Days 6-12 The Trans-Mongolian Railway

Wednesday 8^th, Day 6
St Basil's in Red square. It's funny that I didn't notice that it was at an angle at the time




















Red Square in the rain

The train is so luxurious! There is so much space and it feels shiny and new. We even have a shower (shared with out neighbours in the next compatment and only cold water – but what a step up). Our thoughts had been that the train from Cologne was exactly what we would get from Moscow to Beijing but I had heard that there is a Chinese train on this route which is far superior and this is it! While the problem of tickets has yet to be resolved we are enjoying the camarade of the English-speaking passengers in carriage number 9 on train number 4.

Sleeping was difficult with all the adrenalin from the journey to the station and the hassle with the tickets. Our driver got caught in heavy traffic and what should have been a 20 minute trip took over an hour leaving us with 25 minutes to find the train – and he pointed us to the domestic terminal instead of the international terminal. We ran flat out with heavy bags for about 400 m to arrive with only half the tickets. And of course we fond that the tickets only took us as far as Ulan Bator ...

Today has been a matter of settling in to the culture of the train. Our cheerful carriage attendant 'Doo” supplies us with a thermos of hot water every so often and most compartments leave their doors open so that people drop in for a chat. The stops at the stations are a big excitement as we bargain for un recognisable items of food in plastic bags held out by the local women. They do not seem to display any food-handling certificates and one feels that hygiene rules may not always be strictly adhered to but it is interesting - and we are close to the toilet so its worth taking a chance.

The country is very autumnal with birch trees everywhere mixed with what seem to be spruce. The yellow of the changing birch leaves contrasts with the deep green of the spruce to give a display of colour I have never seen before. The rural areas are clearly very poor and what industrial towns we have passed through show strongly their Soviet origins – large heavy equipment, lots of concrete, in a terriblly run-down state.

Thursday 9^th October, Day 7 (2000km from Moscow)

Dawn over Siberia. We passed over the line dividing Europe and Asia some time during the night and woke up to see the sun rise over a different landscape. We seem to have outrun the rain that we travelled through yesterday and the sky is a clear blue. The coniferous trees have gone and the birch that remans is more advanced into winter. There is much more open land – some large scale cultivation but mainly rough grassland. This is not quite what I imagined but in winter it would presumably be under several feet of snow.

You see quite a lot of these water pipes - but look at the lagging. How do you transport water when the temperature is -30 degrees C?

Our train going through the forests in Siberia

Friday 10^th October
Day 8 (4000km)

A hard frost quickly disappeared under early morning sunshine. The landscape has changed again. We can see rolling hills for the first time. The trees are very bare now but there are more villages and, now, lots of small ramshackle greenhouses in amongst the vegetable plots. We can't decide if these plots, with their tiny 'houses' attached are dachas (weekend 'allotments') or actually living quarters. We go though Krasnoyasrsk (4100km), a big city of nearly a milion people – typically drab and very industrial.

The crows we saw were a moment of excitement as we have been wondering where all the birds are. The cold winter probably means that most birds are migratory and have long since left for the winter. At the station we were offered a bucket of cherries for 200 roubles (£5). We took a handful. They were very small and a little sharp with tiny pips.

The landscape rolls on and on with little variation – grasses that have turned yellow and stands of birch trees. There are hills from time to time (that the train makes hard work of) but otherwise little changes. The stations provide a focus when all the carriage come together on the platform. Some take the opportunit for a smoke while others are busy deciding what food to buy (or what the food is). At the last stop we phoned the travel agent and were promised that the tickets will be delivered to our carrialge at Irkutz (at 5:30 a.m.) . Why does that not fill me with optimism?

A typical station 'supermarket'


















...and sometimes the vendors were a little less formal
You take your chances but no one in the carriage was ill.



















Although the train is 'electric', they load up coal at each station - for each carriage.
This supplies the heat for the fictional hot water (and probably the carriage heating)




















... and here is the boiler in the carriage. Well we thought this was interesting.

Saturday 11^th October Day 9

At 5.00 the train pulled into Irkutz station and there, waiting at the entrance to our carriage, was a man with our tickets for Beijing. I am sure we would have coped if we had had to leave the train at Ulan Bator but it would have meant less time in Beijing and a lot of hassle. Unable to sleep, we sat in the dark watching the stars move around in the sky as the train twisted and turned on its way though the hills to Lake Baikal. This lake hold 20% of the worlds fresh water.

It was well worth getting up at 5:00 a.m. to meet the 'man with the tickets'.

We really had resigned ourselves to having to get off at Ulan Bator

Our first glimpse of the lake was by light reflected from the street lamps of Slyudyanka but as we rounded the lake the sky began to lighten. Dawn breaking over the lake was the highlight of the journey so far. The train then climes up above the lake with snow capped mountings to the south and the lake below to the north.

