Monday, August 15, 2005
Into Irkutsk; with three dice
So back on the train, heading towards Russia. What with so many stories of friendly natives, great food and knockout service, we just couldn't wait to roll in. But before that, we had two nights on the train, across Siberia. We were reunited with our train spotter friends who were in the cabin on one side of us, and on the other side were aforementioned Val and Michael. Val wasted no time in informing us of all of her opinion on, well, everything. This included her views on environmental protection after some random punter had chucked a load of cardboard out of the window. To be fair to the guy, he was merely adhering to the local customs. I doubt very much there's much money made from landfill sites in Siberia, as everything is just deposited across the countryside.
We were leaving Mongolia in the late afternoon, and the first expected excitement for this leg of the trip was crossing the border into Russia. When applying for visas for Russia one has to stipulate the date of entry. This should, of course, be quite straightforward but owing to the fact that I'd calculated that we would be approaching the border somewhere around midnight, it was with a little trepidation that we pulled out of Ulan Baator. And the word 'calculate' shouldn't be taken lightly either - my estimation was based on 'reversing' an eastbound timetable, translating the Moscow time departure time into local time, allowing for crossing a couple of time zones en route, and finally adding a bit extra on to allow for getting from the last town on the timetable to the border itself. Simple really. Anyway, the upshot of all that was that I'd decided we'd be entering Russia after midnight.
As it turned out I needn't have worried as the border crossing took a matter of ten hours to negotiate. We did indeed approach it close to midnight, but we spent two hours getting through the Mongolian border post. Then we had a nice six hour stretch sitting marooned in no-man's land, so by the time we actually crossed through the Russian border post it was comfortably the next morning. And all through this time you're not allowed to leave the carriage and, rather less than conveniently, the toilets are locked. Now for us who had planned ahead and stopped taking fluids on some eight hours in advance, this wasn't too much of a problem. Though it was for two Australians who were having a hernia trying to keep their legs crossed. Shame. And it was all too much for Val too, who's writing to the European Court of Human Rights about it, or something.
So after such excitement the rest of the journey was fairly low key. A few games of cribbage with Guy the 'railway enthusiast', the trading of wine for cheese with the other train spotters, and Michael introducing me to the world of Sudoku. Little did I know that this was the craze sweeping the nation back home. And after attempting a couple, I can safely say I'll be leaving that bandwagon to Wylie and co.
We were leaving Mongolia in the late afternoon, and the first expected excitement for this leg of the trip was crossing the border into Russia. When applying for visas for Russia one has to stipulate the date of entry. This should, of course, be quite straightforward but owing to the fact that I'd calculated that we would be approaching the border somewhere around midnight, it was with a little trepidation that we pulled out of Ulan Baator. And the word 'calculate' shouldn't be taken lightly either - my estimation was based on 'reversing' an eastbound timetable, translating the Moscow time departure time into local time, allowing for crossing a couple of time zones en route, and finally adding a bit extra on to allow for getting from the last town on the timetable to the border itself. Simple really. Anyway, the upshot of all that was that I'd decided we'd be entering Russia after midnight.
As it turned out I needn't have worried as the border crossing took a matter of ten hours to negotiate. We did indeed approach it close to midnight, but we spent two hours getting through the Mongolian border post. Then we had a nice six hour stretch sitting marooned in no-man's land, so by the time we actually crossed through the Russian border post it was comfortably the next morning. And all through this time you're not allowed to leave the carriage and, rather less than conveniently, the toilets are locked. Now for us who had planned ahead and stopped taking fluids on some eight hours in advance, this wasn't too much of a problem. Though it was for two Australians who were having a hernia trying to keep their legs crossed. Shame. And it was all too much for Val too, who's writing to the European Court of Human Rights about it, or something.
So after such excitement the rest of the journey was fairly low key. A few games of cribbage with Guy the 'railway enthusiast', the trading of wine for cheese with the other train spotters, and Michael introducing me to the world of Sudoku. Little did I know that this was the craze sweeping the nation back home. And after attempting a couple, I can safely say I'll be leaving that bandwagon to Wylie and co.
# posted by William and Lucinda @ 3:56 pm 
