The Train
The Train I took was the 004 from Moscow to Beijing. I had booked the first leg (Moscow-Irkutsk) through
http://www.tutu.travel/poezda/ which is basically an English site that deals directly with Russian Railways. I paid $180 for this leg.
The next 2 legs (Irkutsk-Ulan Baatar & UB-Beijing) I did through
http://realrussia.co.uk/. This is an online travel agency that specializes in you guessed it, Russian travel. This was much more expensive possibly because it's international and more likely because they take a hefty commission - $570
Total cost - $750.00 CAD for around 6 days of train travel on a 2nd class sleeper train (4 bunks per compartment). 1st class (2 bunks per comp.) is about twice as expensive, and the two people I met in that class had the entire sleeper car to themselves. The life of the train is definitely in 2nd class.
The train I took was actually mostly Chinese sleeper cars with one Russian sleeper pulled by a Russian Locamotive with a Russia Restaurant car (this is actually switched out depending on which country you are in).
Here you can see the Chinese railway attendants - They are always Male. Whereas the Russian attendants are almost all female.
My upper bunk for the next 3 days. Surprisingly cozy, I had no trouble sleeping.
A kiosk at a station - a 3 liter beer costs about $5CAD
Some stations have old ladies selling food. Here is one selling smoked Omul fish from a nearby lake. I tried one and it tasted like smoked sashimi.
Coal being shoveled into the cars for use in the hot water heaters. Not actually used to power the train which is Diesel driven.
This is the Social heart of the train- The restaurant cars. Lots of chatting, drinking, and eating occurs here. Which combined with staring out the window, jumping out at stops, and sleeping is the main activity on this cruise on rails.
A stop in the City of Krasnoyarsk - I walked onto an overpass to get this shot. Railgeek in me.
The first real stop where many travelers get off - Irkutsk. Many of the train stations are architecturally impressive.
A wooden house in Irkutsk, Siberia. The houses here are built with timber in a very elaborate style.
This is on my 2nd leg Irkutsk-Ulan Baatar. Apparently rumor was one of the cars held convicts! Here are some of the guards assigned to our train.
Armored Personnel Carrier on the tracks near the Mongolian border
We were stuck in this decrepit Russian border town for about 10 hours while the train was inspected. Luckily there was one restaurant that served dumplings and beer. I think we bought out the
whole place. Yes, that car in the pic is a Lada
Next up...Mongolia