The End - I did it

So, after what felt like an eternity this morning, the train finally pulled into Beijing Main Station at 1404 this afternoon. How can a seven day journey go past not too badly, but the final few hours seem to take years ?

There were so many emotions going through my head as we trundled through the Beijing suburbs and finally into our final stop - relief that we were finally there, convinced that it was the hardest thing that I've ever done, equally convinced that its one of the best things I've ever done, so very proud of myself for doing the Trans-Siberian Express all in one go. The longest train journey in the world, covering 1/3 of the earth's circumference, sevem days, 8000 km, and I did it. As the boy from New Mexico in the cabin next to me remarked, "you know, if you can do this, you can do anything'.

And that was exactly how I felt as I took this photo. That, and on top of the world.










Checked into my hotel not too far from the train station (delighted that the upgraded me to an executive room free of charge, they must have thought I needed it!) and then treated myself to the two things I had been fantasizing about for days - a hot bath and a McDonalds !

The bath was bliss (and the water was more than a little manky after seven days on a train using baby wipes as best as I could), as was the Big Mac Meal, after a week of eating pasta, soup, bread, ham, cheese & cereal bars.

Walked the 4km to Tianamen Square, the traditionally finishing point for all weary Trans-Siberian travellers, and that was me.


















Spent a few hours after that walking about, simply because I could, marvelling at how big the world was and how I could do anything I wanted after being cooped up in a tiny cabin for the last week.











A couple of beers back in the hotel to relax and round off the evening, and now I'm off to sleep in a bed which seems unbelievably appealing at this moment in time. Mainly because its huge, soft, and will not be rattling along at 50mph!

My journey on the Trans-Siberian Express is over. I did it.

Into China

10am on Monday morning, and we are 7500km from Moscow and only 350km from Beijing. 4 hours to go. Everywhere you go on the train this morning, people are smiling, cheery, more friendly than ever. We're almost there, and after nearly a week on the train, we're almost getting off and getting back into the real world.

Last night's border crossing exercise was, like everything else the train has done over the past week, timed to perfection, arriving in Zamyn Uud on schedule at 1910, leaving there at 2035 and crossing into China (where the China Unicom SIM card I picked up on ebay a few weeks ago started working, and I was connected to the world again for the first time in three days - hooray!)

There was a scheduled four hour stop at Erlian in China where the wheels on the train had to be changed as China has a narrower guage than the rest of the world. This process involved the train being taken away to a big shed, the carriages lifted up on a big crane (with us all still inside it peering out the window), the old wheels taken off and the new wheels put back on. After what seemed like a herculean exercise, we left Erlian bang on time to the minute, at 0057.








And now we're battering south through the Chinese countryside, approaching Beijing.














Moscow seems a long long time ago, far longer than six days ago, and certainly more than half the world away. Since then my life has operated in a small cocoon of my cabin, with occasional forays to the buffet car or onto a station platform somewhere, time spent watching the world pass by out of my window. I've become totally institutionalised, and now I'm only four hours away from rejoining the world and having to play an active part in it. Exciting, but a little bit scary as well.

Oooooh, how very Shawshank Redemption !

The Mongolian buffet car

Going through the Gobi Desert on the train, having a few beers in the Mongolian buffet car, which incidentally is a million times nicer than the Russian buffet car). Whereas the Russian one had hardly any tables, was a bit unwelcoming, the barman was grumpy and liked shouting "nyet" a lot, the Mongolian one is the complete opposite of it.

Pleasant staff, lots of tables, families & groups of friends happy to just sit and enjoy the time, cheap beer (3000 Tugriks, about £1.25 a beer) and a generally nice atmosphere. And of course the unbelievable scenery of the Gobi Desert when you look out of the window.













This is what I thought the whole journey would have been like, a buzzing social life in the buffet car with people of all nationalities drinking & chatting to each other. The Russian buffet car was miles away from that, yet the Mongolians have knocked it off perfectly.

I can't think of a nicer place to play Football Manager on my phone :-)

Happy days.

