Our longest train journey yet started from Irkutsk on the weekly train to Beijing via Harbin. The train was one of the newer ones and this time we had a cabin all to ourselves for two days or so. Settling in we realised there was little to do except check out the scenery or read. I decided to catch up on sleep and let Dave get his fill of scenery. When I woke, Dave let me know that there had been plenty of trees and then as the sun rose we were given a lovely view over lake Baikal which the train followed around the southern end, As I had slept for a couple of hours we were nearing the last sight of the lake. From here the train turned east to skirt Mongolia before headings towards Zabaikalsk-Manzhouli (The Russian-Chinese border). After a good nights sleep we were informed by our provodnik that we would arrive at the Russian border town of Zabaikalsk to change the train bogies at around midday. We were told we needed to leave the train while this happened and that it would take about 4 hours to do but we could leave our luggage in the
Ulan Ude train stationtrain.
Getting to Zabaikalsk we alighted in the platform and the provodnik gestured the direction to the town. We headed off in the direction of the town but soon found a cafe full of Russian border guards to have lunch in. We sat there long enough to enjoy a cup of tea and watched our train leave the station without us. Very disconcerting. Getting cold and bored we headed to the warm waiting room back at the station to wait for the train to reappear and to read a book or two.
Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment