Irkutsk to Ulan Bator

April 16th - 17th 2008

Total Miles 7000

Trip Miles 4500

The train to Ulan Bator was a bit of a shock.  We left a chilly minus 6 degrees in Irkutsk and boarded another Russian train.  Now Julian likes a bit of luxury and this did not fit the bill.  The train was very old, not that clean, and the toilets...  The Provodnitsas had come in from Moscow and looked like it.  Nevertheless we managed.  The pine forest scenery and the lake helped.  The shanty towns we saw were at a new level of poverty in this remote corner of the world.

As night fell we approached the Russian/Mongolian border.  Many interruptions to our sleep occurred as various customs, immigration and train officials visited us.  Julian did a bewildering transaction with some shady characters at two a.m. - we exchanged Russian Roubles for Mongolian Togrog - at some exchange rate or other.

We entered Mongolia around dawn.  The darkness had taken away pine trees and replaced them with rolling Mongolian steppe.  No trees, barren and ten thousand acres of sky.  The climate became very dry and dusty. Mongolia sits in the middle of a weather system called the Siberian High.  This is an incredibly stable mass of air that gives hot summers and cold winters.  People told us that minus thirty to plus forty degrees were normal.

We checked into our hotel - The Continental -  a splendid little place.  The mock Rococo dining room with a slap up breakfast was a genuine shock after the train.  We felt like royalty as we sat down and were served fried eggs, orange juice and tea with milk.  There is absolutely nothing like being deprived of something and then appreciating it anew.  The kids went Bananas - additives in the cereal.

Irkutsk and Lake Baikal

April 13th - 15th 2008

Days Seven to Nine

Total Miles 6300

Trip Miles 3800

The Baikal pulled into Irkutsk early in the morning - bang on time. The day was bright, sunny and chilly. Dour Moscow faces were replaced by slightly less dour looking Siberian faces.

We were now seven hours ahead of UK time and really feeling it!

Our hotel was the former Soviet Intourist property of the town. It had been modernised into a presentable place. After some sleep we staggered out into the daylight for a look around. Irkutsk was a pleasant place with a combination of wooden houses and grand Baroque properties. We saw a lot of young people hanging around and drinking, though. Irkutsk had a frontier town feel about it, sometimes those sort of places seem idyllic, unless you live there.

That evening the Family enjoyed a visit to the Moscow state circus. Our British sensibilities were shocked to see Bears riding on the back of Buffaloes in the ring - amazing - and tragic for the animals. A performance with some girls dressed as Aeroflot stewardesses in tiny skirts made Julian's day, however!

The next day Max and Julian left the girls in the hotel and wandered off into a blizzard to catch a bus to Lake Baikal - 70Km away. The statistics of the lake are staggering. My personal favourites are: It contains 20% of the world's fresh water! It contains more water than all the North American great lakes combined! It will become another ocean, aeons from now, as tectonic forces eventually tear the continent in two.

An interesting day was spent at the lake. Max and I especially enjoyed the journey there in a blizzard. We peered out at the astounding sight of the wide river Angara opening out into the lake, and then becoming a wall of ice, as the lake itself began. Much freezing fun was had jumping up and down on the rock solid ice at the frozen beach in Lystvianka, the main lake resort. Max fell heavily for the Baikal seal - a beautiful animal that originally game from the Artic and ended up trapped in the lake. We saw a couple of them at an aquarium. Max described them as having a body like a balloon and a Dog's face.

The lake is probably the thing that Max and I talk most about. I have never really seen anything like it, Max certainly hasn't. The sight of a solid lump of ice stretching off into the distance for hundreds of Kilometers was nature at its most humbling.

On the way home I paid homage to Uri Gargarin. A native of Irkutsk, he was the first Human in space. He risked his life for a mission that was completely untried, and ended up being the first ever man to leave the planet. His statue was near the hotel. The photo above was taken by an elegant lady in perhaps her sixties who was standing with a boy about Max's age and looking intently at the statue. In our minds we decided that she was Uri's Widow and perhaps the boy was his Grandson. Poor Russian ensured we will never know. My spider sense said to me that she was not just a passer by.

The next morning we were up at 4.00 am (local) to catch our train to Ulan Bator, on the worst train we have ever been on....

