My experience riding the Trans-Siberian Express railway train from Mongolia to Russia

-by Khashyar

One of my most interesting experiences while in Russia was to ride the Trans-Siberian Express train across Russia....

I loved riding the train in Russia...

In the summer of 2002, when I was flying to Russia to meet with Lena for the first time, I had a free airline voucher to fly anywhere in Asia for free.... My plan was to fly to somewhere in Asia, and then take either a train or another airplane to travel East through Russia to Belarus....

I decided that I was going to fly into Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia, and then take the Trans-Siberian Express train from Mongolia through Russia, and then fly from Irkutsk, Russia to Moscow to meet Lena, and then spend a week or so in Moscow at Lena's great aunt's apartment.

After my nearly 2 months visit with Lena was finished, I took the train 5 days across Russia from Mogilev, Belarus to Ulan Bataar, Mongolia... Both directions on the train were exotic and interesting....

My train trip from Belarus to Mongolia was the most interesting part of the trip...

On my first train ride from Mongolia to Russia, I did not know Russian (except what I could decipher from my Lonely Planet Russian phrasebook), and I was not sure how to get to the Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia train station, nor how to buy a train ticket :)

I like adventure and being friendly with strangers in foreign places, so at the airport, I met a couple of Mongolians with a car, and the younger of the two Mongolian ladies had just flown in from Texas, and so we had an interesting conversation about America...

They showed me around the city, and I remember most vividly when they took me to a hill that overlooked the city, and I could see Mongolian nomadic tents scattered all across the grass areas of the city, and also Mongolian horsemen riding across semi-open grass... It felt very interesting and exotic to me, and I almost felt like staying in Mongolia and exploring the country :)

Finally, they showed me the train station, and they helped me purchase a ticket... At the train station, I had met a Pakistani man with a young-looking Mongolian wife, and I was wondering how they had met each other and why the Pakistani man had come to Mongolia :)  But, perhaps Russian people wonder the same about Westerns who travel to Russia...

So I boarded the train, and began the 30 hour train ride from Ulaan Bataar to Irkutsk, Russia...

One of the things that stood out for me at first about the train, was that four people shared one sleeping cabin, which included four bunk-bed-style beds, as well as a metal small table that was attached right below the cabin's window....

There was a samovar at the end of each of the train cars where you could receive hot water for tea (this reminded me of the Persian samovars that some of my father's friends had)...

The toilets on Russian trains are the worst. When you "flush" the toilet, the refuse literally drops down a hole to the train tracks below. I think that this is why the lady train conductors tell you not to use the toilets near train stations or within city limits :)

Since there was no shower in the train car, you had to take a "bath" with a small bucket, your hands, and perhaps a washcloth if you had one :)  About every day, I would go into the steel-floored bathroom and pour COLD :)  water with my hands over my head and underarms, lather some soap, and then spend a few minutes rinsing the soap off the best that I could with the scoops of water that I could gather with my hands...

Also... this is true about Russia, but definitely regarding the Russian train: do NOT drink or use the water for drinking or brushing your teeth. There are bacterias that your foreign body is not sued to and you can become very sick... So, I bought bottled water at different train stations and used that for drinking and brushing my teeth...

I shared my cabin with 2 married Mongolian women who had an export/import business between Russian and Mongolia... As is commonly done on these cross border trains, they stuffed and "concealed" all kinds of clothes and other merchandise in every space that one could stuff and hide clothes, shows, etc... She put clothes underneath mattresses-- almost everywhere....

I think that they would receive merchandise from China, and then take the items across the border into Russia to sell them for a profit...

One thing to mention is that in Russia, trains are the standard way that Russians travel medium and long distances. In the United States, where we might drive or take the airplane for moderate to long distances, Russians, who often don't have access to a car and can't afford an airplane, take the train. Trains in Russia are efficient and reasonably-priced.

Riding the train, I was able to see the beautiful and rustic Siberian environment... It looked like the Rocky Mountains where I used to live, with pine trees, tundra, and chimneys for wood stoves. I was struck that even in small Siberian cities, that the roofs were almost all covered with aged grey wood shingles.. I wasn't expecting this, and it looked almost what I imagined pioneer towns might have looked like in Alaskan gold-mining towns....

But, the scenery was beautiful and enchanting...

Near Irkutsk, we passed by Lake Baikal, which is the largest and deepest fresh water lake in the world. Lake Baikal is about the size of Belgium (covering 12,352 square miles or 32,000 square kilometers), and holds one fifth of the world's fresh water. It is also more than a mile deep (5,370 feet or 1,637 meters deep).

Because of the depth of the lake, and certain fresh water plants, the water is pure enough to drink (except next to a couple of big towns on the perimeter of the lake).

I actually did not have time to stop at Lake Baikal (because I could not make a stop-over on my train ticket, which is common policy for Russian train tickets). But, I would like to visit it and camp another time. One Russian friend I met on the train did give me a bottle of commercial bottled water with water from the lake (it did taste clean and pure)...

On the train, I found it pretty easy to meet friends and strike up conversations. I think that many of the people who were traveling on the train had never met an American, so they were open and curious about me and I think pleased and pleasantly amused that I was trying to speak Russian :)  I just opened my phrase book and Russian dictionary, and began expressing myself the best that I could :)

I also was lucky to have this 10 year old boy who was studying at an English school, and he helped me communicate something when I was having difficulty conveying a point.
 

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