The Trans Siberian Railway: Irkutsk to Ekaterinburg (3375 km)

Early hours of Friday 29th August

 Arrived at the station to find that the train, which started from Khabarovsk some 2000 km away in the Russian far East,  is running 5 hours late. Nice policeman, one of many at the station, showed me into the "comfortable" seating area for which I got a free pass. As in China, there is a security check into the station with everyone walking through a metal detector but it doesn't seem  to be switched on and there is no X-ray.  This is the first serious delay during my trip. The  comfortable waiting room, like the cafe,  belongs to another era.  It has a high ceiling, classical style pillars, a classical style, white plaster work frieze, full of ears of wheat and other vegetation round the walls and almost life size, decorously draped, bronze nymphs holding up lamps and playing in a gazebo. The tall windows are draped with net curtains. The large L shaped, bright green, imitation leather sofas and the walk-through metal detector do rather spoil the effect but at least the sofas are fairly comfortable. My original thought was that the decor was a Soviet era extravagance but now think it may be the original from when the station opened in 1905.

Busy Irkutsk Station

Irkutsk Station in the Rain

Managed to get a few hours sleep and woke about 6; no sign of a train. It was 8.30 before there was an announcement and the woman in charge of the comfy waiting room gestured me to follow another woman to the train which came in on platform 3. Got on the train which originated in Khabarovsk and find berth 17 in a compartment occupied by a man and a woman. The woman still fast asleep. Can't help feeling this would have been much more convenient timing if only I had known about it in advance.

Before the train leaves, a man in an orange, high-visibility jacket is tapping various parts of the bogies with a long hammer. Not the wheels themselves but other bits. Noticed this on, I think, all the standard trains since China. We don't have wheel tappers in Britain anymore, why are they needed here? And what does the tapper do if he doesn't  like the sound it makes?

8.55 and we are off; seven hours behind schedule but moving. Hopefully, in the right direction. Outside it is a dull, grey, chilly morning. As soon as we start moving, the attendant gives me a pack of sheets, disposable pair of slippers,  in-train magazine and what I think is a newspaper. All in Russian so I can only look at the pictures!  

From Khabarovsk to Moscow via Irkutsk and Ekaterinburg

The Tapper

After leaving the outskirts of Irkutsk we go through a rural landscape of forest interspersed with  low level farming,  grass for livestock ? Later we pass a big petrochemical complex just before Angarsk where many people board.

Finished reading Jill Mansell's  "Don't Want to Miss a Thing" which is a light   romance; chick lit at its best, according to one reviewer. I had never heard of Jill Mansell but she is a prolific writer with more than a dozen novels published. Started on Dr Zhivago.

As we head West, there is much more grassland and less forest. Huge  cultivated fields and small settlements that look as if they haven't changed in a century. The price of my ticket includes two meals so just after noon the first of these is served in the compartment. Soup comes first and then I am asked a question which, thanks to looking at the menu, turns out to be ”salmon or beef?" The woman in the compartment who may, or may not be, the  wife of the man in the top berth speaks no English so we have no means of communication. Come to the conclusion that Russian language skills are about on a par with UK. Neither the soup or the salmon will win any awards but the salmon with mashed potato tastes better than it looks. Outside, it is a wet miserable day so I feel very lucky to have enjoyed the beautiful weather in Irkutsk. This is a "firmenniy" train which is supposed to be better than the others but the carriages seem to be built to the same design as all the sleepers since Vietnam. Did someone hit on a design in the 1950s and just copied it ever since? Right down to the hot water boilers and the locks on the doors?

