Eclipse Tour 2009

Aggregated from 5 sentence/5 facts texts of all of us. Put together and translated by me. Prepare for a long reading (sorry)

In the afternoon of 2009.07.14 we arrived at a small village just before Chinese border. Kazakh border guards stepped in to check our passports, but I don’t remember if they checked the baggage. Our carriage was the last one to be checked, so the border guards stepped out and said that we can step out also to walk around the village while the wheels of the train are changed. Everita and MārtiņšK were the only ones to get out - the doors closed just before the rest of us, and the train started to move backwards. We thought it would stop in some seconds, but in fact it moved for some minutes till a place with lots of wheels and rails and trains. We got a message from MārtiņšK - “Bļ.., kur aizbraucāt” (”Fck, where did you go to”) - we didn’t know ourselves :D.

We had nothing to do, so we started to watch a movie on the laptop. Time after time the train moved - it seemed that the wheels were changed for one carriage at a time. Although they moved the whole carriage up at least 1m, the wheel changing procedure was very unnoticeable - only Emīls saw some moment that we were higher above the ground than we used to be, but sadly didn’t bother to tell the others - we would like to see it too. Unfortunately, they didn’t have electricity in the train at this time, and the battery of the laptop ran out in half an hour, so we couldn’t watch the movie till the end.
While we stayed in the train, MārtiņšK and Everita were wandering around the village. The air there was dryer than cookies of sweetcrust pastry and temperature above 30C. The village was located in the middle of nowhere, cows were walking down the streets and abandoned houses were intensively torn down .

Some time after leaving the village behind, we reached the Chinese border.
We were checked very seriously here.
The first team that visited us were medicals. They came in the kupe and aimed with a weapon-like object to our foreheads without saying a word. The object luckily appeared to be an infrared thermometer. It seems that China is only country which takes pig, bird and other flues for real. When they checked Anders’s temperature, it was apparently a bit higher than normal and they had to check it again with a regular thermometer. Who knows, what would have happened if he really have had a fever.

The second team was the food control. First they visited girls’ kupe, from which girls shouted the boys to eat the carrots. They were thinking “wtf?”. Only later they understood that every vegetable and fruit will be taken from them. This way we lost our carrots and cucumber, but we managed to save the tomatoes in our stomachs :). There was also a funny discussion:
Chinese official: - мясо есть? (Do you have meat?)
MārtiņšM: - нет. (No.)
The official carefully checks all the bags and sacks. Prepared to leave, but notices that there is another sack on the upper berth. He takes out a loaf of bread from it, all covered with flown-out melted cheese, and gives to MārtiņšK to hold it while taking out the second loaf, which is also broken apart. After that he takes out a sausage.
Chinese official:- а ето что такое? (And what is this?)
MārtiņšM: - hm.. , колбаса. (sausage.)
Chinese official (angrily):- колбаса ета же есть мясо! (Sausage is meat after all!)
… turns around and leaves taking the sausage with him.
Now we know that we should have hide the sausages in the trash bin, because they didn’t check it. And even if they had checked - we had thrown them away ourselves. However they didn’t take away our canned meat - maybe because we told them that those are “konservi” (preserves), not some meat. Anyway it seems that you cannot take anything fresh or any meat into China.
Long time after leaving border I found our Kazakh melon somewhere under blankets and sheets in the upper (over-corridor) section of kupe. Great success!

After we had put back all the things taken out with 2nd officials’ team, new team - border guards - appeared and asked to take everything out one more time. We took out the sacks of our bags and tried to tell in English what’s in there, but it doesn’t seem that the border guard understood a word, although he nid-nod. We think that he was just pleased with fulfillment of his duties. He also skimmed through Kristīne’s book in English and nodded wisely. Her tri-pod seemed very interesting. She had to put the camera on, and only then he understood, what is it meant for. They went away with Kristīne’s DVD movie - maybe to watch it?? Fortunately, they returned it later.
MārtiņšM had to show them Agnese’s star maps from his e-book and gadget party in boys’ kupe began. They played with MārtiņšK’s magnetic toy Neo cube, one border guard (quite pretty ) checked the photos in the cameras and cellphones. MārtiņšK said that there’s nothing interesting in his, but she answered “it’s my job”. Most of MārtiņšK’s pictures had “drunk and asleep friends, laden with things” on them. For one of them she asked, what is this. MārtiņšK replied - “I don’t remember…”. In the last pictures she checked, there was a kitty which she liked . It was great that she stopped there as the further pictures depicted MārtiņšK’s fraternity friends with rapiers - not good to show pictures of any weapons to border guards, is it?
They also checked Anders’s book in English and didn’t like something in it so Anders had to tell them, what’s written in it. Fortunately they didn’t find MārtiņšM’s laptop.

