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After a very relaxing time in Durban we left for Russia, however we still had about 24 hours of travel ahead of us before we arrived in Moscow. We had to fly from Durban to Johannesburg to London and then finally we landed in Moscow, unfortunately Shannene's bag took a morescenic route and didn't arrive at the same time as us.After watching all of the bags go around on the carousel, hoping the next one would be Shannene's and then it was empty.Shannene spent the next 30-45mins trying to communicate with the lady in lost luggage and trying to fill out forms. We finally left with the impression that her bag may turn up the following day, but had resigned to the fact that a lot of hand washing would need to be done in the meantime.The only one good thing was that Shannene didn't have to lug a big backpack across town. We navigated our way to the airport express train into town (we inquired about a taxi but it was going to cost about ₤50 or more, so flagged that idea, public transport it would have to be, no better way to get to know your city than throw yourself amongst it) and then caught the Metro (equivalent of the London Underground but in a completely foreign language).At this stage we were only going by the instructions our hostel had sent us and a street map in our guide book, little did we know that this would not be the first or last time we got lost with Russian directions. We managed to overcome the Metro system, pretty much unscathed and arrived at our stop, but this is where the real fun began (well it wasn't at the time). It was around 8pm when we emerged from the Metro and were on street level, we were on the right street and had found the right building (addresses in Moscow consist of a street name, number and building number, a building can be the size of a street block and made up of many businesses and flats but have no signage just doors and buzzers). To make things worse the whole building was covered in scaffolding so if there was a sign for Red Square Hostel we couldn't see it.We asked several people (well just pointed at the address on the paper, no one spoke English) they either just ignored us and walked away or actually pointed at the building.So we knew we were in the right place but couldn't find where in the building the hostel was. The building was huge, just to give you an idea of it's size it consisted of several clothing shops, chemists, a perfume shop and a small department store, plus flats, just to name a few. We couldn't phone the hostel either as in order to use any of the public phones you had to buy a phone card and we had no idea where you bought one from and didn't even know who to ask.We managed to find a back entrance to the building where there were even more doors and buzzers.Guy ended up going into a little food shop and tried to ask them if they knew where the hostel was, they still didn't speak any English but managed to phone the hostel and the owner came down and met us. Our saviours, we definitely had to buy something from their shop to say thanks!! Finally after about an hour of wandering around, it was now 9pm (we were starting to stress at this stage, wondering where we were going to sleep) Ferry the hostel owner showed up and led us to our room. Ferry thankfully spoke English and was extremely helpful, he definitely made our stay in Moscow that little bit easier.The next morning we attempted to make our way to the Real Russia office in order to collect our Trans Mongolian train tickets.Once again we were armed with Russian directions and our guide book map.This time it took us about 2 hours of wandering around trying to find the place. Every person we asked didn't speak English and to make matters worse the street names in our directions and our map were in English and the actual road signs were in Russian - so all very frustrating. After a little perseverance and some much needed lunch we finally found their offices and collected our tickets.That afternoon/evening we wandered around Red Square which was right on the doorstep of our hostel. The next day Shannene's bag turned up all in tact, no more hand washing.We had one more day exploring the city - we visited Lenin's Tomb (apparently one of Red Square's must see sights), which we found the experience all rather odd.We joined a queue which took us through a metal detector and also armed guards searched your bags. You are not suppose to take a camera in with you, it had to be checked into a left luggage office before you joined the queue, we only realised this when people with cameras around their necks were denied entry by the rather scary guards.We only had our small digital camera with us and we buried it at the bottom of our bag which the guard didn't find - phew.As we entered the tomb Guy had his hands in his pockets and the no nonsense guard promptly made him remove them and pat down his pockets.We then proceeded to walk past the embalmed, oddly waxy figure of Lenin.The humourless guards ensured that all visitors remained respectful during the visit and shh'd anyone that spoke.
We visited St Basil's Cathedral with it's nine brightly painted domes and stonework decorated with intricate patterns.If you wanted to take photos inside you had to pay an additional feeon top of your entrance fee - we found this to be very common in Russia.Not really sure how they policed it, as there were loads of people taking photos so we thought we'd risk it and snapped a couple of shots. We were half expecting someone to pounce on us out of no where, but they didn't, we got a way with it!!