The official differences can be found in this blog by someone who travelled along a similar route about 5 years ago.

http://www.railway-train-travel.com.au/train-trip-trans-siberian/trains-firmenny.php

Notice that the leaves of the birch are just beginning to turn colour with small patches of yellow visible. The girl on the bus to Lake Baikal said that the area was beautiful in the autumn when the trees are multicoloured. As far as I can tell, all the other travellers in this coach are Russians and some of them are clearly savvy travellers. The only power sources are in the corridor, so one guy has brought a long extension cord so he can power his gadgets in the compartment. Think it is the same man who has the triangular tool that unlocks the windows or toilet doors. Since leaving Irkutsk the line has all been double track,  mostly continuous welded rail and electrified. But despite that we don't go very fast, about 70 to 85 km/h based on timing between the km posts. There are two uniformed policemen on board and this, coupled with checking everyone's passport as they get on the train, gives the impression of a country still paranoid about security, much the same as China. Many of the younger Russian men, 20 - 40+ look like they are modelling themselves on Putin; lean and  muscular with close cropped hair, while the high fat, high carbohydrate diet seems to have taken its toll on many of the older ones.

Saturday 30th August

Wake up about 5.30am and can see stars looking through the window so hoping for a clear sky later on.  The man in the top berth has done a bunk; where did he get off?     Obviously the woman below is not his wife/girlfriend although it would be an interesting and original way to end a relationship. "Let's take the train to Moscow dear".  Fall asleep again and wake about 8 to see a foggy dawn at Taiga Station.

Just after 11 we stop in Novosibirsk which is a BIG city  with huge complexes of apartment blocks. The woman sharing my compartment gets off  and a middle aged couple get on and immediately proceed to unpack and  repack their bags, all under the woman's whispered commands,  even ordering her husband to change his shirt. Once I am confident they are not going to take over my space,  I go out with the intention of stretching my legs on the platform since we are scheduled to stop for 57 minutes but the attendant doesn't allow me to get off.  And I see why a few minutes later as we start moving again;  obviously we are trying to catch up time, which sets me a challenge since I was assuming we would arrive in Ekaterinburg not less than 7 hours after our original schedule, which would be in the middle of the day. So now I have to check the times we get to the stations against the time according to the schedule posted up in the corridor, remembering that the schedule is on Moscow time while my watch is still on Irkutsk time. Not made any easier by the fact that Russian stations only have the name on top of the main building and possibly a couple of signboards elsewhere on the platform. And, of course, they are all in Cyrillic.     I decided to let the couple sort themselves out while I watched Novosibirsk and its outskirts pass by. When I returned they were both in their berths fast asleep!

After Barabinsk we are offered our lunch choice. The only word I recognised was "macaroni" so that's what I am having. By the time we get to Omsk we are back on schedule so we have a half hour stop when I can stretch my legs on the platform and enjoy the warm sunshine.

The train in sunshine at Omsk

Had dinner in the restaurant car, pork escalope and a Stella. Pork was 450 and Stella 150. Stella is cheaper than Brix or Harry's in Singapore. Think I am witnessing "Romance on the Trans Siberian Express"  between the young woman in charge of the trolley and a young man who looks to be totally enamoured with her. Soon realise that he is the train drunk who, having given up on his heart's desire,   starts trying to make conversation with me and is eventually sent packing by the formidable woman in charge. The pork escalope is not bad. The meat is freshly cooked as are the somewhat soggy English style chips. The tomato and cucumber garnish are fresh but obviously the peas and sweet corn came out of tins. Reminds me of the food we used to serve when I was a waiter in a cafe in Weston super Mare 40 years ago. When I get the bill I find that the chips and bread are extras so the total cost is 888 roubles including two beers. No wonder the restaurant car doesn't get much business. After the drunk goes I am the only patron in the restaurant car. Obviously something seriously wrong with their pricing structure.

Stella

After dinner I retired to my berth, waking a few times with funny dreams, one of which involved meeting Jeremy Clarkson outside my house which was somewhere in West London. Was already awake at 7.00 am Irkutsk time when the attendant came in to tell me that we would be in Ekaterinburg in half an hour. Still totally dark as I get off the train since it is not yet 5am Ekaterinburg time. Out of the station,  the large blue illuminated sign of the Marins Park Hotel was immediately visible across the square. Checked in and was pleasantly surprised, first that the receptionist was awake and secondly that she was able to give me a room immediately. Only problem was that the key card wouldn't open the door. The system wouldn't let me in until noon. By that time I was really looking forward to having a shower so I agreed to pay 1000 roubles to get in straight away.

Ekaterinburg Station

Marins Park Hotel