Day 2 Train to Irkutsk
I had a fairly restless night thought I did sleep for a while a few times. At one point I woke up and one of the guys was getting off the train.
When I got up in the morning there was a different guy sleeping in the same bunk so I'm not sure where he got on.
We arrived at Khabarovsk about 8am this morning where tons of people got off the train and a bunch more came on. A new guy replaced the other original guy from last night.
I also met my second carriage attendant ... Yuri. Yuri is also an older guy who looks a lot like Angry Anderson. One of the first things he said to me was "ACDC" then he called me James Hatfield from Metallica then listed off a bunch of other old school heavy metal bands. Not that I'm a connoisseur but they were big enough bands that I recognised them. He's obviously a rocker from way back.
The carriage attendants seem to alternate. I'm guessing Sergei does the night shift and Yuri the day shift though they overlap first thing in the morning.
It was pretty chaotic this morning! Because so many people were getting off the train Sergei and Yuri were running around stripping sheets off beds, hustling people out of their cabins, emptying garbage and just generally getting the place shipshape. Then Yuri stepped outside to let the new passengers on while Sergei continued to clean up.
Combine that with everyone getting up and wanting to use the toilet, clean their teeth, have a quick wash and/or make a cup of tea and you had chaos on your hands. People standing in the corridor, a queue for the toilet, attendants pushing past and bags everywhere.
We were at Khabarovsk for about 20 minutes so I got out of the train and had a stretch. There's another old school train station building here though I couldn't see the whole thing because of another train parked in the way.
Back on the way and the bathrooms have died down a bit so I get out my toothbrush and a trust packet of wet wipes for a shower. Thanks Mongolia for teaching me to think of wetwipes as a sufficient shower substitute. For a couple of days at least.
The new guys in the cabin don't seem very chatty. They are young and I find that younger people generally won't talk to a stranger as much because they don't want to look like a dickhead. I had a quick chat with one of them who I think is a university student who is on his way home to a town near the Georgian border and the Caspian Sea. Very little English though so once we lost Internet Google translate stopped working and we struggled to make any headway.
2 of them are sleeping now and one is reading the paper. None seem interested in trying to chat which is fine.
So I'm sitting here writing this blog.
I just had the most expensive lunch in the world. The restaurant lady came past and I ordered stroganoff, a salad and some rye bread for lunch. The food was alright but it cost me $50 AUD! Crazy! Definitely not worth that. Glad I didn't go for the soup she was trying to push on me as well. I won't be dining from the restaurant again without very careful perusal of the menu.
I also am not allowed to drink the beer I bought apparently. A different carriage attendant came past and said I had to drink it in the dining car. And the people in the dining car said I'm not allowed to drink anything in there that I didn't buy from them. So I had to quickly drink my beer in between carriages before anyone realised.
Turns out I completely misunderstood the student I was chatting to earlier. He does not live near the Georgian border. He was born over there maybe (something to do with that area) but he was living in some other small town nearby because he got off the train this afternoon.
I finally had a chat with the other guys in my cabin when one of them had a friend come in for a drink.
The other solo guy works in the mining industry. The Google translation of his job was "mountain master" so perhaps a supervisor or something? For all I know he could be climbing around caves or digging for new mine sites but the conversation steered away from me being able to find out anymore about that. He's going on holiday soon to Vietnam for a couple of weeks and is looking forward to some sun and relaxation.
The other 2 guys are both trainers in the Russian military. I suppose I think of this as a Drill Sergeant or something similar based on my extensive military experience (reading fiction novels). Neither really fit my preconceived notion of what one of those guys might look like (again - based on movies and books) but there you have it. Apparently the Russian military gets 2 months of paid leave every year and they get free transport throughout Russia for that period ... Planes, trains, buses, boats. Pretty cool perk though I guess with Russia being so big and some settlements being so remote it feels like the least they could do.
Mining guy got off the train tonight. The military guys are going a couple of days past Irkutsk for work. One of them is celebrating his 6 month anniversary with his girlfriend tomorrow and his brother is helping to organise a surprise for her. He wouldn't tell me what it was and promised to let me know tomorrow. I'll be interested to see what it is.
Again - very little English - so we chatted via Google translate for a couple of hours and shared some beers and snacks. Like everyone I've met so far they are really nice people once you get to talking and they have the same concerns and wants as the rest of us. The older guy was very happy to show me pictures of his children and wife and was clearly proud of his family. His idea of a perfect holiday was just spending time at home with the family. Makes sense given he probably spends his whole working life away from them.
It was a good night. I've also got a better idea of what to bring on the next leg of my train journey now in terms of sharing with people which is good. Simple food seems to be best. Bread, cheese, sausage, nuts and a sneaky beer seems to go down well.
The scenery throughout the trip so far has been beautiful. In this part of Russia it's mostly small mountains / hills with trees that are in the later stages of changing colours and losing their leaves. The leaves are mostly shades of pale orange and yellow but there are still some bright red and orange ones scattered around. Many of the trees have vivid white trunks and most of these seem to have lost their leaves already. It makes for a very pretty picture with the stark white trunks surrounded by orange leaves. I can't really get a good photo through the train windows which is frustrating at times but as ever I'm sure there are plenty of photos on the Internet.
When you get into the stations they are invariably rundown with maybe 1 new or well maintained building which is where the ticket office is. Otherwise they are surrounded by dilapidated brick or wooden buildings that were probably key parts of building or maintaining the railways in decades past. Some of the buildings are still beautiful in their own way but most are just eyesores.
The towns attached to the stations or alongside the railway follow this pattern as well. Usually brick or wooden buildings that have definitely seen better days. Not that surprising given the remoteness of some of these places and the harsh climate.
The exception to this is the actual railway itself. The tracks and supporting infrastructure look to be in excellent condition which isn't at all surprising. Clearly the priority is maintaining the railway to keep the flow of goods and people going throughout Russia.
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