On The Trans-Siberian

Days Three to Six

April 9th - 12th 2008

Total miles 6300

Trip miles 3800

Three excellent days were spent on board the Baikal crossing Russia. As far as the Urals the scenery was mostly beech trees and quite a lot of snow. This was punctuated by small communities of wooden houses with dirt roads. The poverty was very evident with many people scratching out an existence from collapsing shacks with a small vegetable patch in the garden. After the Urals the scenery became beech trees and quite a lot of snow. The poverty of rural Russian Federation life was all too clear. As we moved further from Moscow the train progressively ran out of provisions. Most of the menu requested in the dining car was met with a firm "Nyet" from Oxana - our dour but friendly waitress. Most of our food was bought from the platform, or from our own stores. It got a little desperate towards the end!

None of that detracted from the amazing experience of watching thousands of miles pass the window of our first class cabins as we relaxed in comfort. We splashed out on the cabins and we all appreciated the space, service and comfort.

The kids went to Train School every morning, learning about Russia from our cabin on my Encyclopedia Brittanica on my laptop. This is not meant to sound too worthy, but it really was a great experience - learning at perhaps its best. In a classroom without walls.

Morag enjoyed this relaxing phase of the trip. Our Provodnitsas were lovely and kept us supplied with tea all day. Evenings were spent either watching movies on the laptop or playing card games.

Julian was accosted twice by Vladimir - a Russian alcoholic who had a kind heart. He introduced himself by tearing off a strips of an enormous dried fish and insisting I ate them, washed down with strong Vodka. On the second evening he sat down with two girls - uninvited - and ordered Russian champagne. He tried to get it added to my bill. Oxana was having none of it!

In Moscow

Day Three

April 8th 2008

Total Miles 3300

Trip Miles 800

This morning at 0800 we arrived at Leningradski train station, Moscow.

During the night our passports and visas had been politely checked by fairly fearsome looking Russian border guards and customs officials. We slept fairly well, the rhythmic clatter of the wheels lulling me to sleep and keeping Morag awake. She informed me the next morning that she doesn't sleep well on trains! This worried us both as we had many thousands of miles yet to travel. The kids seemed fine as ever - they travel well. After a breakfast of Chocolate Wheetos they went bananas - additives! That was pretty funny to watch in four square metres of train carriage. Strangely I didn't think so at the time.

We wandered off the train - having fun deciphering Russian signs - written in the cyrillic alphabet and Russian of course.

We arrived at the Hostel Asia for a day stop, as our train left that night. After a long wait for rooms we got into the lift to head upstairs. The car moved initially and then ground to a halt! Much shouting into the speaker ensued - only muffled Russian assurances came back. Initially the girls were upset but soon we resigned ourselves to our fate. After what felt forever the car started to inch upwards. After about an hour the door was pulled open by strong hands and were were pulled up onto the first floor. As we exited the shaft we were amazed to see an old lady standing on the roof of the lift sticking screwdrivers into the doors to keep them open. Max said she looked like she was trained.

The rest of the day was spent around Red Square, St Basil's and the State Department store - a kind of Russian Harrods on Red Square called Gum.

That evening we boarded our train for Irkutsk - the Trans Siberian Train called The Baikal.

Moscow was very old the taxi had no seat beat  the lift broke down and all the people were unhappy

In Helsinki

Day Two

April 7th 2008

Total Miles 2500

Trip Miles 0

This evening, with some trepidation we struggled across the cobbles at Helsinki train station.

As we approached our train it became immediately obvious that we were in entering a little bit of Russia. The train carriage attendants (Provodnitsas) were all lined up checking people's tickets. The men all had enormous hats - real KGB style beauties. We clambered aboard and found our cabin - all 2 metres square! Five people and 12 bags were squeezed into place and we were off.

The train was sparsely furnished but clean. At one end of the carriage near the Provodnitsa's office lurked the Samovar - a complicated and fearsome looking device designed to produce scalding hot water for making tea and pot noodles. The toilets, however were not great!

Max

Its different from the rest of Europe, but in a good way.  Everyone has funny accents.  The Hotel was nice, especially the internet.  Getting on the Russian train felt squidged.  I am excited for the journey ahead.

Flight from London to Helsinki

Day One

April 6th 2008

Total Miles 2500

Trip Miles 0

After battling through 10cm of snow, slipping and sliding out of Haslemere, the Family caught the BA flight from Heathrow to Helsinki.

We enjoyed the comforts of the Scandic Hotel - in the certain knowledge that wireless internet, swimming pools and McDonalds would be in short supply from now on.

When we got there we went on a bus to our hotel. it had wireless internet, swimming pool and sauna. We went in to the City it was cool.  We weren't in Finland for long because we had to make it to China.