We also saw the Tomb of the Unknown Solider which it is tradition for newly weds to visit and to be photographed beside its eternal flame.
The GUM, a remarkable glass roofed shopping arcade.It had a great food hall where wecould order food by just pointing at it, no speaking involved - excellent!
After 3 days in Moscow it was time for us to leave and check out St Petersburg, but the first mission was to purchase the train tickets. We asked Ferry (our hostel owner) what was the best way to buy tickets when we don't speak Russian, and he actually came with us to the ticket office and did all the talking for us. We will be forever grateful of Ferry and his kindness -not realising that this will not be the last time we see him or that he helps us out.In order tosave money on accommodation costs we decided to catch the over night train, it left at around 1am and arrived at 10:30am.As with all trains there are several types of cabin classes -Deluxe 1st class (which is out of our budget), 1st class (still out of our league), 2nd class (that's more like it), 3rd class and 4th class.We decided to travel 3rd class (Platskartny) on the way to St Petersburg (we were told we should try it at least once) and 2nd class (Kupeyny) on the way back. The Platskartny carriage is essentially a dorm carriage sleeping 54 people.The bunks are open plan, uncompartmentalised and are arranged in blocks of four down one side of the corridor and in twos on the other side, with the lower bunk on this side converting to a table and chairs during the day.It wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be and was probably the best nights sleep both of us have had on the trains.We arrived quite refreshed and ready to tackle another city.We got off at the station we thought was St Petersburg, it arrived at the correct time (all trains depart and arrive on time, however there are underlying reasons for this punctuality,- managers have a large portion of their pay determined by the timeliness of their trains, something we think the UK rail system should adopt!) we even asked a few people, train staff included and they confirmed we had arrived at St Petersburg. Little did we know that there were two stations in St Petersburg and we had gotten off one stop too early and after much confusion and walking around in circles we walked back to the station and asked at information and of course they didn't speak English.So we walked back out again and found a map of the city which had a "Your Are Here" arrow on it and thanks to Guy who figured out we were at the wrong station on the wrong side of the river, so we just hopped on the Metro two stops and found our way to our hostel.Our hostel was in a great central location but our room wasn't quite what we expected.We were sold on the sound of the Ikea furniture that was described on the hostel bookers website, there was perhaps one bookcase in our room that looked remotely like an Ikea kit set. The room was more like an office, with random office furniture and a rather small double bed in it. Ahh well it served it's purpose and had a great kitchen to make our meals in.The first thing we did was grab some lunch at Subway and the first thing we noticed was that the staff spoke English.It is a university town so that would explain the number of people (students) who spoke English and were willing to speak to us, almost like they were happy to practice theirEnglish skills on us.It was so nice not feeling so isolated.After wandering the city and getting our bearings we then climbed up the 262 steps of St Isaac's Cathedral to see the view of the city.Afterwards we stopped off at the supermarket and grabbed a few beers and had soup and bread for dinner back at the hostel. After an earlyish night we hit the city earlythe next morning and took in the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood - a multi-domed dazzler of a church which was partly modelled on St Basil's in Moscow.We wandered through the Summer Garden, which is said to be St Petersburg's loveliest park and walked across the river to explore the Peter and Paul Fortress where we actually saw one woman in a bikini, we can only imagine she was about to take a dip in the some what freezing cold water of the river, it was about 10 degrees air temperature, but guess not that cold compared to what they are used to, it can be -35 degrees in winter!!Relatively tropical.We also checked out one of the world's first indoor shopping malls, the Gostiny Dior which dates from 1757-85.That evening after a meal of instant noodles back at the hostel, we caught the overnight train back to Moscow, this time we traveled 2nd class on the way back, a 4 berth cabin. Our roomies were two young Russian guys from Moscow (Roma and Pasha, not sure if they really were their names) who had spent the weekend in St Petersburg.They spoke a little bit of English and they liked dance music and apparently were either narcotic officers, narcotic dealers or were bouncers at a night club- we