It was full of Mongolian traders on their way back from Moscow, and the stewards were Mongolian too. One female steward came demanding our tickets when she already had them in her hand, she was definitely the worse for wear !!! We had booked the two lower bunks in the compartment, a very good strategy as it turned out I think. There was a man asleep on one of the upper bunks and bags on the other one, so that was a bonus we thought. We were travelling hard class and the bench seats were hard even with the thin cushion/mattress which I eventually found to go on top. We were provided with a pack with two sheets and pillowcase and a small towel. I made my bed using a blanket found in a store locker under the seat and
settled down to catch up on the very disturbed night. The train was going as a nice pace so the clickety clack along the rails soon sent me off. I eventually woke about 10.0 am but Michael had been out in the corridor looking at the view passing Lake Baikal for some time I gather.
We made tea and had some breakfast. I had my granola but Michael used some of the meal the hotel had packed up for us, as we left too early for breakfast there. So there we were rattling along crossing more of Siberia when our companion woke too. We introduced ourselves and showed him some pics of Andrew & Amanda & Orlo to explain the reason for our journey.
There were two young couples from Holland in the next compartment, we had met them in the restaurant on the Rossiya, so we were soon chatting with them again. Initially they were concerned because they had found packs of shoes and other stuff in their cabin......and they had read about illegal trading.......!! As we walked down the corridor we could see that other compartments were stacked with boxes and soon the traders woke to start their work for the day. I got a real shock when I walked down to the loo as I went through the end door there was the lower half of a shop dummy in jeans wedged in the corner, I thought there was a man hanging there for an instant!! I had made the mistake of going to the men's loo, didn't make that mistake again, the ladies at the other end was adjacent to the stewards cubbyhole holes and was kept much cleaner.
The first main stop was at Ulan Ude, this is where the line splits to go south to Beijing through Mongolia. The traders were off the train in a flash, setting up their 'stalls' on the platform. One lady was even trading straight from the carriage. Clothes, shoes, handbags, slippers etc! We were there for about 45 mins, our friend was selling handbags and had to come back in to get more, so when we left he was well please and counted up a wad of roubles! After we left the real fun began. Our firms and his female mate from the next compartment went to the Dutch couples' compartment, climbed up and proceeded to remove the plates in the ceiling and above the over corridor storage space. Out came dozens of boxes of cheese! This is no exaggeration, they stacked them in the corridor, but as we went round a bend they all collapsed. The woman had notes on a piece of paper and was counting, she knew exactly how many they had stashed away up there. They then came into our compartment and did the same but they only had a few up there. In the meantime the stewards and we looked on......I was knitting away!!
Cont......
No comments:
Post a Comment