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FOUR DAYS AND FOUR NIGHTS ON A TRAIN - MOSCOW TO ALMATY
And so our retrospective blog continues (but we are catching up to ourselves!)...
Apologies for the lack of photos from Asia but we haven't found a computer fast enough yet to upload them.
We left cold and wet Moscow on the 17th Sept at 2230hrs to travel across part of 2 of the largest countries in the world and were pleasantly surprised on boarding the train that we had a 4 berth
compartment to ourselves! Could our luck last the whole way?
It was a confused, chaotic boarding in the dark as it was crowded but we immediately settled in and went off to sleep to the gentle rocking and occasional bumping and banging of the train (well
sort
of).
The next morning we met our friendly Kazak train attendants and fellow passengers in our carriage who were mostly Russians or Kazak families travelling home from Moscow. The burly, male Kazak
train
attendant immediately made himself at home in our compartment and wondered what was wrong with us since we were not breeding yet. Then the drunk Russian next door who on discovering that I was
from
Australia, proceeded to impress me with his two words of English - "Sydney" and "Kangaroo!"
Everyone in the carriage was very curious about us and certainly had a different idea on privacy then we do. They were all very friendly and welcoming though and it wasn't very long until we made
friends, firstly with Andre, a young Russian boy living in Kazakhstan, who was learning English at school. He was travelling with his mum. He liked to pop into our compartment and show us his
technological gizmos (i.e. mobile phone and digital dictophone) and show off his ability to count carriages on fast passing trains (well what else can you do on a 4 day train
journey?!).
He also taught us a bit more Russian and played us his favourite pop music and sound effects from his phone. I showed my age by asking him if he listened to the Beatles or U2 and he just looked
blank
until Sam said, "What about the Pussycat Dolls?" At which point his face lit up in recognition and delight!
It wasn't long until we were invited into his compartment for tea with his mum and her companions. We discovered that Kazaks carry around their life history in a small plastic photo album which
was
handy in the absence of much common language. Andre's mum was in the army. One of her friends was also in the army as well as holding a part time job as one of Kazakhstan's cabaret singers. The
other
Kazak woman in the compartment worked in construction as a scaffold worker! We all swapped food and pictures and got out maps and funny pictures from our cheesy, seventies "point it!' book for
communication.
It took one and half days just to leave Russia and for that time the scenery was mostly green beech and birch forests in lovely early autumn colours (we have been racing with winter the whole trip
so
far!). There were occasional small, quaint stations in the middle of nowhere with wooden houses and renovated old steam locomotives on proud display. Longer stops meant a stretch of the legs on
the
platform and a bit of bartering with the local babushkas for Baltika beer, local homemade bread, tomatoes, gerkins, cucumbers and even giant smoked fish! You had to be quick though and keep one
eye
on the train as it always departed almost silently without much warning! We also munched on our stocks of instant noodles and nuts and fruit from Moscow. The carriage had a permanently hot
samovar
(boiling water urn) at the end so we could always make a hot cup of tea/coffee or instant noodles which was great. We had our survival kit of real roast coffee, the remants of our Italian block
of
chocolate (it is 100% cocao and very strong that is why it had lasted this long!), and herbal tea. Sadly our supply of strong English tea had disappeared in France thanks to a greedy cleaning
lady
with a penchant for English tea.
On the morning of the second day we crossed the mighty river Volga (mother of Russia). The river was so wide that it resembled more of a lake and was definitely a highlight of the trip. There
were
loads of trees and birds around here which kind of made up for the couple of ugly towns and factories on the shoreline.
We crossed the border between Kazakhstan and Russia on the second night at about 2am and it has got to be one of the longest and drawn out border crossings I have ever done (and I have done a
few!).
It took 6 hours in total and we were boarded about 4 times by 4 different sets of officious, grumpy, self important authorities from both sides - firstly Russian immigration, then Russian
customs,
then Kazak immigration, then lastly Kazak customs! The border was lit up in the night with huge spotlights like some scene out of "close encounters of the third kind" or "X-files." They all wanted
to
search everything (we found out later it is one of the major opium drug smuggling routes) and were trying their hardest to find something wrong with our visas/passports. No bribes were necessary
however much to our relief though we had one dollar bills and packets of western cigarettes at the ready! (Sam helped herself to the cigarettes anyway afterwards!) Anyway needless to say we
didn't
get any sleep that night and awoke very groggy and a bit grumpy.
Once in Kazakhstan, the scenery changed dramatically and quickly into drier steppe and desert. The good news was that the sun came out which was the first time we had seen it since Riga. We
travelled
through the western part of Kazakhstan from north to south and went close to the poor old Aral sea that is drying out, past Kazakhstan's space center, some mud brick ruined forts and endless dry,
barren, brown flat landscape. The emptiness was occassionally broken up by large, fast, passing dust and sand storms, nomadic horsemen, who seemed to come out of nowhere, mirages and the odd
sheep.
Don't get me wrong, the landscape had a certain charm, especially at sunset and sunrise when the colours were amazing but after 3 days of it we had had enough. The time did pass amazingly quickly
between food stops, chatting, eating, dozing and reading.
Travelling for that length of time is a strange experience... time gets a bit suspended and other then sunset and sunrise you haven't got a clue what time it is or even what day it is. We had a
train
station timetable to keep us sane and also to let us know the longer stops for grabbing some food, but otherwise we slipped into a semi-comatose stupor from inactivity broken up by mealtimes, loo
breaks, a bit of a walk up and down the carriage and yet another cup of tea! I was definitely getting 'cabin fever' and at longer stops couldn't wait to jump out, have a stretch and get some
exercise. By the end though, we had become quite the train nerds, ticking off the stations and noting if we were running late or early - anything to stave off boredom and keep sane! No really, it
was
a lovely way to travel and it is a wonderful way to do nothing for a couple of days and literally watch the world go by, as really you have very little other options.
Finally the train turned west just before Tashkent and the Tian Shan mountain range and headed for Almaty. This was the most interesting scenery of the trip with impressive rocky mountains, (some
very close to the track), strange rock formations, more vegetation, interesting villages with some very unusual big cemetries. The mountains got bigger as we got closer to Almaty and we started
to
see the largest part of the TianShan mountains, near the border with China, in the distance. We spent one final fourth night on the train before arriving in Almaty at about 7am in the morning on
the
21st. And we still had a compartment all to ourselves!
Next, our very brief stay in Almaty and trip to Bishkek, Krygystan!
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