can't be sure, we're thinking the latter, bouncers as they were only 23yrs old and did kick boxing. They were very generous and gave us a Russian dance music CD, which we are very interested to listen to and we all shared a few beers and stories on the journey back to Moscow.We only had a New Zealand $5.00 note to give them, which they seemed quite happy about.We exchanged email addresses and told them they are most welcome to visit us in New Zealand, they were big snow boarders so seemed quite keen.Once we arrived back in Moscow we had to catch another train to our next destination Nizhny Novgorod where we were due to spend 4nights. No sooner had we arrived and tried to check in were we told that our visas were expiring the next day, the 3rd September, which seemed impossible as we were not due to leave Russia until 23rd September. By this time both the Moscow and London offices of Real Russia who we had organised our visas and trip through were now closed so we would have to sleep on it in a very seedy hotel room and wait until tomorrow to find out what we should do.After a very stressful nights sleep we phoned the Moscow office first thing the next morning (the day our visas expired) and they advised that we hightail it back to Moscow and they would try and sort out an extension for us.So back on the train we headed that night and took the overnight train as we had no where to stay in Moscow at such short notice. We arrived around 6am the following morning(trying to avoid any police as our visas had now expired and we were illegally in Moscow - money hungry police are known to stop tourists at train stations and ask to see their visas and registration stamps and can fine them on the spot).We had an appointment with RealRussia at 8:30am who endeavored to help us out of our predicament.They took our passports and a fee and went to the passport office to ask for a 20 day extension - problem was that visas extensions were generally only granted when the current visa was still valid, ours had now expired. The best they could offer us was a 10 day extension which we took, this just meant that we only had 10 days to travel through Russia to Mongolia, but at this stage we were both so over Russia.Our train tickets were re-issued at an additional cost, with the understanding that we would be reimbursed for the tickets we hadn't used (to date this is under dispute and our reimbursement, if we even get one may take a few months, so bank balance watch this space).At this stage we were just happy knowing that we were leaving Russia.Whilst we waited for our visas to come through we had an additional 2 nights to kill in Moscow, we headed back to our friend Ferry who kindly put us up in his hostel, we didn't know anyone else in the city and where we could stay at such short notice.Our visa extensions finally came through and we were back on the train heading for Irkutsk, a 3 day train journey.Our companions in our 4 berth cabin were two Russian students who surprise, surprise didn't speak English. We did however make friends with a couple in the cabin next door, an Aussie guy and his English girlfriend.We did also make friends in the restaurant/bar carriage, even though some of them didn't speak English but we got more conversation out of them than our cabin friends.The 3 days went by fairly uneventful, playing cards and eating pot noodles, we did manage to get off the train at some station stops, where they had lots of people selling food and drink on the platform.One highlight was Guy coming back from one station stop with local food and 4 cold beers!!Our student friends were fairly plain jane,we thought they'd be cracking open the vodka, but felt they were frowning upon us with our couple of beers.We finally arrived in Irkutsk where we had organised a home stay with a local woman named Helen who spoke perfect English (what better way to get to know the local culture than stay with a Russian family) who met us at the train station. We arrived at 8:30am local time, however we were still on Moscow time, there is a 5 hour difference so really 3:30am for us.We were pretty shattered by the time we got to Helen's house, she was a bit of a way out of the city centre as well.She had to go to work (she had a full time job as well as the home stay) so once she showed us around her two bedroom flat, we had a shower and a snooze.No sooner had we nodded off but we were awoken by the door bell, not sure whether we should just open it to strangers in a foreign country (she had a huge metal door plus a normal front door, so kind of figured they might have robbery problems) we ignored it.A few minutes later the phone rang, it was Helen telling us her Mother was at the front door and we should let her in, so we did.Her Mother didn't speak a word of English and was chatting away to us in Russian as if we understood her perfectly.It was a one way conversation with us shrugging and smiling meekly, she then pottered around doing a bit of housework and put the