The Gobi Desert

Remember Geena Davis's famous line in the film "Thelma & Louise", when she says "we're not in the middle of nowhere, but I can see it from here". No ? Maybe its just me, because of my thing for Geena Davis.

Anyway, she must have been talking about here - the Gobi Desert, which truly is the middle of nowhere. And its absolutely stunning.

I've been in deserts before, the Arabian Desert for example is your stereotypical billowing sand dunes everywhere. This is nothing like that. Its flat, arid, dry, scrubland - and pretty much nothing else. Its a desert because it never rains here (in much the same way as Antarctica is officially a desert), and it just goes on and on and on.

















And its hot. Whereas a couple of days ago I was in Siberia in -5C, here it must be 30-40 degrees warmer than that.

I've been standing with my head out the window looking at the desert, my hair blowing in the wind (or what's left of it), and its one of the most peaceful stunning places I've ever been. Every now and again you see a road, and once in a blue moon you'll see a solitary car driving along that road - and you can't help but feel jealous. Jealous that he has the freedom to drive at his own speed wherever he wants, can stop wherever he wants, can get out of the car in the middle of nothingness and just take it all the silence, jealous that he gets to be in such a wonderful, peaceful place every single day.

Wow.

Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia

I think I just took my favourite photo of me in the world ever. I'm tired, exhausted, filthy, scruffy, but I couldn't care less - I'm in Ulaan Bataar in Mongolia.




When I was planning this trip, I would dearly loved to have got off in Ulaan Batar and spent some time here, maybe not in a Ger Camp that so many of the other tourists on the train were heading off to do (it was like an exodus from the train this morning), but even just bumming about the city for a little while. Unfortunately the next train to Beijing isn't for another three days, so it would have extended the whole trip by three more days. Its hard enough being away from the kids for quite so long, without adding three more days to it to satisfy an extravagance like that.
So I settled myself with getting up out of bed at 0630 (the same as I did yesterday to see Lake Baikal) to get off and spent 45 minutes on platform, exploring the station and sticking my head out into the city for a few mins. The station is huge, a bustling metropolis compared to some of the places I've been recently. It has a restaurant, proper shop, currency exchange, public toilets - all things I haven't seen for days and days.




I would love to say that one day I'll be back in Ulaan Batar to stay over properly and do some exploring. I hope so, but I know that's a big ask. It seems such a shame to be here, somewhere I've always wanted to go, and noit be able to get off the train. Maybe one day.
6305km gone, 1551km to go. 80% of the way there. Only 31 more hours to go.....

How to cross a border in 6 easy hours

Sitting waiting at borders is REALLY boring.

Arrived at Naushki, which is the Russian side of the Russian/Mongolian border at about 1900. Not allowed off the train, so we had to wait in our cabins - the passport control people arrived and took my passport away at about 1930 (calling me "Scott John" in the process), so I then settled down in my cabin and had some pasta for dinner. Stayed off the beer, due to toilets being locked.

My passport arrived back at about 2045, no problems or questions at all asked. Just before that I had the customs girl in my cabin asking the usual questions, and then after that I had to leave my cabin and stand in the corridor whilst they (and their wee sniffer dog) searched it. Fortunately he didn't sniff my dirty socks too closely, otherwise it could have caused a bit of a international incident.

So now it 2115 and we're just ... waiting. Eventually we'll be allowed to go, having been cleared to leave Russia, and will then have to do it all over again at Suhk Bator on the Mongolian side of the border. This could be a long evening.


UPDATE

Finally got going from the Russian side at 2145, whereupon our Chinese guard then handed out the Mongolian customs and arrivals cards to everyone in his carriage.

Much confusion as 10 mins later he gathered them all back in, having accidentally issued us all with the Mongolian language version rather than the English language version. My Cyrillic clearly is as good as everyone else's, hence the heightened sense of confusion throughout the carriage as we all looked at the original form and thought "what the bloody hell does this mean?"

Suhk Batar-bound. No idea when we'll get there, or indeed when we'll leave. The consultation is that tomorrow evening's Mongolian/Chinese border crossing is supposed to be marginally easier.

Remember we used to have to do all this shit when travelling around Europe? That's one good thing the EU has done, scrapping all this nonsense.


