The Trans Siberian; The artery of a nation. Russia.

Planned by Tsar Nicholas 1 in 1847, the first train completed the journey in 1900 from Moscow to Irkutsk. From there it is all history. Wars with China and Japan, Revolution and the Soviets. The story will go on.

The Trans Siberian is steeped in myth and history.

Facts

• Trans Siberian refers to the line from Moscow to Irkutsk. It follows the old Mongol Post road

From this line spurs go to other places, Central Asia, The Stans and Northern areas.

It is important and vital to Russia as it is the artery of her transport system

Fom Irkutsk there are 3 destinations available at this day

Trans Mongolian - Beijing via Ulan Bataar following the old tea and silk route

Trans Manchurian – Beijing via Harbin (China) with a line to Vladivostck

Trans Siberian – Vladivostck via Russia

BAM (Baikalo Amurskaya-Magistral) is a new line. It skirts to the Norh of Lake Baikal and reaches Sovietskaya Gavan on the Tartar Strait giving Russia access to another port on the Pacific. This line was completed in 1992 and is said to be the engineering achievment of the 20^th century, traversing perma frost, huge mountain ranges and extreme weather conditions.

BAM spurs at Tayshet for its long ride North East. The distance is halfway across Russia to its destination. This area is rich in diamonds, gas, oil platinum, gold and other resources and is emerging as Russias’ treasure trove.

Source Lonely planet and http://www.wikipedia.com/

For more history on the Chinese involvement and the Japanese visit these sites

We travelled for 3 days and 15 hours across Russia,

We found that

You can watch 3 sunsets and 3 sunrise

Carriages have coal fired boilers for heat

The Samovar is coal fired (Hot water for tea and noodles)

Beer is sold on all stations (it is cold as it is minus degrees)

The train stops at all major stations, some for only 1 minute, others 30minutes

Fresh linen is supplied for the beds. There are 4 bunks in a “kupe”

We shared our cabin for some of the way then we had a full cabin to ourselves

Life becomes a very pleasant experience watching the country unfold and listening to the clik clak of the rails.

We played cards, listened to the ipods, read and wrote this blog.

There were some beaut families aboard with little kids so we had some fun with twisties and whistles and other things

Like all journeys it all comes to an abrupt halt and we were in Moscow. The weather was warm 2c, the time was 04.40am

We waited for the Metro to start and made our way to our Hostel then set out to do some sightseeing in this huge city.

On reflection the journey was to us an experience that we had dreamed of for a long time. Citt had given us the book for inspiration at Xmas back in 2002 and Kellie and Richie encouraged us to make the journey. We were not disappointed. How amazing. To one day get on a train in Beijing and then in a few days, to be a world away. The culture differences along the way. And now we are firmly in Europe and looking at the end of our journey. Tthe faces on the street are like ours and the smells are not unusual. It is not Asia anymore and we both love Asia. But guess what? They serve the best capaccinos you can imagine in Moscow and the cakes. MMMMMm.

Reflections. The scenes along the way took Pam back to stories in an old book of her childhood. Hunters with guns, wolves, little birds, wooden cottages.

Some places it was like stepping inside a Christmas card scene. Snow covered forests, carriages, churches in the distance, bright moonlight.

We are looking forward to visting the Kremlin, Red Square and exploring this big City of Moscow.

On the “Great Train Journey”. Moscow.

Image 1 The train
Image 2 Typical rail station (Voksal)
Image 3 our little companion with his twisty
Image 4 The station sellers
Image 5 Country side taken from the window