When would it be more ideal to write than during a 4-day train journey? This is the first leg of my Trans-Mongolian train journey: from Moscow to Irkutsk. You might think that travelling on a train wouldn’t give you much joy, as what could potentially happen on a train? And what can you see, especially on the Russian steppes? I had this concern before, so had I concerns about the condition of the train, as well as the passangers. So I was a bit scared when approached carriage 3 on the departure day. I was even asking Sergei about these things while waiting – he helped me to take my baggage from the hostel to the railway station, as he didn’t believe that I could manage my big backpack alone. 🙂 But at the end, I became “The девушка (girl) on the Trans-Mongolian train”.
How’s the Trans-Mongolian train?
At the carriage, two kind controller women in nice uniforms welcomed the passangers, and after checking the ticket and the passport, they let me embark. We found my place in the sleeper carriage; it was the lucky 13, one on the lower bunk. If you lifted the seat up, you could fit your luggage under the seat…who knew that it works like this? I also had a mattress for my „bed”, as well as a pillow and a blanket. Then everybody got a pack of bedsheets and towel for handing your ticket over. There was a socket for every bed, which again exceeded my expectations. I cannot have any complaints for the comfort, especially that this was the lowest class, 3rd class. At the back end of the carriage, there were 2 toilets, which weren’t disgusting at all. At the entrance of the carriage, there was a never-emptying hot water tank, where the powder soups, breakfast porridge, noodles, tea and coffe were „cooked”.
The two conductor women were responsible for our carriage in shifts: they sold chocolate, provided the passangers with bedsheets, let new passangers embark, sold souvenirs, cleaned. They always wore clothes fitting the actual task: sometimes long uniform coat, fur hat, and long-cut boots for the conductor tasks, sometimes cape for cleaning and sweeping, sometimes you could see them crossing the carriage in a night gown ready to go to sleep. Their presence filled me with good vibes, and it gave me the confidence that I could turn to them if any problems during the journey, even though they didn’t speak any English.
Who can you meet on the Trans-Mongolian train?
My fellow passenger from Moscow was an elderly man, who was deaf. On the upper bunks, we didn’t have anybody for a while. First, I thought, what a relief that the elderly man cannot hear, as it’s not going to be a problem that I don’t speak Russian. However, I didn’t expect that he would still talk to me and ask me questions sometimes, which he expects some answer. I, of course, didn’t understand a word, but couldn’t even tell him that „Я не говорю по-русски” (=I don’t speak Russian), as he couldn’t hear it. Hence I just nodded or shrugged my shoulder, then he usually gave up. I guess he thought I’m being rude. Others also tried to tell him, that I don’t speak Russian, but he didn’t understand it either. Then on the 3rd day, I had my little Russian „useful expressions” cheat sheet at hand, and I managed to show him the sentence „I cannot speak…”. He was absolutely surprised, especially by the fact that I was talking with a little girl earlier…but that was all in English.
In the other compartment, a Dutch couple was sitting until Ekaterinburg; they came to to talk to me at one of the stops, I guess it was so obvious that I’m also a traveller. 🙂 We only exchanged some words, but I got some Russian cakes/cookies filled with jam from them, which I’m trying to pass onto someone, as I don’t like it. Then a granny from their compartment found me, she tried to charge her phone, but I think the cable was faulty, as it didn’t work for her. She wanted to make friend with me, as one morning she sat next to me showing me postcards of an ice cave, probably from her hometown. She knew that I don’t speak Russian, but she kept trying to explain everything to me loud, slowly and well-paced.
In my compartment, I had another elderly man as a fellow passenger, who knew a bit of German, so for 1 day, I was trying to revive my rusty German knowledge, and his German was not recent either…as he put it: „Volga Deutsch”. He learnt it in school, and he was the only one from his class, as the others didn’t want to learn “the language of the facist”. Don’t forget, this was after World War II. We somehow managed to talk about family, the Russian steppes (called „bolota”), the closure of the Russian factories, Thailand, where has already been at least 10 times, and the fact that I’m 30 but not married yet. He even bought me ice cream at one of the stations where we had a longer waiting time. Moreover, he left me a tangerine and an apple here as a gift when he left. At the end, he gave me his business card, and also asked for my contact where he can see what I made from the photos and videos I took during the journey. So it’s possible that he’s reading my blog, too. He even told me, that it was special to travel with me, and I’m a unique girl. 🙂
Then in Novosibirsk, lots of new passengers got on the train: a girls’ group with their mothers, who were travelling to perform at a gymnastics show. In our compartment, on the side beds, a mother and her daughter, Sonia were travelling. Sonia is 9 years old, and she wasn’t scared at all. I’m not sure what the man (with whom I spoke in German) told them by the time I got back on the train, I’ve just caught the words „gevuska vengierski”…”gavarij anglieski, franzieski, deutsch”, so it was surely about me. So from that point, the girl always looked at me, and tried to show off with her English – in a cute way. 🙂 Later, she gave me a pack of candy, and we talked a little bit, too. Next morning, we became even bigger friends. I gave her a coconut bar, then she gave me Kazakh and Russian sweets and caramel.