UPDATE AGAIN

2345 and still waiting at Suhk Batar. We actually arrived at it about 15 mins after leaving Naushki, and my passport was quickly taken away by the Mongolian head honcho (who was wearing a very natty full length black leather jacket, proper Nazi SS style). That was an hour and a half ago - these guys are even slower than the Russians. And I STILL can't drink as the toilets are STILL locked.

Good job I have Bill Leckie's excellent Penthouse & Pavements book. I wonder if, when he wrote it, he imagined someone would be reading it in the middle of the night of the Russian/Mongolian border. It's a funny old world.


FINALLY ...

Got my passport back at midnight and we were on our way by 0025 (well, 2325 actually, as Mongolia is behind SE Russian time). The whole thing took just under 5 1/2 hours. Can't wait to do it all again tomorrow.

Pass the Baltika.....

An hour north of the Russian/Mongolian border

About an hour north of the Russian/Mongolian border, and the scenery has taken a massive turn for the up. In short, its absolutely breathtaking. Its still very desolate, but there are rolling plains, mountains, lakes (going past Goose Lake at the moment), interspersed with the occasional village which look more like the Wild West than anything Russian.










You think about it - Moscow is a LONG way away from here (about 5800km) and is about as relevant to the lives of these people as Glasgow is. They look as though they live simply, farming mainly, with little interference or interest from Moscow. I'm sure for most of them, their lives didn't change one single little bit when the Soviet Union broke up.

For the first time in the journey I felt a little travel sick, and it was good to get off the train for half an hour at lunchtime at Ulan Ude, the last Russian city on the route. There was nothing there other than the usual stalls, so I just picked up more water and coca-cola and just milled around on the platform, enjoying being able to walk in a random direction, and enjoying fresh air that doesn't have a stench of people living in a confined space for days and days on end.








The stop lifted my spirits, it has to be said, along with a couple of episodes of Still Game on my iPad (how can you not laugh out loud at some of that). I read some more War and Peace (5 chapters gone, only 357 to go - who am I trying to kid) and listened to a few more podcasts, all the while grateful that I will be off this train in just under two days from now.

Interested to see what the border crossings are going to be like - by all accounts the Russian/Mongolian one coming up is a bit of a nightmare, as it can take anything from six to eleven HOURS to get through the border. All the while the train is stationary, which means the toilets are locked shut (as they just dump their waste onto the track), so that rules out just drinking your way through it.

48 hours from now I'll be off this train and in a comfy hotel room in Beijing, able to have a bath, able to lie of a soft bed, able to go out and get a McDonalds to eat (oh yes, that is the first thing I am doing when I arrive in Beijing!)

Getting there ...

Sanyan Mountains & Lake Baikal

No idea why, but my Megafon Russian SIM card that had served me well throughout the journey stopped working on Friday afternoon, about halfway between Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk.

It was supposed to have 6GB of data pre-loaded for 690 roubles (about £12), but I got as far as four days in and 750MB and it just packed in. No idea why - irritating, but just one of these things I suppose.

So I'm playing catch-up with this blog now. Everything has been written at the time, but I obviously wasn't able to post it until I got to China.

Anyway, on Friday afternoon I picked up a rather carb-heavy lunch from the platform hawkers at Ilanskaya station. The potatoes were nice, the eggs went well on an egg sandwich later on, and the hot dog/roll thingy was pretty tasty. I took one bite of the meat thing I picked up and immediately decided that I valued my insides too much to have any more. Still have no idea what it was, but it wasn't nice, I can tell you that.

The 1 litre can of Baltika set me up brilliantly for a mid-afternoon snooze, and when I woke the unchanging scenery of Siberia finally started to change. Gone was the constant scrublands and taiga, and in its place in the distance was the magnificant Sanyan mountain range which separates southern Russia from north east Mongolia.







After days and days of looking at nothing at all, it was mesmerising to watch something so beautiful in the distance get closer and closer over a number of hours.

Decided not to chance the buffet car for dinner tonight - last night everything I asked for was met with a "nyet" as all they had was the Russian beefsteak. It was decent enough, but I don't think I could handle it three nights in a row. So I tucked into some pasta that I had brought myself and made up using the boiling water from the samovar.

