The Art of Misadventure

Kim's travel blog

Month: February 2008

LON to BKK – Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar

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On February 24, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Ulaanbaatar mile 5519

The short journey of 700 miles to Ulaanbaatar some how takes 34 hours, but that is only 2 nights and one day so very manageable compared with my last journey of over 70 hours. The train departed at 20:45 local time so I had the day to cook lots of food for the journey (look at me making a packed lunch for the first time ever), on finding my cabin I was confronted by my Mongolian room mate asking me to pretend here bags were mine as she was over here baggage weight. I made it clear that how I did not mind putting here bags under my seat as I had room I was no way going to pretend they were mine at customs. After we had set off she gave some of here baggage to some other Mongolians in the next compartment. She came back in and we chatted about the deference in out cultures and at what age you are expected to be married by, and she gave me a cup of Mongolian tea which is tea with milk and salt!! I can only assume that someone was playing a trick on the Mongolians along time ago and they switched the salt and the sugar bowl.

On the trains the Provodnista is in charge of keeping every one in check, the place clean, the heater stoked up with coal and making sure you are awake up in time for your stop also plays here music over the Tony system, you can turn it off in your cabin but someone next door had theirs turned up full blast, the first night we were subject to what appeared to be the full Mamma Mia sound track in Russian and the second day a mix of Russian pop and hip hop.

We arrived at the Russian border town of Naushki at 13:00 which is when I started to understand why 700 miles would take so long. My Mongolian cabin mate enplaned that we would now sit at the station unlit customs arrived at 17:00. Passport control arrived at 16:30 and we were stamped out of Russia and customs arrived at 17:00, we eventually got moving at 18:00. After the short crossing into Mongolia we stoped at the Mongolian border town of Sukhbaatar where we went through the same process and then had to sit on the train until we were linked up to the 21:20 train to UB. The whole process tool a little over 8 hours. On arrival at Sukhbaatar all the Mongolians got off the train as apparently it is cheaper to buy a new ticket for the same train here, leaving only the unknowing Brits, Australians and Danes on the train.
We arrived in UB at just after 6am and I was grateful that my guest house had a free station pick up service.

So far along the way I keep bumping in to the same people, not surprising as there are only so many hostels along the route; but today I met a girl from the year below me at school!!! Talk about a small world. All together now “it’s a small word after all, it’s a small world after all, it’s a small, small world…”

P.S. My new phone dose not work here so please use my old number until I leave Mongolia.

LON to SIN – Lake Baikal

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On February 23, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Arriving at a mild -20 me and Ben who happened to have booked the same hostel, made our way slightly over dressed into town to find the “down town hostel”, after ringing the bell 5 times we eventually got in to the small apartment with 2 dorms. With 6 hours to kill before we were aloud to check in I seeped on the sofa until day break and then went for a walk along the river and into town. Irkutsk is fairly dull city and in an hour or so I had seen all there was to see. On returning back to the hostel I decided to bring forward my trip to Listvyanka and head down the following day with Ben and 3 other people from the hostel, Listvyanka is on the shore of lake Baikal which is quite a sight, 636km north to south, 60km wide and 1637m deep, making it the deepest lake in the world. What makes it even more impressive in the winter is the lake is fully frozen, even thick enough to drive across in some places. Imagine a very very very big glacier but perfectly flat. We arrived early by mini bus and immediately ran out onto the ice, with always being told as a kid never to walk onto a frozen lake it was a strange experience, even with all the cars on the ice I still felt slightly uneasy. We spent the day playing on the ice and watching the rich Russians driving around on the ice with a few hand brake turns thrown in for good measure. The following day I managed to miss the last bus to Irkutskas as the time table showed the town that the busses left from on and not the destination! Resulting in a rather expensive taxi back to the city.

The following day I took an early train to a small Ski resort called Baikalask also on the shores of the lake. Arriving at mid day I was presented with lots of small wooden houses, a little train station and a small shop. I was expecting more… I was hoping to be able to wander around the town until I found a cheep hotel or something, there was one bus an hour to somewhere but where I could not be sure. After unsuccessfully trying to phone the only hotel listed in the lonely planet (LP) and a local travel agent I sat in the train waiting room contemplating my next move. Luckily the ticket lady who must have seen I was looking a bit lost came over to me and I tried to explain I was looking for a hotel by pointing to words in the back of the LP and tried to ask if the bus at 2pm would take me to hotels, she didn’t quite understand but did phone a local hotel with a member of English speaking staff, a room and a taxi were arranged, all quite a relief. I spent the next two days skiing the small resort with great views of the lake/ the runs were good and the resort was so empty that I was able to play around and practice my carving. Unfortunately the runs got a bit icy towards the end of the day and my rental skis were not maintained very well which made it almost impossible to hold an edge in the ice.