Russian TV on full volume, we did our best to get some sleep.We woke a few hours later to a quiet house (not sure how Mum let herself out) and decided to take a walk around the neighbourhood and try and find a supermarket for our dinner.We had more pot noodle for dinner just before Helen came home from work. The price of our accommodation included breakfast, bed, linen and towel, so we were very surprised after chilling out chatting to Helen whilst she prepared dinner for herself and her 14 year old daughter when she dished us up as well.We were a little bit embarrassed but grateful none the less.It was a lovely evening spent getting to know each other and finding out a little bit more of the Russian way of life.The next day after Helen's Mum came around and cooked us breakfast we caught the local minibus into town with her on her way to work.We planned to catch a bus to Listvyanka which is the nearest Lake Baikal village to Irkutsk.Helen had said that the bus left at 11am, however after a bit of sign language and pointing at watches to the woman at the bus station, we found out the next bus wasn't until 2pm, which was too late in the day for us. Helen also mentioned that mini vans also head there and only leave once they are full up.We wandered around and found a mini van with a driver in it and said "Listvyanka??" and he said yes, so we sat in waiting for other passengers to join us, hoping we were in the right van and heading in the right direction.Once the van was full up we headed off.Passengers just yell out to the driver when they want to get off, there are no designated bus stops, people just get dropped off and picked up along the side of the road. Russian drivers drive really fast, not sure if we were more nervous about the mad driving or about whether we were heading in the right direction. We drove for about an hour and when we finally came to a stop and everyone got off we figured we were in Listvyanka which the driver confirmed.Listvyanka is one of Bailkal's most visited tourist spots but because it was off season the village was very quiet. However the views towards the distant snowcapped Kamar Daban Mountains were breathtaking.We stopped off at local markets near the port and ate fresh smoked omul fish with fresh bread which was yummy.We then wandered around one of the valleys and strolled past old wooden cottages.It was then time to find a minivan back to Irkutsk, once again no timetable we just had to wait for the van to fill up before we could leave.We struck up a conversation with a local girl on the way back, she was 12 years old going on 50, full of questions.She finally fell asleep and then we were a bit taken back when she got off the van and didn't even say goodbye to us - how rude!Once back in town we had to find a number 3 mini van which took us back to Helen's neighbourhood.There were no bus stops, you just had to flag a van down with the correct number on the front and hope it wasn't full.We waited about half an hour for a fairly empty van to come along, you then paid 12 Rubles to the driver once you got off - this seemed to be the set fare no matter how far you traveled.On the way home, we both looked at each other and said "nothing looks familiar, I don't recognise anything" and we thought we'd gotten on the right bus but in the wrong direction.But then Guy finally figured out that on the way in one of the roads was a one way street and we had to do a big loop around, finally buildings looked familiar the next hurdle was trying to tell the driver to let us off, we didn't know the Russian word for stop!! So once we were close to Helen's house we decided to get off when the next person did.That evening we sat around chatting to Helen, she is such a frustrated woman longing to leave Russia but due to a 14 year old daughter and her country's restrictions she can't.The closest escape she has is having travelers stay with her and listening to their stories and adventures. We hope one day she gets to escape Irkutsk as she is such a lovely woman.
The following morning we caught a taxi into town and were totally ripped off by the driver.Helen had said it would cost 100 Rubles but of course when Guy went to pay him he shook his head and put two fingers up meaning 200 Rubles. We argued with him saying no only 100, but he reckoned he didn't understand and not wanting to cause too much of a scene and cops turning up we paid it, what else could we do.We dropped our bags off at the left luggage in the train station, our train wasn't departing until 8:30pm that evening so we had the day to explore the city. We visited the eternal flame, the Bogoyavlensky Cathedral, walked along the embankment of the Angara river where there were several wedding parties having their photos taken, drinking vodka and attaching padlocks to the railings -this is a Russian tradition where newly weds profess their love by placing padlocks on such things asrailings or sometimes trees.The idea is for the couples to "lock" in their love.
