Trans Siberia 2001

Trans Siberia, from Moscow to Beijing - summer 2001

Why the Trans Siberian?

The trip was rather impulsive and only booked a few weeks in advance. We had never considered travelling by train like that, nor where Russia, Mongolia or China high on our list of places we wanted to visit. We didn't really have an image of this trip or these countries and even the time of year, high summer, isn't our favorite time to travel. So, ingredients enough to expect the unexpected and experience new things and that is what the trip really was about. Our goal was to find out if we like this way of travelling and how we like corners of the world where we do not understand the culture very well or speak the language. Not the usual self supporting wilderness oriented adventure, but a people trip where control over your faith is in hands of taxi drivers, border officials, train conductors and our fellow travellers. So, you never know if you never go...

So what was it like?

Looking back the trip was divided into three distinct parts.

Moscow
Moscow was a nice city at first sight. We only saw a very small part of it, the city center around the Red Square and the Kremlin. The atmosphere is relaxed and positive. Ofcourse as a tourist there are always people that try to rip you off and sell you stuff that you don't want, but generally the people looked friendly and happy and the shops where well equipped. Outside the immediate center we saw a lot of old buildings and streets being repaired and painted. We where surprised by how clean the city looked but also by the huge number of police, militia and private guards. Despite the nice atmosphere I couldn't help but feel a certain tension. I believe it is due to the criminal (maffia) activity that makes it neccisary to have guards everywhere. From the taxi from the airport and from the train that took us out of the city we also saw another kind of Moscow. Huge numbers of prostitutes barren appartment buildings with broken windows.

The 6 days on the trans siberian railroad
The first impression was not so good, small compartiments and hard benches. But after spending the first night in my soft bunk it became home and after almost a week it was hard to say goodbye to this great moving village. The rythm of life aboard the train is slow and relaxing. Everybody in our wagon (27 people, 8 nationalities) became like inhabitants of a small village with its happenings and gossips. Everybody mingled with everybody (except for a group of bizar Mongolians that slept for 20 hours a day and only woke up only to sing songs in the middle of the night) and everybody shared their supplies of food, drink and books. We made real friends.
Highlight where the stops at the stations. Just a few a day, but enough to resupply with everything that we needed. The most popular where the noodles, fresh fruit and the Vodka. The locals who sold all this where friendly and cheerfull.
The landscape changed surprisingly slow. The first days it was birch woods, swamps, lakes and grassy plains. Tundra, taiga and steppes and finally the Gobi Desert.
The only real annoying things where the borders. Especially the Mongolian border officials are nasty. Hours and hours of waiting, searches and filling in forms. But even this was part of the adventure and we killed the time by secretly giving sigarettes and candybars to the soldiers that where guarding the train at the outside. We called this 'feeding the ducks' hahaha. It was amazing to see how the Mongolians managed to smuggle thousands of cd's across the border in dozens of big boxes that can impossibly been overlooked by the guards. When we finally entered Beijing Central Station I was sorry that we had to get off the train and we already started to fantasize about doing it again, but then from Vladivostok to Paris in the winter.

Beijing
A crazy place full of contradictions. More modern than we expected, but at the same time there was still a lot of the old Beijing to be found behind the facades. The people where friendy and curious, but as a tourist you are also swarmed by very irritating people that want your money. I was amazed by the beauty of places like the Tibetan Lama Monastery, Chinese Opera. I had some great food and the massages in the barbershops are definitaly a treat. But the busy chaotic traffic, the noise, the stench, the overwhelming crowds of people, the unhealty smoggy heat made Beijing a rather unattractive place for me. I realise that my view of the city is a bit biased because I got sick on day one and didn't fully recover until the last day. I also heard that if you have seen Beijing that you have not seen China, so maybe we have to come back someday to see other parts of the country. Considering everything, I am not at all sorry that we went to see Beijing, after all you never know if you never go, but Beijing didn't do much for me.

Other advice

Can you do without luxury?
The train is somewhat basic. You have to realise that you cannot have a shower for a week, that you share your compartement with other people without any privacy and that you probably will be eating instant noodles for a week. There is no airconditioning and it can get pretty hot and dusty when you go trough the Gobi Desert (we had a sandstorm at night that forced us to close all the windows). Ofcourse you can try to get one of the airconditioned first class compartements with a shower ensuite and two beds per compartement, but you will miss most of the fun then. When we investigated those wagons we saw people sitting two by two in their compartment with the doors closed. I'm glad we took the second class and ended up with a bunch of smelly, tired and dusty friends.

Food
I brought food for three days. Lightweight diners and hardkeks that we normally use for our backpacking trips. I didn't use any of it. There is a restaurant wagon, but I wouldn't recommend it too much. You can sometimes get some food there, but not much and not very good. We just bought packages of instant noodles from the locals on the platform and addes some fruit, salad, bread and berries. For a few days it is good enough and a lot of fun to buy. I you really oversleep the only opportunity to buy it then you can always go to the restaurant wagon and buy some stuff. You will at least end up with some chocolate, because one of their tricks is to pretend to have no change so that they can pay you in chocolate. No problem if you happen to like chocolate hahaha.

Timezones, schedule and guidebook
The train runs on Moscow train and will start to deviate from local time about an hour a day. Because the schedule in the train only mentioned Moscow time some of our fellow travellers also stayed on Moscow time. We stayed on local time, but after a few days of adjusting your watch and drinking vodka the chances that you are still able to count back from local time to Moscow time become less and less. If you are dependent on the schedule in the train that indicates the fouraging stops, it might be wiser to stay on moscow time, but if you are clear headed or have a good timetable that lists both times then you may want to stay on local time because it looks more realistic if the sun rises at 6 am instead of 11 pm and because it is rather silly to have a jetlag when you step of a train.
There was one book on the train that was very very popular. I was fortunately enough to be able to call it 'my book', because it was mine. But I had put it on a central spot so that everybody could use it. It is the Trans-Siberian Handbook by Bryn Thomas from Trailblazer. It has a timetable in both Moscow and local time and it has a lot of interesting information about the places you pass. You can just look up the appropriate km marker along the track and read about it in the book. I recommend strongly to use this guide or one similar. Trailblazer Trans-Siberian Handbook

Money
Do not believe everything the guidebook tells you. The advice to bring lots of 1 dollar notes was rather silly, because they are not accepted on the platforms. The most popular note is the 10 rouble note. (1 dollar = 30 roubles). You can use 100 roubles also if you buy enough, but sometimes people do not have change. We had 3500 roubles and 500 dollars when we boarded the train and when we finally stepped of in Beijing we still had 3000 roubles and 500 dollars and still had the feeling that we bought and bought and bought along the way. Life is very cheap on the train as long as you don't buy too much vodka and champagne in the restaurant car.
Do not bring to much roubles, because the only place where you can change them is at the bank at the Russian/Mongolian border. The train crosses the border in the middle of the night and to our surprise (not) the bank is not open at 3 am. A funny situation then arises, a train full of people that try to buy the most expensive vodka, champagne and caviar just to get rid of their roubles. I even heard somebody with really a lot too many roubles say "how much for the entire shop?" hahaha.