The greatest train ride in the world - the Trans-Mongolian (15th - 19th 07)

After stocking up on groceries in UB we boarded train 5 which in 4 nights would deliver us to Moscow!! Musts included coffee, coffee and more coffee. Plus fruit, veges and instant noodles. We also backed on getting some platform food to keep us going.

After the train left the station we were approached by the mongolian providistna (carraige attendent) who read a pre writted sentence in broken english "please can you help me" ....'yes'....."i am afraid of customs" which she then pointed to a 2m high stack of blankets. This was the first time we realised we were in a carriage full of mongolian traders. We kindly hid the blankets in our cabin so she could smuggle them over the boarder (under her quota) then sell them in Russia. For our part in the operation we got free coffee (which we already had plenty of) plus we got in her good books and she could make or break our trip.

We arrived at the border at 10pm and had to wait on the train (awake) for 8 hours while they took our passports. We think this was a bit of russian interogation torture trying to break us and admit to smuggling blankets. But after getting a short sleep we woke at 4am sunrise to views of Lake Baikal in Russia, the largest fresh water body in the world!!

Before our first train stop in Russia there was a hive of activity in our carriage as bundles of jeans, shoes, thermos flasks and mascara were pulled out from hidding places and bags as the traders prepared. What followed next was incredible. As the train pulled into the station the traders jumped off and were mobbed by hundreds of fanatical russians on the platform trying to buy their goods (shoes for 200 roubles NZ$10 and blankets for NZ$3). This continued until the train started to pull away when the traders jumped on as it was leaving. Mongolians get subsidised tickets for teh train so use it to run goods into russia which they sell at every stop!! Everyone is in on it, the station guards, the carriage attendents and .......US. At one point they even had maniquins up in our carriage windows for when we stopped.



Life on the train seemed to pass quickly by eating, reading, eating and talking with our cabin mates (the kiwi and swede). We had a great guide book (the trailblazer) which had sights at given kilometre marks so we were kept busy looking out the window for markers marking the asia-europe border and the like.



The train stopped a few times a day where we could get off and buy things like smoked fish, bread, beer, kolbasa sausages, fruit and veges either from Kiosks or Babushkas (grandmothers) selling their pickings.

This trip passed very quickly and 4 nights on the train was a breeze. Our next challenge is to go the other way from Moscow to Vladivostok .....in winter.