawmill scantlings are utilised by the townspeople for their fences.
These railway stations are also huge in area…many have parallel tracks, up to eighteen at a time, all with various goods trucks being shunted around. Many of these larger stations are goods marshalling yards and railway workshops for the vast railway network, which covers all of the Russian States. There are huge numbers of crude-oil tankers constantly being shipped along the railway. We counted sixty-five tankers on one train alone. There are many flatcars with brand-new earth-moving tractors, bulldozers, backhoes; you name it, al heading for one project or another, somewhere. The Russian railway system is huge: 1.3 million employees, 85,000 klm of track operating 24/7 moving a billion tons of freight per year!
The houses in these small towns, are all dilapidated and falling down. The only house part that receives attention appears to be the window-frames which are all painted bright blue with white highlights?
Then again, we surmise, that (prior to m1991) if the State owns the land; plus the State has to give citizens permission to build a house then, probably, the state pays for the house materials. In addition, the citizen has to get the local Party Committee’s recommendation before being allocated the privilege of having a roof over his head. Therefore, seeing that the occupant owns nothing can be kicked out at the State and or Committee’s whim, anytime, most assuredly the occupiers would not give a hoot about maintaining this very basic shelter.
Another reason is that under the ‘Old-Stalinisk-Order’, people were not allowed to freely move about. If you lived in this town, that is where you stayed, worked, lived until you died! Required to work the land to feed the country meant locking the citizens into the State system. After 1991, many of the younger people simply moved to the bigger cities to find better paying work. The elderly simply passed on in their turn and no-one wanted any of the rural, state provided houses…many were prefabricated to a basic standard, cold in winter, hot in summer and virtually totally inadequate for the people or climate! Therefore, there are thousands of these rotting, derelict houses all over Siberia and Russia generally.
In most house yards are fairly modern cars, trucks and tractors plus the forever-blossoming satellite dishes. There are huge piles of firewood and many have neat, fenced-off vegetable gardens with growing tomatoes, potatoes and cabbages readily recognisable along with the mandatory chook-pen! Therefore, in hindsight, although the housing is pitiful, the population as seen, is well fed, happy and there seems to be plenty of work available in the timber-mills, railway yards and workshops or simply tending farming plots. We have not yet seen any sheep. We have noted about six or seven straggly goats but no pigs either. : Pork, beef, mutton and lamb plus chicken appear on all menus so there is no shortage…where are they raised.
Today (1715) we reach Irkutsk. Therefore… the highlight of the day, after brunch, will be a quick repacking and preparation for detraining at the station. Station, what is a Station? There is simply a slightly raised concrete strip between sets of railway lines…this is the “platform” and one has to climb down about six steps to reach this platform then there is the question of the baggage??? Who passes it down to us, do we simply drop it from the top step, or what? From the train cabin floor to the platform, the total drop is about seven feet! No doubt, we will find out this afternoon. Again, fraught with possibilities, is the instruction to meet our local-agent outside the station! What do we do if he doesn’t show? He has our tickets for the next railway sector to Moscow!