Had a pretty restless night's sleep (my fourth night out of six on the train, and the first one where I really did not sleep), which was only cured by me deciding to start reading War & Peace at 3am. Four chapters of that did just the job and I slept soundly after that.

Woke pretty sharply to see something this morning that I had been looking forward to all trip, something that is supposed to be one of the highlights of it - the magnificent Lake Baikal.

1500 miles long, the largest freshwater lake in the world, indeed one-third of the world's entire freshwater is contained in there. And you know what ? Like so many of the world's landmarks which you look forward to seeing, it was such a disappointment.

Yes it was awe-inspiringly big, but it was so big it looked just like the sea. Dark, cold, gloomy, rainy - I've been on more scenic train journeys by the sea in Scotland











Over the years when I've been planning this trip, one of the ideas I toyed with was stopping off in Irkutsk to spend some time in the tourist village of Lustvyana, on the banks of Lake Baikal. Glad I didn't bother now. And if you ever meet anyone going on about how they would love to see Lake Baikal one day, tell them not to bother as well.

In saying that, I still have plenty to look forward to over the next few days - Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, Beijing, Tianamen Square, the Great Wall of China. Lots and lots of look forward to. Trying hard to be positive, because its been a long long journey and am understandably flagging now.

3 1/2 days gone, 2 more to go.

4300 km gone

2pm on Friday afternoon, and I'm halfway between today's big stops at Yekaterinburg at 9am and Ilanskaya. 4400km gone, 3400km to go.

Unfortunately I drank far too much Baltika and some local hooch in my cabin last night, so I completely missed the stop at Yekaterinburg this morning. Didn't get up lunchtime, which when you have nothing to do all day, even that seems a bit on the early side.

Enjoying catching up on my reading (on the home straight with Hemmingway), listening to my backlog of podcasts (Colin Montgomerie on Desert Islands Discs was particularly good, surprisingly came across as a thoroughly likeable guy) and watching movies (last night was Invictus, excellent).

The temperature has dropped to -5C according to my trusty iPhone app, so I had better wrap up warm at the next stop. The Siberian view remains fairly constant with lots of ...




... interspersed with the occasional ...




Have also been paying particular attention to how the samovar works. When you have nothing to do, little things like that become especially fascinating.

The samovar is the hot water dispenser-thingy that lives in the corridor is every carriage next to Chinese guard's cabin




It dispenses unlimited boiling (and I mean scaldingly hot) water for use in making your coffee, cup-a-soups, pasta etc. I had wondered how it worked and why it was always boiling, so I did some snooping behind it and it turns out that its good old fashioned coal-powered, and the wee Chinese guard just lumps some more coal into the back of it every now and again.




My suspicions were confirmed at a recent stop when a wee coal lorry came along to top up the supply in every carriage




... all carefully watched and monitored by the Chinese guards ...




Fascinating, eh ? Told you I had nothing to do !

Location:Ilanskaya

Almost halfway

12.25am on Friday, approaching Marlinsk, slap bang in the middle of Siberia. 1C outside, glad I brought my pyjamas!

3700km gone, 4000km to go. Ignoring the staggering numbers, it's amazing to think that's me nearly halfway already. Wow

Omsk & Balabinsk

Thursday on the train, and have been able to get off a couple of times for 20 mins at Omsk (1323) and Balabinsk (1817). A welcome respite from sitting on your bum or lying back snoozing in your cabin.

Omsk was nice enough, had time to wander out of the station to have a wee look around














... and then it was back onto the train for more of this.




And when I say more, I mean LOTS more. Siberia is huge and barren, full of so much nothingness that its almost tough to get your head around.

Then onto Balabinsk, where I was able to top up on my carry-out from the local hawkers











In between stops I had lunch and pissed myself laughing to some Still Game episodes, and then got back onto my Hemmingway book (3/4 of the way through now - ooooh, its tense).

Won't finish it today, because I've decided that I've been sober for long enough today and I better get tucked into the beer. Can't wait to try the local brew, looks interesting ...