My train departed from Ulan Bator train station at 20:25. By that time I was sitting in a wagon no. 1, Seat 29 and chatting with two elderly Buryatian women in broken Russian. They were going back to Ulan Ude - the capital city of the Buryat republic. Meanwhile, I entered the last stage of my grand voyage. The vast lands of Russian Empire (I mean federation) were waiting.
At 20:45 I realized that I had gone through my whole Russian vocabulary and there were not many things left that I could articulate in this beautiful, yet forgotten language. I managed, however, to tell about Lithuania, my long trip and my new love to Mongolia. Also, I learned a bit about the size and the culture of Buryat republic. More that two months passed since that evening, but I still remember that Buryatian winters can be very cold in those harsh lands. In southern Buryat regions temperature plummets down to -40, while strong people survive - 50 in the north. Hell, if they can survive - 50, hopefully I will survive much tender winter in Europe.
Few minutes later a third elderly women entered our cabin and politely inquired where I was from and whether I spoke English. The following question was if I didn't mind to switch seats with her, because her cabin-mates were only English speaking fellows. Hence, the first part of my Russian journey was in English.
I shared a cabin British-born geography teacher who had been working in Hong Kong and Australian - English couple who used to live in Singapore. Since I was the only one capable to communicate in Russian, I became a bridge between them and any Russian speaking person, met on our way. Actually, there weren't that many of them. Train conductors were interrupting otherwise peaceful ride from time to time. Two very much Russian-looking ladies would come and try to sell us some ridiculous and expensive souvenirs. I was the only person capable to understand them, thus I was, also, the obvious target. They were rather pushy and at one point I was blackmailed that they would not give me .... something, what was needed on the ride, if nothing was bought. Eventually nothing was bought, everything was provided and the ladies lost their hope. Much later, on Irkutsk - Kazan train ride I learned terrible fact that there is a legal requirement to sell souvenirs for certain amount of money, which is written in a standard train conductor's job contract. If they fail to comply, they get fired.
And now photos:
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| Just crossed Mongolian - Russian border |
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| Naushky - the first town in Russian Federation |
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| Maybe more like a village with a train station, that a town |
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| Wagon 1 |
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| Zagustay power plant |
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| Siberian birch trees |
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| Southern Buryat republic |
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| Selenga River |
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| First of many Russian dachias |
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| Ulan Ude is famous, because there is the biggest Lenin's head in the word (7.7 m., 42 tons) |
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| And I had only 40 min train stop to get there and take few picture |
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| Early morning in Irkutsk |
To be continued...