Dawn over Lake Baikal - the picture can only hint at this wonderful spectacle

The journey to Ulan Ude was full of interest. We seem to have too much to do and it is hard to find time to write this. The train follows the valley of the Selenga river and we move from one side of the train to the other to depending on which goies the more interesting view. The villages are poorer than previously, and there is no mistaking their tiny ramshackle houses for 'dachas' here.

After Ulan Ude we reach the border control at Naushki. In our carriage everyone is trying to work out how to complete the immigration/emigration forms and we all decide to go with the Lonely Planet guide to the Ukraine version asn this seems to be an identical form. The whole process appears to be entirely without point but more a show of who is in charge as officials scrutinise our passports and then walk off with them. We have a carriage 'party' during the 6-hour wait (one at each border post). There is plenty of Russian champagne and something that is a cross between Ribena and Sherry. Everyone contributes something from their stock of food and, as some of us get off the train early tomorrow at Ulan Bator, there is a really nice atmosphere.

Snow on the KhamarDaban mountains



















This childrens' play area was the first signs that we saw (since leaving Moscow) of any play facilities for children - no football pitches, basketball nets, swings, playgrounds, etc.



















The next two are the Selenga River.
We followed the river valley before going up nto the mountains






































A small Siberian village

After Ulan Ude we reach the border control at Naushki. In our carriage everyone is trying towork out how to complete the immigration/emigration forms and we all decide to go with the Lonely Planet guide to the Ukraine version and this seems to be an identical form. The whole process appears to be entirely without point but more a show of who is in charge as officials scrutinise our passports and then walk off with them. We have a carriage 'party' during the 6-hour wait (one at each border post). There is plenty of Russian champagne and something that is a cross between Ribena and Sherry. Everyone contributes something from their stock of food and, as some of us get off the train early tomorrow at Ulan Bator, there is a really nice atmosphere.

Most of our carriage - taken by "1 Yen", one of the carriage attendants (Huan Yen - I think)

Our farewell 'party' - well some of them

Sunday 12^th October Day 10

Everyone is up early to say goodbye to those that are leaving. UB is very different and we can tell immediately that it is no longer in Russia. New passengers arrive – we now have French 'bathroom buddies'. I made the mistake of speaking a little French to them and now they talk fast and incomprehensibly while I nod and smile.

We climb the mountains (two diesel locos now) and see small patches of snow on the side of the track and finally reach the watershed that divides the run off between the Arctic and the Yellow Sea off the coast of China. We are now crossing the Gobi Desert. We see the occasional camels that roam wild here. The Gobi Desert goes on and on. The landscape changes gradually from sparse grassland into a more sandy soil with intermittent vegetaion (reminiscent of the prairies in the USA) and we begin to see red tingest in the soil. By the time we reach the border post the soil is more reddish and some of the distant sandy hills are the same colour as Ayers Rock as they reflect the light from the setting sun.

This is Ulan Bator Station - the capital city of Mongolia



















The train in Mongolia - OK it isnt much to look at but its
all there was to take a photo of


















Mountains in Mongolia

Going through the border into China is once again a long drawn out process. Passports disappear and reappear, forms are filled in. (What do they do with all these forms?) The bogeys have to be changed back to the narrower guage but this time the process is done in a clean railway shed with us in the carriages and uniformed guards overseeing the process. 'Supervisors' take digital photos of the underside of the carriages for some obscure reason. We eventually begin to move again just after midnight.

Monday 13^th October Day 11

We have a complementary breakfast today as the restaurant car is now chinese. This consists of bread, butter, jam and two hard boiled eggs but is very welcome.

The change in the view from the carriage is the most dramatic so far – lots of heavy industry, massive buildoing works, half-completed motorways, and enormous stretches of maize being harvested. This appears to be done with scythes but the crop is then loaded onto tractors (sometimes donkey-drawn carts) and taken off to, presumably store for animal feed.

There are some sizable mountains to our left, several miles away, and we see deep 'gulches where the run off has cut through the soft surface layer.

There is great excitement as Meg spots the Great Wall and this spreads through the train – everyone is on the side facing the wall. Cameras click away taking blurred pictures of the Wall, through the hazy atmosphere, at a distance of several kilometres. I suggest buying a postcard in Beijing but no one seems to understand this.

Day 5 Moscow (6th Oct)

Our first set of pics

We left Kemble without too much luggage (for which we have been grateful ever since).

This amazing sphere, in the Museum des Beaux Arts in Brussels, is covered in irridescant scarab beetles. It hs to be seen to be believed.

The rain does not really enhance Brusssels but the waffles aare fantastic.

One of a number of art works in an exhibition in Brussels Cathedral. Rahter more impressive than the minimalistic 'dropped handerchief' which was also on display (it wasn't even a used one).

Cologne Cathedral is simply stunning – neither of us could get over the amazing detail in the structure. It dominates the city from every angle.