We bought some bread rolls from a local vendor for our lunch, however we didn't realise they had a sweet glaze on top of them - not quite so nice with our tomato and processed cheese, but none the less we ate them, you eat anything when you're hungry.We sat in the park, eating our homemade sandwiches watching the locals.We wandered around the bustling central market and Chinese markets.We then made our way back to the train station, our next stop was Ulan Ude, another overnight train. The idea was to have a good nights sleep, rocked to sleep by the motion of the train and arrive refreshed.We only had one other person in our 4 berth cabin, a rather large Russian policeman.He didn't speak any English but we did try and communicate with a bit of sign language and a few odd words.We had our dinner of pot noodles and then we retired to bed, he quickly nodded off to sleep. No sooner had the lights gone out when this terrible noise erupted from him, we had a snorer, but not just any old snorer, boy was he loud. He would stop breathing and then struggle for breath and then this huge animal like noise would come out of him - we watched him for quite some time.To begin with we found him quite amusing, but as the hours ticked by and we were still awake the less amusing we found it. There was no way we were going to be getting any sleep.We tried listening to our iPods, but you could still hear him even with the music up loud.At one point he even sat up at the end of his bed and still continued snoring, we were a bit worried as to what he would do next. He finally woke up and laid back down in his bed, continuing with the snoring the entire time. We finally drifted off around 4amish and our train pulled into Ulan Ude at 6:15am, surprisingly we were unrefreshed and feeling just a tad tired.Our fellow policeman on the other hand, looked like he'd had a great nights sleep. We were collected from the station by Natasha who took us to Olga's house - another home stay.Olga was a Russian woman who taught French and for some reason seemed to speak French the entire time - a heck of a lot easier to understand than Russian.Why oh why couldn't Shannene remember more of French from school.Luckily there was another guy staying, Ricardo who was French so he could translate quite a lot which was great. But surprisingly we understood a lot of what Olga said.Once we arrived Olgashowed us to our room which was huge and the bed was even bigger - we could both starfish at the same time and still not reach each other. She was a very sweet woman, as she shut the door to let us sleep she blew us kisses, we knew we would enjoy staying here.After a few hours of much needed sleep we headed into town to collect our train tickets which would take us from Ulan Ude to Ulaan Baatar (Mongolia!!).When we arrived at the office they said that the tickets wouldn't be ready until 3pm, so we decided to check out the town in the meantime. Ulan Ude's main attraction is the world's largest Lenin head, which dominates the main Stalinist square.We then went to the supermarket and bought some food for a late lunch, after which it was then about time for us to collect our tickets.To celebrate that we would be leaving Russia the following day and would soon be in Mongolia we went for a beer.We found some beer tents that had wooden picnic tables and cheap beer served in plastic cups. After a couple of beers we decided to go for dinner and had found a Chinese restaurant that was recommended in the Lonely Planet guide book, as cheap, good food and huge portions.When we arrived and were shown to our table, the menu the waitress gave us was in Russian and when we asked if they had an English menu she just smiled, shook her head, shrugged her shoulders and walked away. She wasn't in the slightest bit interested in helping us. So we decided to get the Lonely Planet book out as there is a small section on translation of food - the only words that we could translate on this vast menu was meat and beef.So what did we do next, we got up and walked out.We headed to the main square where there seemed to be some kind of dance party going on (well there was music, a huge crowd, but no dancing, not even one person was nodding their head or tapping their foot to the music or even drinking, all very bizarre) and sat on a bench and ate bread and cheese and watched the crowd.The next morning Olga made breakfast for us and Riicardo, not long into eating the conversation of visa registration came up - in Russia you have to register your visa within 3 working days of arriving, this essentially means a stamp on your immigration card by your hostel or hotel. Both us and Ricardo didn't have this stamp, he had been staying at home stays and none of our budget hostels were able to do this for us.But not for want of trying, we attempted to obtain the stamp in Moscow but our first hostel said he couldn't do it plus he said we didn't need to and we also tried at a travel agency (which it states in our guide book can assist) but they didn't seem to know anything about it.The thing is when we cross the border to leave Russia the immigration/passport officers could decide to fine us up to 5,000 Rubles each and also not allowed back into Russia for the next 5 years, depending on their mood or they could just ignore it and let us through.Money none of us could afford to part with, so Olga decided to help us out.She took us to a local hotel and asked one of the staff if they could help us - basically we had to pay for one night in a triple room so it looked as though we had stayed there, she then took copies of our passports and visas, we then had to write down the names/details of all of the accommodation we had stayed at and then she put that magic stamp on our immigration card. This didn't automatically mean that we would be safe when we crossed the border, it would help but they could question us as to why we didn't have any other stamps from previous hotels we had stayed at - all depended on what mood they were in.As this hotel lady was now "responsible" for us, we paid her a little bit extra for her help.We remained stressed and nervous for the rest of our journey up to and through our border crossing.We thanked Olga for her help and bid her a fond farewell.
