Trans Mongolian Railway: Moscow to Irkutsk

Day 1

Tony, Sam, Steve and I said our goodbyes to Frank and Verena and headed to Moscow train station, first port of call was the supermarket to stock up on instant noodles, instatnt potatoes, snacks and drinks (including the obligatory Vodka - I am pleased to say that I have taught the guys to drink a shot of vodka followed by a shot of fruit juice) for the four nighs train journey to Irkutsk.

My first impressions of the train cabin was "oh my god its small, oh my its quite old and s*** no air conditioning". After those little shocks we settled in to our new home for the next four nights. The train did cool down after a while and Vera's 1 & 2 (Tony's names for the two carriage attendants) gave us clean bedding and hand towels. All I can say really is that the day was spent chatting, relaxing and watching the world go by. Oh and debating whether to have potatoes or noodles for lunch or dinner.

Later on we realised that we were the only english speakers in the carriage, our immediate neighbours were a Ukrainian family with a couple of cute children. There was also an older Russian man further along the carriage whom Tony and I managed to discover liked Germans (he thought Tony's Aussie rules football shirt ) and he was 66. Sam found another English Speaking tour group in the resturant car, so we went along with the aim of buying beer. Now buying beer after 10.30/11pm on the train is quite hard, not only does the resturant car only serve you if they feel like it the doors to carriages are shut after 11pm for passenger safety.

Day 2

Routine set in now, breakfast, relax, watch the world go by have a chat, check the train schedule for long stops so that we could get off and stretch our legs and buy cold beer from one of the kiosks selling everything from stuffed toys to dodgy looking smoked fish. The final big decsion of the day was what to have for lunch or dinner, potatoes or noodles, oh what a choice!

That evening we decided to start on the vodka and play card games. We tried to go to the resturant car however they told us we could only drink drrinks bought from them in there, so we got drunk back in our cabin and got told off by the Ukrainians next door for being too loud (I blame Tony's tinny iphone sound).

Day 3

Breakfast, lunch dinner. Same old same old. Change of scenery as we were in Siberia, forest, field, forest forest, colourful houses blah blahblah. Drank cold beer when we could get it at various long train stops.

Had a snack in the resturant car for a change of scenery, it was actually ok.

Day 4

Watched world go by, again. Decisions to be made about whether to have noodles or potatoes for lunch and dinner. Think I had a couple of beers. Wish we had bought more vodka in Moscow.

The highlight of the day may have been eating in the resturant car, well once we could persuade them to cook something for us and once they agreed what was on the menu (in Russia resturants only seem to serve you what they want to cook, not actually what is on a menu).

Now you may be wondering about tales of Russians getting drunk on vodka on the Trans Siberian/Mongolian. Well none of us saw that (except for a man on the St Petersburg to Moscow). In fact all the other tourists whom we met pretty much said the same thing. Maybe it's a winter thing? Then again we more than made up for it later in the trip (well I did anyway).