Travel Stories - Russia

"transmongolian-express"

introduction

After spending a few days in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, today is they day I’m starting probably the best-known and longest train journey in the world; the Trans Siberia or TransMongolian Exprestrain to the Far East. When I arrive at the trainstation I can not get on the platform yet; I see behind high iron fences towering bales of goods stored in very large white jute bags waiting to get into the train. A shiver goes through my body when I suddenly see on the display in the station that the fences are open and I can go to the train. I step a bit hesitantly train number 6 in the direction of Beijing, China. The national anthem plays as I walk along the long train and watch the passengers outside waiting on a colored piece of carpet for each wagon to let their ticket being checked by members of the train.

Departure from Moscow (Day 1)

I’m still alone in my coupe which gives me the opportunity to look carefully where to put my stuff. But man what is it small, even by myself. I don’t want to think of living here for several days with people I’ve never met before. Looking out of the window to the row of people waiting to get in. What kind of people will join me? Above the hallway is a place for your big bag and I "latch" it onto an iron railing so that nobody can catch it. I put my little bag on my bed (below) and take out some necessary stuff. I walk back to the hall where there is a colorful colored carpet – I have tot hink of the carpet of the Orient Express. If other people want to pass me in the hallway I really have to keep my belly in. A little later I meet my other passengers; an English young couple and a Mongolian boy who speaks very poor English. It takes hours before we finally leave and we have the time to catch up and check where everything is; the toilet is at the end of the corridor and there is a large boiler with hot water - here you can make coffee, tea and noodles if you want. A little later we meet the "regular" wagon lady who keeps everything clean and also keeps an eye on everything. They all have a Mongolian face. The train jerks out of the station and drives through the outskirts of Moscow. A little later our tickets are picked up and put in a nice book with sliders. You get this again when you get out, the female tells us.

It has become dark by now and it’s almost time to go to sleep. Our first night in the train. About two hours after we left the trainstation in Moscow we make our first real stop - "Vladimir" - in the Middle Ages one of Russian capitals. But it does not show much of the old grandeur - I see large factory pipes and abandoned industrial estates in the almost dark sky. Yet the city seems to have been one of the most beautiful in Europe and it’s on the UNESCO World Heritage List. From here it is possible to go to the beautiful "golden ring" town "Suzdal" which was together with Vladimir capital. I put my head down again and try to sleep while the train is moving again and driving eastwards.

On the way to the Urals (Day 2)

At nighttime we drove through the fifth largest city of Russia - "Nizhny Novgorod" which literally means "low new city". We have already “done” four hundred kilometers after we left Moscow and I wonder when we have to change our watches for the first time.

Nizhny Novgorod

The city "Nizhny Novgorod" is located on the border between the rivers "Volga" and the "Oka" and was founded in 1221. The "old" Kremlin of the city is beautifully situated strategically "above" these important waterways. It was also an important border post of the Russian empire and soon became a hub of trade routes. In the 1930s, Nizhny Novgorod was given the status of a so-called closed city, where foreigners were not allowed to visit. The reason for this was the established arms industry, where for example atomic submarines, fighter planes, tanks and so on were produced. Stalin also renamed the city "Gorki" after the famous (Soviet) writer who was born here. For tourists especially the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin is important, but also the old town, the park "The Nizhny Novogorodse Switzerland" south of the city center and "Strelka" (the Arrow), a viewpoint at the mouth of the Oka in the Volga are worth seeing. In addition, there are several interesting buildings, especially churches, cathedrals and monasteries.