Then she had the idea to teach me Russian, so she started to write words in English with their Russian counterparts (not that I could easily read written cyrill letters…) 🙂 Finally, they got off at Krasnoyarsk, so we had to bid farewell. It was a sad farewell, she almost cried.
A quiet period came again, then a guy occupied their place. He got so embarrassed when I asked him if he speaks English. Though I only tried to find out what the conducter wanted with the papers in his hand and also tried to interview me if everything’s alright. Then this embarrassment got better when I made a cup of soup for myself, and I guess he somewhat felt sorry for me, because he said „девушка” (girl), and pointed at his bread and some kind of cold cuts. I thanked and reassured him that I also have „hleb” (bread) and „kolbasa” (sausage). I think these few words led to the „discovery” of the Google Translator, and then we were „chatting” for hours. He even woke up very early in the morning when we got to Irkutsk to help me with my baggage.
All in all, whenever I heard someone somewhere saying „девушка” (‘devushka’=girl), I immediately knew that they talk to me or about me. 🙂
Apart from the passengers, there was a woman who walked around the carriage twice a day selling fresh pierogi. On my second day, I bought two smaller ones (buying one wasn’t an option…) with cocoa filling, and on the 3rd day, I bought a bigger one, filled with potato. I recommend trying them, even though I had lots of food with me, but it was still something different from the powder taste, and it’s delicious when it’s fresh and hot.
If someone is keen to try something more „extreme”, at some stations, you’ll see „babushki”, i.e. grandmothers selling snacks from little carts or backpacks. Some sell chocolate, biscuits, soft drinks, scones, but you’ll see some selling smoked fish. Imagine the faces on the train if I get back with a big, widely opened fish with a spiky edge… 🙂
What to bring to the Trans-Mongolian train?
Though it’s impossible to starve on the train, as you can always buy instant soup or noodles at the conductors or at the stations, but it’s still worth arriving well-prepared. Bring a metal mug (it won’t break and bears the heat) and another cup for instant soup. For example, I made porridge and coffee in my metal mug, and kept a cup from instant noodles for soups. It’s also useful to have a pocket knife which also has spoon and fork on it, so you’ll have everything at hand. I also brought some sausages from home and bought some bread before departure, thus I could eat something less artificial, too.
You need to have some personal care stuff at hand, too: toothpaste, toothbrush, wet wipes, deodorant, hand sanitiser. If you spend the night on the train, prepare with pyjamas or some comfortable clothes. Many people wore slippers, too. If you travel longer, it is absolutely normal to wear your PJs all day long, walking around in them even at the stations. (I loved this part! 🙂 ) It’s enough to change back to your everyday clothes before getting off the train.
What can you do on the Trans-Mongolian train?
Looking around, browsing, keeping your eyes wide open. There are deep pine forests, birch-woods, little villages with rickety houses, vast flooded plains, rivers, lakes, small railway stations, big railway stations, or stations that only mark the distance from Moscow in km, snow-covered forests, factories, all in all, so many interesting things.
We can observe what type of cars we can see, what the houses and the streets are like, how the workers do their jobs along the railway, how different the buildings of the train stations.
You start to think about how people can live in such rough places: a little village with only a few houses, literally in the middle of nowhere. The next inhabited area is far away even by train. You can barely see people or animals on the way, only the houses as they catch a breath from under the melting snow, old cars, and kitchen gardens that probably wake into life in summer. You can often see other trains passing, especially cargo trains, that are so long, that it takes several seconds to see their end.
If you then need some break from the landscape, you can read, listen to music, chat with others or write a blog. Somehow days pass quickly, I haven’t really noticed how long I’ve already been travelling. I got settled in a way, I’ve got a routine in terms of eating habits, and there is always something to see. The only thing I miss is a nice shower! 🙂
This train was a local train, so not the real Moscow-Beijing Trans-Mongolian train. But I don’t regret it at all that I opted for this one, because it was free of tourists, and I got to meet and talk to many interesting „everyday” people. It was a more authentic experience than it would have been on the tourist train, and thus I could become everybody’s девушка (girl) on the Trans-Mongolian train. 🙂
If you would like to plan and book your own Trans-Siberian or Trans-Mongolian adventure, I highly recommend to check out Real Russia’s website. Here you can get dates and times for trains setting where you would like to stop and for how many nights. You can even book your tickets in advance if you prefer.