Trans-Siberian Railway
 

In September/October 2015, I traveled to Russia where I boarded a train thru Siberia, Mongolia, and ending in Beijing.

Technically the route I took is the Trans-Mongolian but it shares the majority of the route with the Trans-Siberian.

http://www.frontiersoftravel.com/map...lway_tours.gif

Here is some of what I saw.

Russia
Russia was a very pleasant country to travel through, albeit with huge hurdles to get a Visa. I sorta expected a drab cityscape and dour people. I found St. Petersburg and Moscow to be among the most clean and elegant cities I've seen in Europe. People (esp. younger ones) were eager to learn English and curious about the outside world. I highly recommend people make their way to see these 2 cities. And Russian women are of course...how should I say, highly sought after :smug:

This is the view outside my hostel in St. Petersburg
http://i.imgur.com/U9QNQKn.jpg


Here's a rock concert taking place inside a huge 18th Century square
http://i.imgur.com/zEX4fvf.jpg

Kazan Cathedral
http://i.imgur.com/1ZdFmRE.jpg

In Russia, they haz opulence
http://i.imgur.com/nq3O63h.jpg

A church in the town of Veliky Novgorod
http://i.imgur.com/9dKkRsG.jpg

Moscow coming off an overnight train at 5am
http://i.imgur.com/rACypy4.jpg

St. Basil's Cathedral
http://i.imgur.com/NCvXcXe.jpg

Moscow has the most elaborate and opulent subway you have ever seen. This is one of the stations:
http://i.imgur.com/xFg6X8F.jpg

Red Square at dusk:
http://i.imgur.com/yFwOlYD.jpg


As you might have heard, Putin is kinda a big thing here:
http://i.imgur.com/JGJLHVH.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/GTCd6pe.jpg

much more to come...

This has been on my list for many years so I am very keen to hear about your experience and see some more pictures. How was the train, how much did it cost, etc?

Cheers
Mark

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).

http://i.imgur.com/m7yh4Ct.jpg

Here you can see the Chinese railway attendants - They are always Male. Whereas the Russian attendants are almost all female.
http://i.imgur.com/CBhXSmk.jpg

My upper bunk for the next 3 days. Surprisingly cozy, I had no trouble sleeping.
http://i.imgur.com/3a3BuqO.jpg

A kiosk at a station - a 3 liter beer costs about $5CAD
http://i.imgur.com/0cxYDAL.jpg

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.
http://i.imgur.com/qJm09s5.jpg

Coal being shoveled into the cars for use in the hot water heaters. Not actually used to power the train which is Diesel driven.
http://i.imgur.com/2TacSgr.jpg

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.
http://i.imgur.com/3bJ5CNY.jpg

A stop in the City of Krasnoyarsk - I walked onto an overpass to get this shot. Railgeek in me.
http://i.imgur.com/kOFr5Ny.jpg

The first real stop where many travelers get off - Irkutsk. Many of the train stations are architecturally impressive.
http://i.imgur.com/dYA4Z0q.jpg

A wooden house in Irkutsk, Siberia. The houses here are built with timber in a very elaborate style.
http://i.imgur.com/uLjnR3v.jpg

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.
http://i.imgur.com/jgCskMn.jpg

Armored Personnel Carrier on the tracks near the Mongolian border
http://i.imgur.com/VXrL23k.jpg

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 :lol
http://i.imgur.com/vqWfEZM.jpg

Next up...Mongolia

Cant wait for the next update!!!

Rich

Mongolia

This is the capital UlaanBaatar (Ulan Bator). It's a pretty featureless flat city filled with Soviet-era apartment blocks. However, it's suprisingly modern and has a few new skyscrapers and tons of international food - esp Korean and Indian. A godsend after eating nothing but Russian/Georgian food for weeks (which is pretty good surprisingly) Mongolian food can be summed up in one word: Mutton
http://i.imgur.com/pEf7hKU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/GLz2Jv4.jpg

Statue of Genghis Khan
http://i.imgur.com/d7fgGPL.jpg

Gers (Yurts) where we stopped for lunch. I had only 2 days to explore the Mongolian countryside so I took an excursion out to the nearby National Park
http://i.imgur.com/9TP9hCs.jpg

The falconer offering photos for a price
http://i.imgur.com/10bY6As.jpg

Lots of wide open spaces just a few miles outside the capital
http://i.imgur.com/wTCRt0W.jpg

View of the Gorkhi-Terelj National Park from a Temple we hiked up to. This is late Autumn - and the brown is grasslands. In the Spring/Summer imagine the entire landscape in green.
http://i.imgur.com/UWE1Dy9.jpg

I stayed overnight in a Ger with a local family. Other than it being a huge tent, it had electricity, satellite TV, and everyone had smartphones. However, no running water and the whole yurt was heated by a large stove. We dined on Mutton with Rice for Dinner, Mutton with Noodles for Breakfast, and Mutton dumplings.
http://i.imgur.com/nwr2ZSB.jpg

A massive statue of Genghis Khan they built in the middle of nowhere
http://i.imgur.com/7FC9p9c.jpg

Back on the train heading thru the Gobi Desert towards China
http://i.imgur.com/QjezzAM.jpg

Reading the timetable on the train is key as it tells you how long until your stop and how long you are pausing at each stop. The attendants try to keep everyone close by but the train does not toot it's horn before it leaves. So if it leaves without warning and you're not on it, you're SOL. If you plan it right you can have a look around the station, buy some snacks, use a real bathroom, etc.
http://i.imgur.com/ZyFc5Ya.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/CkeJj6w.jpg

Final Stop...China

Looks like a very cool trip!