Suddenly the train stops and we look out of the windows. We see many local people stand on the platform with small stalls. Also they use portable wooden baskets full of stuff which they try to sell to tourist and locals from the train. It means we don’t have to starf in the train or to be afraid that we have to go everytime to the expensive restaurants in the train. We were also afraid we don’t have time to run from the train to a local shop while the train stops somewhere. It turns out that we arrived in the city "Kirov", named after the murdered politician in the last century, and we jump out of bed. No time to fresh up or whatever and because the English girl stays inside we can quickly run on the platform to buy some much needed (cheap) things. It is somewhat chaotic on the platform with street dogs, vendors and people who enter and leave the train with and without suitcases. Im happy that we don’t have to worry about our bags in the coupe. I buy some bowls of noodles and some snacks before I get back safely on the train - you never know if it just leaves. There is a small queue with other people in front of the toilet (where there is a small water tank) and I am waiting quietly for my turn while I look outside the windows in the hallway. I get talking to a girl from France and a young couple from Sweden. They seem to be in another wagon with many people from Russia while we are in a kind of “tourist” wagon. The landscape here is flat, steppe with some villages and sometimes big pieces of forest.

I’ve got the feeling what these trains are going to look like; it is a lot of hanging in the hallway, looking out of the window at the landscape passing by or chatting with other people in/from the wagon/coupe. But you can also listen to music on you’re bed or read a book. In between, I try to plan and organize my trip when I’m going to leave the train for the first time in Ulan Bator. In the afternoon we listen to the story of our Mongolian visitor in the coupe. The boy has a very Mongolian appearance with high cheekbones and a purple-red glow on his cheeks from the bright sun shining on the plains of his motherland. In very poor English he tells us that he has taught himself English and shows us a mini dictionary. A few words every day. He then asks tourists if they can improve his English or learn him some new words. Surprised we look at him - is that possible? And what does he do on the train then we wonder? As if he can read our thoughts he tells us that he buys goods in Moscow and sells them in Mongolia and in the east of Russia. Stupid actually because we were expecting the opposite. That explains why he has so many things with him. So he lives in the train and does not have a house or home, we notice. That's right, the boy calmly says - he lives in the train. As soon as he is back in Mongolia, he sells the stuff there and then he’s back on the train. Unbelievable. It is already evening when we enter the big industrial city "Perm" - a city that I know of rebuilding many Russian factories during WWII which produced tanks. Actually I do not need anything anymore and open the window to see what is happening on the busy and chaotic platform. On the clock on the platform I see that we have to change our watches by two hours.

Perm

Perm lies on both sides of the river Kama, just west of the Urals at about 1100 km from Moscow. It is an important industrial city and inner harbor and is the only city in the world to which a geological era has been named. For tourists there are countless museums and opera houses in the city as well as a famous ice cave nearby and a former “gulag” camp which you can visit. In the 13th and 14th centuries fur-traders and missionaries from Novgorod and Moscow founded the first Russian settlements in the Greater Perm area; an area that was then inhabited by Uralian tribes. In the 15th and 16th century farmers from Muscovia came to the region and also the tsarist civil servant settled there; the urals were introduced as the new eastern border of Europe. During the Russian Civil War Perm became an important target for both sides, because of the important ammunition factories that were established there. In the 1930s, Perm continued to grow as an industrial center and ship-plane and chemical factories were built. The famous book about "Dr. Zhivago "would be based on this large industrial city which, by the way, was called" Molotov "from 1940 to 1957 to the Soviet Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In the evening we agreed with a number of a people to gather in one of our coupe’s, get some cards and drink a few schnapps that we bought on the platform. Of course there is always the question what card game we are going to play but it does not really matter. The drinks were cheap and the Swedish couple (Richard and Pipi) also get a bottle from their coupe. While other people are already asleep, I am wandering about the corridors in search of the toilet. The train rushes through the landscape if I have to hold onto myself not to come against the sidewalls between the wagons. Strange to see the hole in the floor in the toilet that opens up when you pull through - you see the rails underneath and your "water" lands on Russian soil. It must have been midnight when I see hills in the distance - this must be the beginning of the Urals.

Omsk - Novosibirk (day 3)

When I wake up in the morning, I look direct out of the window to check if we can see something of the Ural mountains. But no the landscape is flat again - we have completely missed the Ural Mountains and its capital "Yekaterinburg" because we traveled through them at night. In the morning I wonder if it would not have been wise to extend my trip a bit so that I had the possibility to get off the train and visit some places along the railwayline to get in later again. But that wasn’t possible unfortunately because my lack of days off my work – I will travel straight to "Ulan Bator" in Mongolia which will be my first real stop where to get off for a few days.

