The Trans Siberian is the world’s longest set of trains tapping in at … kilometers and reaching from Beijing to St. Petersburg and even farther with a few connecting trains you can make your way virtually anywhere in Asia and Europe. We began our little adventure in Beijing after a few splendid days in China’s capital.
Our first stop along the way was Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Now this is the world’s second most ugly city only after Chengdu. We stepped off the train after 22 hours to find ourselves in a terribly chilly -29 degrees Celsius. Now back home it gets that cold regularly but back home you get in your toasty warm car and drive wherever you need to go. And most people do that in Ulaanbaatar also, but not us we walked all around the city. Once you got out of the city though and into the Ger town (similar to Alaskan yurts) you get to truly appreciate the splendid scenery of the rolling hills and snow capped peaks. Our short stay in Ulaanbaatar was spent viewing a ceremony at the local monastery, walking around for brief moments in the frigid cold, and enjoying good coffee at Café Amsterdam. After just two days we were ready to move on.
We boarded the train again and with us came the entire merchant army of Mongolia with jeans and boots and coats and socks galore ready to be sold across the border in Russia. Now we were told to be careful and what not on the train but we had no idea it would be like this. There were people everywhere, stuffing clothes into the pillowcases. Tapping jeans around their calves under their pants. One women had a dozen socks squeezed down her shirt.
As we exited the car Mr. Kim, our hostels proprietor, told us for the third time “do not let anyone try to give you anything or have you hold anything or let them even put anything on your bed, I’m very serious, I’m very worried about you!” “Ok, Ok” Jimmy told him “thank you for the advice.” We walked across the street and into the train depot out of the cold. Mr. Kim’s friend got us our train tickets for a “good price” $80 US but when he gave them to us he regretted to inform us only the top bunks were the only seats left available – however he assured us that these were his personal favorite and were really “better” – better my ass I thought and quickly told Jimmy we decided that if our train was as empty as the last, then we would just move cabins – we would even pay if we had to. The train station however was packed; little did we know how packed. I quickly went to the bathroom and by the time I was back the station had cleared out. The train was not due to leave for 45 minutes, but people were quickly boarded so we followed suit. Once on board we found our cabin, I bunks 2 and 4. And someone had already been in there with boxes covering the beds. We put our packs away in the compartment above the bunks and while Jimmy was trying to arrange them, a woman came in with probably twenty pairs of jeans – unpacking some of them stuffing them into the bed pillows. As she did this she smiled at us – as we sat nervously facing her and her smuggling ways. A man poked his head in and he was carrying ten pairs of giant leather fur lined boots stamped with “Made in Mongolia” across the sole. The woman motioned to our beds and the man quickly began to pile the boots atop of our bunks. We quickly jumped to our feet trying to explain that we needed to sleep up there and the boots would have to find another home. More and more boots kept coming but luckily they were now going under the seats instead of on our beds. Three people were now in the room arranging the boots, one man had a notebook and was keeping inventory. More jeans came, socks, facemasks – outside our cabin blankets moved by and vests and purses, even the train attendants were storing goods in their rooms. Hiding anything they could. The man in our room seemed to be one of the leaders of this whole operation. Once the stuff in our cabin was mostly organized he closed and locked the door and stripped down and changed into what we were told was the Trans-Siberian uniform as mentioned in The Lonely Planet – The Adidas tracksuit. After he changed his phone rang which sounded like an orgasming woman and had what seemed like short business call. Then the door opened back up and circus began again! At first I was a little worried especially after watching the movie “Trans-Siberian,” but there seems to be some rhythm and normalcy imbedded in the madness.
Around 7:30 pm the women who had been stuffing jeans into our pillow cases got off the train at one of the stops and then it was just the man in the room with us, and periodically his friends giving him more items to store. Around 8:30 the man came into the room and tried to communicate with us that this women standing behind him in the doorway needed to hide. He put his two pointer fingers over his head to look like horns and gave a very menacing look as the women climbed but on the bunk next to Jimmy and moved our bags, which were stored in the overhead compartment, and then wiggled her way behind them. She was not a small woman mind you and I will never forget her frantically trying to get her very large rear end up into the compartment. The train attendant came around to check tickets and as I handed my ticket over our large stow aways eyes peered out from behind our packs and smiled. After the attendant was gone the woman climbed down and started helping arrange things just like the woman before her, except this women stored socks in her bra, she wore pants she was going to sell as well as boots and then she taped more pants to her legs underneath the jeans she was already wearing. I went to the bathroom a short while later and every Mongolian person on the train was wearing the same outfit, leather boots, jeans and a sweater, I didn’t know whom they thought they were fooling. As we pulled into the Russian boarder station the women looked at me and asked me to put jeans in my bag – saying “No problem, No problem” – I said “No thank you, No thank you” with a smile. She quickly stuffed the jeans under the bedding as the customs official slid open the door. The official looked around going to far as to pull open the roof of the overhead compartment and after what seemed like a very long time we all passed over our documentation. Our Mongolian guests declared nothing and after taking down our information the official moved on to the next cabin. There was a ceremonious high five and then everyone relaxed. It took about three hours to get across the boarder and once the train moved on into Russia the traders began giving all the merchandise back to the original owner, Jimmy and I fell asleep before the job was done. We woke up the next morning to the smell of sausage, cheese and beer – our Mongolian friends were passed out but it looked like they had had a feast before going to bed at who knows what hour. The train stopped a couple of times before we reached our destination of Irkutsk and whenever we pulled into a station the merchants would get off the train and try to sell their goods to those on the platform. We arrived in Irkutsk early in the afternoon, another couple from Mr. Kim’s hostel was also going to be staying in Irkutsk at the same hostel we were. We were all met by an employee of the hostel and transported by trolley car to the hostel. We arrived to a very communist looking apartment block and climbed three flights of stairs upon arriving to an old apartment that had been converted into a hostel with two large bedrooms, kitchen and one bathroom. That night we all went out to dinner – at a nice pub called the London Bar. The couple we were with, Greame and Stephanie were from the UK and had been teaching in Korea for the last year – they were so excited to be going home and to be able to finally find a proper pub. After dinner we walked home in the snow, Irkutsk was a beautiful little city and the snow made it even more enchanting – Jimmy made a snow angel. The next day we went with Greame and Stephanie to Lake Baikal, where we had lunch and walked around. Then we went back to Irkutsk and collected our bags and Jimmy and I were off to the train station once again. This time we embarked on our longest leg to the journey thus far – 77 hours straight on the train!
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