China

In China they use a different Rail Gauge than Russia/Mongolia, so what they do is shunt you into a shed, lift each car up with everyone inside it, and change the bogies (wheels) while you watch. Pretty interesting.
http://i.imgur.com/RxayVIR.jpg

I had been to Beijing twice before but I had no idea how scenic the countryside just outside of it was
http://i.imgur.com/JamBb5t.jpg

Arrived to an incredible blue sky Beijing just before noon nearly a week and a half after I left! For the travelers with me that had never been to China it was a complete shock to the system to see these massive crowds after the wilderness of Siberia/Mongolia
http://i.imgur.com/84k1dBx.jpg

So of course I had to pay a visit to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.
http://i.imgur.com/Yukp1t5.jpg

...and to eat Peking Duck!
http://i.imgur.com/hiLgG7l.jpg

That's it! Hope you enjoyed viewing it as much as I had re-living it.

Thanks for sharing. Quite the adventure you had!

Very cool..definitely not your average adventure

In terms of the Russian Visa, if you enter Russia by boat you don't actually need a visa, some loophole created for cruise ships etc.

We went to St.petersburg in 2011 from a locks cruise from Finland. Spent 3 nights there. I agree completely it's a amazingly clean and vibrant city

My dad who was with me in 2011 had been there when it was still the Soviet Union and he could not beleive the transformation and what it had become in 2011. When he went in the early 80's I beleive he sold his whole suitcase of ripped Levi's and t shirts to a cab driver for $400 USD. Said it was completely monotonous in those days and everyone worse essentially government issue grey jump suits etc. St.petersburg is definitely up there on my favorite places I've been.

They also have one of the craziest museums I've ever been to (not the hermitage!) a massive artillery/war museum which had to have been 6-7 times the size of the Victoria museum here.

Thanks for the post great stuff

That's awesome, would have loved to visit it during the Soviet days but then I was only 8 when it fell. Oh well there's always North Korea for now.

Oh and the visa free entry I believe only applies for 72hrs and is limited to St. Petersburg if I'm not mistaken. I met a couple from England while there who did that.

so this whole trip (train ride) was $750?

Yep, for 3 train tickets via the travel agencies. You could of course buy your tickets at each station for much less. But then you'll have to deal with the language barrier and the possibility of not getting a bunk. I tried doing this for the overnight St. Petersburg to Moscow leg and was put in 3rd class as the ticketing staff spoke no English and my sign language wasn't up to par :okay:

Looks awesome. Was it mainly travelers from abroad on the train?

cheers

The train I was on, yes mostly foreigners from Europe and a couple of Americans. It's that way because Moscow-Beijing is a very popular overland route for travelers. It's probably best described as a "hostel on tracks" albeit with a greater age range.

Moscow to Vladivostok, I've been told, has mostly Russian passengers that actually need to go somewhere. You can have a totally different experience I'm told with Russians plying you with endless Vodka and food.

Definitely one for the bucket list! Thanks for sharing.

st. petersberg is very high on my list
can you share some details on your entry? through tallinn or helsinki?
how was getting around compared to rest of europe?

I flew into St. Petersburg on Lufthansa via Frankfurt :)

There's no train into town from Pulkovo Airport so I took a cab via pre-paid kiosk - the young ladies there speak English but most cab drivers do not. I was dropped off on the wrong address since it wasn't an obvious hotel with a sign. I had to walk to my hostel after getting directions from a restaurant worker in broken English. Not the greatest first impression but thankfully wasn't a sign of things to come.

Most everything of touristic interest in St. Petersburg is within walking distance of the Hermitage. There's also a subway but it's of limited use to tourists. Most people in tourism related industries (hotels, museums, restaurants) in Central St. Pete's speak some English, however most other people do not. Your best bet is to seek out younger folks to ask for directions/help. I had a Russian phrasebook and google translate and got by for the most part.

You should learn a bit of the Cyrillic alphabet which will help you navigate with the signs. It's not as daunting as you might think. Just remember some letters in English are pronounced differently in Russian ('B' is pronounced like a 'V', 'P'='R') Russian pronunciation is pretty easy once you can read it and if you try and speak it people will understand you for the most part.

It's a beautiful city and for the most part very clean and orderly. It's not really "Russian" per se, as it has a very Western European vibe so I would recommend visiting Moscow as well, or taking a daytrip to Veliky Novgorod (5th photo in my 1st post) to get the full feel for Russia.

how much was the visa?
i dont have time for moscow in my upcoming trip so probably be doing the ferry route.

I used a Visa agency downtown: https://www.anyvisa.ca/. They charged me $250 all in - which I know is quite pricey but if you search around Vancouver only has a Russian Honorary Consul (both are on the same floor of the same building on W Hastings St., imagine that!) so you will need to mail your passport to Ottawa to get it by yourself.

You will also need an invitation before you can even get the visa - I did mine through Real Russia | Russian Visa support. The visa agency can do it too, but I found this is cheaper - about $30. Basically they get a Travel Agency in Russia to send you a .pdf letter which 'proves' you booked an 'itinerary' with them so you can be granted a visa.

Yes it's a pain-in-the-ass byzantine process but worth it in the end. If you're doing the ferry entry you'll get the 72 hour visa so you'll be spared this process.