The Urals and Yekaterinburg

The Ural Mountains run roughly from "Nova Zembla" in the Northern icesea to the steppes in Kazakhstan and is the northern part of the separation forms between Europe and Asia. The width varies between 40 and 150 kilometers. The highest peak at 1894 meters is the mountain Narodnaja ("Folksmountain") in the north. The mountain is heavily eroded and is rich in minerals including iron, silver, copper, uranium, but also precious stones. The Urals were inhabited by indigenous peoples before the arrival of the Russians In the Second World War; some 700 complete factories were moved from European Russia to the Ural Mountains by order of Stalin to keep them out of the hands of the advancing German army. These factories were often left behind in the Urals and it’s now the second biggest industrial area of Russia. In 1957, Kysjtym was the biggest nuclear disaster in Russian history in the Mayak complex. Due to this and other disasters and industrial pollution, large areas became polluted. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the whole industry collapsed as a result of the negative consequences of perestroika reforms. Pollution and emissions have been tackled with foreign aid since the 1990s have since improved. In the Urals there are still a number of closed cities where, for example, plutonium reprocessing factories and other forms of defense and nuclear companies are located.

Yekaterinburg (founded by Catherine the Great) is the fifth largest city in Russia and is an important industrial city and traffic hub on the eastern flank of the Urals. The city is best known for the place where the murder of the last tsar took place and where former president "Boris Yeltsin" power grew. Located on the banks of the "Iset" river, the city is 50 km from the border with Europe. Seen from Moscow, about 1650 km to the west, the city is the gateway to Siberia.

The view is kinda monotonous - plains with forest and agricultural land with the occasional small Siberian wooden houses that form a small village. They look like dolls' houses; smoke comes from the chimney, small gardens with wooden fences and mudpaths. All houses are ground level with a little pointed roof and they are all single. Suddenly the train is stopping - everyone looks directly out of the window to see if there is a town or platform to stop but it’s just a stop in the forest. It’s always possible to jump out but nobody gives you a sign it’s leaving so you really have to pay attention if you want to. The train jerks forward again and we shake back and forth through the Siberian country. This is what it’s suppose to be 75 years ago in our country too with this click-clack noise. We stop at the city "Tyumen" which turned out to be the first fortress in Siberia after the Russians defeated the Tartars there; I only know that the body of "Lenin" was brought here in 1941 when the Germans banged at the gates of Moscow. We are training after this city over the immense Barabinskaja steppe, where you see only grass up to the horizon. We choose tonight to eat with a small group in the dining car. Of course it is somewhat more expensive but we’re getting a bit sick of the noodles. We want a real meal in front of us there’s not a lot of choice. More than half of the dishes are not available. The four of us order a meal and take a delicious cold beer.

In the evening we hear "Joanna", the French girl even try to speak Mongolian with the ladies of the train. To be in such a train for a few days reminds me of a school camp or something similar - compulsory speaking with each other is over and while one reads a book, the others are chatting while someone is trying to freshen tehmselvesup in the shower-toilet while again somebody else is listening to his music. It is late when we arrive at the big city of" Omsk" where we have to change our watch again for another hour.

Omsk

Omsk was founded in 1716 as a fortress(town) to protect the Russian border against the nomads living on the steppes. The original wooden fort was replaced by fortifications of stone at the end of the 18th century. The Russian Empire expanded further and the border shifted to the east, causing Omsk to lose its strategic importance. The city then became an exile for political prisoners. During the Russian Civil War that followed the October Revolution of 1917, Omsk fell into the hands of the anti-Bolshevik “Whites”. In 1918, under the leadership of Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, a provisional government was established and Omsk was proclaimed capital of Russia. The imperial gold stock was accommodated in the city. Finally Koltsjak and his government had to withdraw to the eastern Irkutsk: the Red Army conquered Omsk in 1919.