The train that we boarded at Ulan Ude bound for Mongolia had started in Moscow (a 5 day journey through to Mongolia) and was full of Mongolian traders who had bought goods in Moscow and were transporting them to Mongolia to sell at their local markets.When we got to our cabin we were only sharing with one other woman, but she had so much "stuff" everywhere, she had taken over the entire cabin leaving us with little room for our bags.The "stuff" consisted of all sorts of things, boxes of blond hair dye (not sure why Mongolians with black hair would want to dye their hair blond), boxes of face moisturiser, boxes of caviar, crockery, jam, think there may have even been a kitchen sink! Nothing compared to some of the other cabins though -bags of charcoal, cans of cream..... When we finally found her she kindly moved things around so we could store our bags, although we were still feeling very cramped.The entire train journey was a hive of activity, the Mongolian traders would rush around the carriages moving their boxes of goods around - basically they had to try and hide all of the items and make it look like they were not selling them on, otherwise they would have to declare them to customs.Guess it's like when you go to Calais to buy cheap alcohol you are only suppose to buy enough for your own personal consumption you can't look to be selling it on. We sat in our cabins and watched men with trolleys rushing up and down the carriage aisle, transporting goods between different cabins, all very entertaining.Guy was even in on it, the woman in our cabin had him helping her moving things around and lifting boxes. We're pretty sure the Provodnitsa's (carriage attendants) we're helping them hide/smuggle things away in the train as well.Just short of the Russian border and all of the activity calmed down and things were back to normal, you wouldn't have guessed anything out of the ordinary had just taken place.The train came to a stop, we were finally at the Russian border, this is when we crossed our fingers (as we're sure all of the Mongolian traders did the same thing) and our nerves set in - would we or would we not get through without any fines or questioning??First off the customs inspector came through and took our customs declaration forms and looked through each cabin and storage spaces.Then the Russian immigration officers boarded the train, and all doors were locked and the toilet doors were locked too, there was no escape.They took our departure cards and passports and then left the train, thus the waiting game began.The whole border crossing took 6-7 hours, we could get off the train however there were no toilets during this whole time.They finally came out of their office and boarded the train again with our passports, but before they gave them back they searched through all of the compartments, storage areas, toilets and any locked areas.Once they were happy with their search they came to each cabin and gave back our passports - this was the deciding moment.The officer called out our name and just gave our passports back no questions asked whatsoever, he even had a smile.Phew - what a relief.We're not sure whether we needed to pay that extra money for the hotel to do the visa registration, it was a bit like Russian roulette, but it was definitely peace of mind and we're glad that we did.We then traveled about 16kms to the Mongolian border.It was the same deal, but only took about an hour, the process seemed to be a whole lot easier and smoother. Although the officers were still just as scary.We did have to complete an immigration card which was written in Mongolian. We tried to translate with the few words we had in our Lonely Planet book but that didn't work - we could get name and passport number but there were two pages to complete. We asked one of the Mongolian traders who spoke limited English who helped a little bit, but then we found a Dutch couple who had a translation book and were able to help us fill it in - job done.We had now crossed the border into Mongolia with no issues, it was about another 7-8 hours on the train until we got to our destination Ulaan Baatar.The Mongolian traders were now back on their feet, rushing around trying to gather up all of their goods from wherever they had stashed them on the train and box them up again.Men with their trolleys were running up and down the aisles and of course Guy was roped into helping our friend.We finally retired to our bunks to get a few hours sleep and left our friend to do her thing, we woke up to her asleep and boxes piled up high in our cabin.We must admit our friend was very sweet and Guy helping out was the least he could do as she did assist us with getting our coffees, she asked the carriage attendant to let Shannene use the toilet when it was locked (although Shannene was quick, the attendant still unlocked the toilet, opened the door on her and told her to hurry up) she also played cards with us (last card is a universal game) and helped us fill out our customs cards (basically tick no to everything!!).We had now arrived at Ulaan Baatar where we said goodbye to our friend and were met on the platform by Zaya, the owner of the hostel we were staying at.
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