The only disappointment has been the weather which has been 10-15 degrees warmer than it should be. Some day it has been as warm as -4!!

LON to BKK – Moscow to Irkutsk

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On February 16, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Irkutsk: Mile 4819

On Tuesday night I headed out with 5 other people from my hostel to the station for the first leg of the Trans-Siberian railway. Leaving Moscow at 21:35 and arriving at Irkutsk a little over 3 days later. Traveling second class you get 4 beds per cabin with the bottom bunk doubling as seats, I was sharing with an English guy who was traveling to Irkutsk like me and a Russian man and woman who were getting of at earlier stations. They were both very friendly, with the man (apparently an officer in the Russian army) very keen on English football, unfortunately neither myself or Ben (my cabin mate) know much about English football players so much of the first night passed with us agreeing that the players he liked were very good?. They both shared their food and drink with us and the lady gave me a horn from a buffalo that had been turned into a cup. As the train traveled through the Urals and into Siberia, we spent our time watching the world go buy, eating pot noodles, buying food from the locals at the station, drinking vodka and playing cards. The time passed quickly with our Provodnitsa making sure we were back on the train after stops, keeping our cabin clean and keeping the carriage heated to an overly warm 27 degrees (by shoveling coal into the boiler 24 hours a day). The view was a mix of snow, trees and industry. We pulled into Irkutsk at 5am local time which is Moscow + 5 (GMT +8), things must have gotten warmer as it was only -20 degrees centigrade.

LON to BKK – Moscow (Update)

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On February 12, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Moscow – A short update
Today is my last day in Moscow as I get the 3 day train to Irkutsk tonight at 21:30. Currently trying to work out how much food to take and how much to buy on board. I have had a great time in Moscow and met loads of cool people in my hostel. Seen lost of cool architecture and yesterday we went to a Russian bath house (a banya) which is like a sauna but hotter and lots of beating with twigs.

LON to SIN – Moscow

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On February 8, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Moscow, Mile 1604

On Sunday I got the train from Berlin to Moscow, at 27 hours it’s the longest train ride of my life but nothing compared to what’s to come. We left in the afternoon and traveled into Poland and then crossed the border into Belarus at about 3 am, where we went through border control for both Belarus and Russia, we also had to have our under carriage changed as Russia (and Belarus) have a different track gauge to the rest of the world.
The carriages were Russian and so was the guard so this was a sample of things to come, my room had 3 seats with 3 beds which folded out of the wall, it had a thermometer, a wash basin and a bottle with 3 glasses. I had the room to my self until Poland where I was joined by 2 polish guys, they both kept to them selves but it was a pleasant journey. We arrived at 9pm and I managed to change some euros in a doggy looking cabin and made my way to the hostel on the metro managing to decipher all that funny writing.
Hostel is nice and there are more individuals to hang out with rather than the groups I have encountered in the previous hostels. So far I have hung around the hostel and done the tourist things, Red Square, Lenin’s Tomb and the Kremlin. Oh and it is snowing.

 

LON to SIN – Berlin

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On February 3, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Mile 603 Berlin

So I arrived a little tiered in Berlin at 08:00 after a not so great sleep on my first sleeper train, for some reason the people who could reach the light switch from their beds decided not to turn it off all night. After a day of wandering the streets and S-Bahn aimlessly I decided I was going to try and keep up the swimming thing along the way as it should be an easy way to keep active and you don’t need a membership like you do for a gym; I saw this big poster with an old picture of a swimming pool and an address, on locating the swimming pool I dot think it has been used for any thing but a dumbing ground for the last 20 years. The day continued to go well with my attempted at a night out which turned out to be about 20 posh kids trying to dance to Jungle, a 40 minute trip to the center of town and then a cab back to my hostel as there did not a pear to be any public transport what so ever (so much for a 24 hour city).
By the end of the next day after a day walking to and from the obligatory tourist spots I realised that I had not seen a bus, tram, or open metro station for over 24 hours and something must be up, after a quick google it turns out it was a 48 hour strike, which made me feel a little stupid for checking both ways when crossing tram lines for the past day. On my sisters advice I checked out a Art House squat and saw some amazing pieces by guy called Alex Rodin, on a similar vane I took a free alternative tour the following day which took us back to the Art House in the day and around the city to see graffiti on pieces of the wall and in abandoned buildings, after which I took a walk to an abandoned amusement park with the two Swedish girls who lead the tour. On my final night I managed to go out somewhere with a good crowd and got home by train so mission accomplished.

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