During the Second World War, the city was able to develop again, because industrial companies from the front line in the west of Russia were moved to the east. While many boys from the region were sent to the front, their places in the factories were often taken over by German prisoners of war. Due to the presence of this strategic industry, Omsk was closed to foreigners until the 1990s. The disappearance of the Soviet army as a major consumer of industrial products led to high unemployment in the city.

Krasnoyarsk - Tayshet (day 4)

Very early in the morning we seem to have been passed the city of "Novosibirsk. The city of Novosibirsk, founded in 1893, is the third largest city in Russia and the main industrial center of Siberia. Located on the river Ob, the city is known for its nightlife - for the rest there seems to be little to do for a tourist. After this big city, the train takes us through vast birch forests, brightened up by the white obelisk at kilometer post 3932, which indicates that you are exactly half way on the way from Moscow to Beijing. Especially the little shacks/cabins of the village Minino around kilometer 4070 are picturesque.

Krasnoyarsk

The city of Krasnoyarsk was founded in July 1628 as a fortress built at the confluence of the rivers Katsja and Yenisej, to protect the border against attacks by the Tatars. Later, the discovery of gold and the arrival of the trans-Siberian railway led to further growth. In the 19th century the city was the center of the Siberian Cossacks society. In the Stalinist period Krasnoyarsk was an important “gulag” center as it had already acted as an exile in Tsarist times. During WWII, a number of factories were also moved here from the west of the country to the region. Because the city is so far-east in Russia, it became the center of nuclear science. Krasnoyarsk-26 and Krasnoyarsk-45 are two villages built around secret complexes where nuclear weapons were produced. The city has recently undergone a major refurbishment; historic buildings have been restored, sidewalks have been re-paved and many squares are graced with fountains.

Just after the stop in Krasnoyarsk, the train crosses the wide Yenisei river. Then follows a hilly area with many bridges. We arrive in the city of Tayset which was founded at the end of the 19th century to serve as a stock point along the Trans Siberia railway. Between the years 30 and 50 in the previous century, the city would grow as the center for gulag-labor camps followed by prisoner-of-war camps populated by Japanese (from the Kwantung army) and Nazi’s. After 1955, most prisoners of war were repatriated. We arrive at a big city which turns out to be Irkutsk. A good number of travelers will leave the train here. I have to say goodbye to two of my fellow travelers, unfortunately.

Irkutsk and the Baikal lake

The gold rush once flourished here in the region of the Baikal Lake - now Irkutsk is the largest economic, cultural and nurturing center in eastern Siberia. The city was founded in 1652 as a garrison town by the Cossacks and less than 30 years later it had developed into the center of Russian trade with China and Mongolia. The old town is relatively spacious and still counts many historic buildings, usually built in wood. Because of this historic allure, Irkutsk is also called "The Paris of Siberia".

The crystal clear waters of Lake Baikal are the deepest and the largest freshwater reservoir in the world fed by some 300 rivers. It is as big as the country of Belgium and is mainly surrounded by rocky banks with forest. Since 1996 it is on the World Heritage List of UNESCO. The lake is rich in flora and fauna and houses unique animal species such as the baikalrob (a freshwater seal). The lake is completely frozen in winter and although it is possible to cross the lake, the danger of hypothermia is large. The Olympic flame was ignited in Olympia on 29 September 2013 and was taken to the bottom of Lake Baikal, which is over 1600 meters deep.

Suddenly the gigantic large Baikal appears in the picture and we change the clock forward for another hour. It seems to take hours and hours to drive past the immense lake. We arrive at the town "Oelan Oede" where the strategic split is; here the Trans Siberia express will travel eastwards towards Vladivostok where we, the TransMongolian Express, will head south towards the border with Mongolia. We have covered 5500 km from Moscow. Oelan Oede is also founded because of the trade between China and Mongolia on the one hand and Russia on the other and is a striking green city. Our train continues to the border with Mongolia, the little town of Naushki, where we arrive in the evening. Here the whole train drives in a gigantic depot where the entire train with people and stuff is transferred to another underlay. This because the Russians were afraid of an Eastern invasion. It takes at least an hour or so before we drive into Mongolia where we would arrive in the morning in the capital of the country, Ulan Bator.