We went to the top of an office block on the other side of the river to get this view – well worth the 5 euros.

Our compartment on the train was a little cramped but quite comfy. We were glqd to have a 2-berth comprtment rather than 4. It was not much mor4e expensive but meant that we could spread out stuff about.

This is the train in Moscow Station, althoug it metamorphosed several tiimes during the journey as bits were added and taken away.

Changing to a different gauge track in Brest. The carriage is lifted of the bogeys with four hydraulic jacks and then lowered on to the new bogeys.

This is our view from the Cosmos Hotel in Moscow – our room was on the 23rd floor. You can see a tethered balloon across the ring road. We had a better view than they did.

Sorry about the order - time running out at internet cafe!

Work ends

What an amazing day! My thirty years at Deer Park has finally come to an end.

Having said that I wanted no presents, no speeches and no cards I have been overwhelmed by the wonderful goodbyes (and the presents, the cards, the speeches ... and the cake). Since so many of my colleagues have expressed an interest in this blog it seems a good place to say thank you. I could not have had a better day (or week) and it has left me feeling quite emotional.

Anyone who has not worked in a school finds it hard to appreciate the quality of the people who do - particularly those who are not teachers but put in so much effort to support those who do teach. Deer Park has long been a remarkable school, full of remarkable people, and I have been very lucky to be part of it.

J

Launch Date - minus nine

Its now only nine days.

The last nine days have flown past – we seem to have done such a lot, and yet there is such a lot still to do.

The house is gradually being packed into boxes, given to charity shops or dispersed via the Freecycle network. I am constantly surprised at how efficient Freecycle is. We “advertised” two used dustbins – which went within twelve hours, as did the spare parts for a Hozelock system, some miscellaneous baking trays and all our house plants (the taker subsequently emailed me to assure me that they had gone to a good home – I suspect it might be a better home than they had previously). The “useful wood” in the cellar has also gone to a good home (although it might end up on someone’s fire).

We have not had a sniff of anyone being interested in renting the house. The credit crunch has a lot to answer for. However, whilst it is somewhat dispiriting to have to clean the oven and empty the bathroom cupboard, I suppose that if the worse came to the worse and we died whilst on our trip, at least all our affairs are in perfect order for the children. They simply have to take all the boxes from the attic to charity shops.

One of the bonuses of leaving has been the many kind things that people have said and done. I am struggling to empty the freezer because people keep inviting us out for meals. The planning for the next nine days will be interesting. There is a tension between packing everything you don’t want to take away, having enough to wear, and deciding what to do with the things that you are wearing on the penultimate day. I may end up wearing some very odd combinations and then throwing the lot away. But for the remainder of today – the task is cleaning the oven.

Are we getting excited?

Only 18 days until we leave.
This will be the first entry for many of you viewing this blog as we have only just begun to tell people about it - so you can get the tone of what is to come. This entry does not include any details of Jeff’s experiences of food poisoning or an itemised account of his bowel movements but that might follow later.

Meg began her ‘gap year’ two days ago, Jeff has 10 more ‘get-ups’ before he retires for the second time. Our house is beginning to resemble a ‘holiday let’ as everything disappears into storage or charity shops – although we still have to let the place. It was emotional to have to give away the table football but sacrifices have to be made …

The organisation for this trip has been a major exercise in project management. We are awaiting our final visas – from Vietnam and hoping that we will be able to get through the Channel Tunnel and, more importantly, the border into Russia won’t be closed because of all the political posturing over the Georgia affair.

We have thought about creating a board game –‘Circumnavigate the World’ … you have only so much carbon dioxide to spend and only so much cash and then its down to good planning and the fall of the dice. This could fill our days on the cargo ship from Melbourne to Mexico.

And the answer to the question “Are you getting excited?” is that we might do if we had enough spare time to think about it.

At last - visas applied for

After two weeks of getting paperwork together I finally sent off for the first wave of visas today - Belarus, Russia, Mongolia and China. The Real Russia website have been excellent and made it all much easier but you have to have evidence of train tickets, hotels and onward travel arrangements etc, and also passport photos and a large cheque £593 for 4 visas (x 2).
We also now have all our rail and accomodation booked as far as Hanoi.

Tomorrow we have the estate agent checking over our house ... and then I have to fit a new window to replace the one that is disintegrating rapidly

Two months to go

It is hard to get to grips with the fact that there are only two months before we set off. There is so much to do if we are going to let the house. The past two months have been a continuous drip-feed of clearing out junk, painting, repairing, fixing, etc.
We now have Moscow to Hanoi booked and this means we can get some visas. Some of these countries have only a 3 month window for visas so you cant apply too early. China requires evidence of onward travel and of hotel reservations.
It will take about a month to get the Russia, Mongolia and China visas using an agency. After that we can sort out Belarus, Viet Nam and Australia. It is all quite complex.