anyway...on with the blog show...the following pictures are the ones i took while on part of the trans-siberian railway...from perm, russia to ulan bataar, mongolia....what an experience....i ended up on a mostly trader train...which was such a learning experience...most of the passengers were traders from mongolia, who were doing their bi-weekly trip to and from moscow with their goods....the train itself turned into a traveling store...which had anything and everything you can imagine...from clothes to shoes to car parts to porn to food to appliances to umbrellas...it was just incredible....every stop we made along the way, the traders would bring their goods off the train to the russians and the russians would sell food to those on the train...it was just like a traveling market...i guess it happens about every week or so....just an amazing form of selling and buying....
this is the name of the train in russian....from moscow to ulan bataar....the train was quite crowded and our berth, which was to hold four people, really had six...it was me, a british guy and two mongolian couples....talk about a tight squeeze....and after five days of no real showers or running water....it was quite gross...the train does get cleaned once a day by the provenistas...but they don't scrub it or anything...and your cabin just gets swept out....the provenistas were totally on the take the entire trip...i think the couples actually paid extra money so they could stay in the same bunk...it was sly and so black market....i even gave the provenistas money so they would let me use the bathroom they kept locked....it was much cleaner that way :)
in this shot you can see one of the traders...this woman made tons of money...she sold everything from shoes to dresses to jackets to warm-ups...and she had people who actually worked for her from the train so they could make a bit of money along the way....it was just incredible the swapping of bills and just how much money was on this train....we had one of the biggest traders in our car...not our berth, but in the car...and he had money over fist...euros, dollars, mongolian money and russian money...it was incredible....
when we were in between stops the stuff would be stored everywhere it could fit....so this manequinn was in the hallway, behind the door to the smoking area....walking through the cars you would come across rooms that were so packed with stuff, you had no idea where the people in the berth slept....crazy....what was even crazier was what happened about four hours before the russian border...there was mass of activity to hide everything from the border control people...in the ceilings, the floors, the walls, in the seats...and of course everyone asked the westerners to store things in their luggage...we weren't really searched for illegal goods....its because russia wants to lessen the amount on the black market in mongolia...however, the patrol people that came onto our car were paid off by the provenistas...its all a matter of $$$$$$
this is the samovar...there was one of these on every train i took this summer...it was a constant supply of hot water for coffee and tea and cup of noodles....i lived on instant noodles...the easiest and cleanest thing to make and eat....thank goodness for the samovar :)
this is a typical looking town in siberia...all wooden houses...some of which are really nicely painted with bright and fun colors...most towns are really small...and even though it was the middle of the summer...it was still rather chilly at night....but most houses had their own garden to grow veggies in the summer when the sun was up for most hours of the day....
of course we saw streams and rivers and such along the way...it was amazing how often i would find myself staring out the window for hours at a time...the scenery was really mesmerising...it really reminded me of alaska...which i guess makes sense latitudinally speaking....it was beautiful countryside...if you have never been...you should go :)
this is lake baikal...the largest freshwater lake in the world...it has many species of animals that are endemic to its waters...we saw it at sunrise...i woke up just in time to see the sun coming over the lake...it was stunning...i would like to go back here so i could stop and check out the lake...maybe in the future...you never know....
i took this picture by just hanging my hand out our window of the car...at this point we were in the last day on the train....the scenery was starting to change...not as many hills or birch trees...in other words...we were headed into mongolia...one of the most beautiful places i have ever been....
these are the mongolian guys i shared the berth with....our stay together didn't start off easy...but by the end we were chatting frequently...they were both very excited to be headed home after being in school in moscow for the past six months...noc, on the left was in the berth with his wife...he had one more year of dental school and she had just finished her medical degree....and they were headed home to see the child she gave birth to in january, who they left with her parents while they finished their year in school...it was a crazy story, and i know they were so excited to see their daughter....
this last shot is me, after five days with no shower...gross....the married mongol couple let me wear their mongol hat...it was really cool of them to let me do this...what a trip of a lifetime this was...i learned about many things in the world i had no idea existed....i met cool people and had a glimpse of a very different way of life...i don't think i could ever be a trader on the trans-siberian...but if i had grown up doing it, obviously it would be a different story....it was the trip of a lifetime...but i am not sure i need to do it again :)time for me to hit the road...hope enjoyed this update...i will put mongolia up soon...it was an amazing place...can't wait to get back there....but now i need to prep for a trip with 8th graders :) hope all is well and happy fall :)