After a while, suddenly everyone left. In a moment one of them returned and searched for something, but didn’t find. We hoped that we would get some souvenir, e.g. a torch, but we didn’t find anything ourselves also.

Overall, it seemed that our group had created a little stress to both train attendants and Chinese border-guards, but everything was alright in the end. Only some 2 persons of them spoke English or Russian. Mostly we used sign language and were translating over a chain - Anders spoke in English, MārtiņšM translated to Russian and Chinese border-guard lady translated from Russian to Chinese to her colleagues. The same chain to the opposite direction. Together with wheel changing we spent several hours at the border posts, something like 6 hours or even more. It was dark outside when we started to move further.

Got over the border, we chatted and joked till 5am although had to get up at 7am.

As our group had become lazy writers, I asked everyone to write some 5 sentences about our journey from Almaty to Urumqi. I got many sentences, not so many facts, and most of them all were about our time on Kazakhstan/China border, so there will a separate post dedicated to the funny border crossing. But for now - about the Silk road train “Zhibek zholy”.

It was quite late when we entered the train, but who would have known that the caption “Alamutu - Wulumuqi” on the side of the train standing on 1st tracks, means that this is the train to Urumqi. Again, we had booked places in 2 adjacent kupes, but this time they were a little bit different from each other. Each of them had violet clothes-hangers, but in the boy’s kupe each of them had a “pretty” ribbon. There was a little fight to get a hanger with a ribbon, and finally the boys were so kind to change their hangers to ours :D. We put down our bags and stepped out to take a photo, with the hangers, of course.

The train and the compartments were clean, white and somewhat “sterile”. Every kupe had two thermoses with drinking water (the previous train had drinking water tap in the corridor, however, we drank mostly boiled water after cooling it down in a glass bottle, placed in Everita’s sneaker to not fall apart). Electricity sockets were under the table in each kupe, there were more than 1 and not all the same, but I don’t remember neither how many exactly nor what types. There was a Chinese style (squat) toilet in one end of the wagon, a normal toilet in the other. Also in this train there was a big place for our things over the corridor. We kept there many things including bed linen in day time and among them the melon which had been carried around in Almaty and turned out to be the only piece of fruit to survive till China. Beds were much harder than in the train before, but we slept very well after the long day in Almaty.

Next day I woke up to see a nice scenery outside the window. There was a nice, blue lake behind a meadow and it was still there some hours later. Apparently a very big lake. Here and there were some village or  Muslim cemetery. The landscape of eastern Kazakhstan was very beautiful and none of the pictures taken through the dirty train windows made it justice.

It was very quiet in the train. While in the train before everyone was keeping the doors of their kupes open and visiting other people in the train, even unknown people, here most doors were closed and there were no people chatting in corridor. We kept our doors open mostly and sometimes tried to shut the curtains of the windows in the corridor so that there was less Sun shining into eyes. Though the carriage attendant walked through the carriage time after time and always opened them if it was light outside and always shut them if it was dark. He seemed to be a very patient person as he never tried to say anything to us, when we opened the curtains uncountable times in the evening.

– Sorry for delay on article, I’m a lazy writer.

Rise and shine. Early in the morning I woke up when our new Kazakh room-mate was rustling. We told him that we will be arriving in Almaty after 7:00, bet he was not convincible - in his mind it would be at 6:00. Some minutes past 7:00 we arrived in Almaty, station 2.

Our first task was to buy tickets to Ürümqi. Timetable was showing “место нет” meaning - there are no seats. At the information woman said that we should go to pay-box and ask for tickets. Pay-box was opening at 8:00 - little while to wait. Also we were informed that tickets cost about 50% more than expected. After visiting ATM and currency exchange point we felt quite comfortable.

After we bought the tickets we went to put our baggage in storage room. After that we contacted people from couch-surfing community to go to them for a shower. At first we thought about going by taxi. We were told that it is not so expensive (we should not pay more than 1000 tenges for all of us to get to our destination near microdistrict Orbita). But first taxi offered to bring us for 2000 tenges for each car (we needed 2). We were bargaining a little while when at this point woman at storage room intervened and told us how to get to our destination very easy using public transportation. We didn’t mind, it was in our (at least in my ) interests to explore this culture by participating in their everyday life - walking same streets, taking same public transportation, meeting people, et cetera. Taxi momentarily dropped his price to 1000 tenges for a car. It was still twice to much and our minds were set to going by bus.

First bus explained that we should go 2 stops and then reseat. We decided to go by foot. Taxi was still there, with friends. All of them were trying to convince to go with them. Now price was dropped to 1000 tenges for both cars. But we were going to our new target - bus stop No98. On the way there it was very interesting to acquaint oneself with their culture on the roads. As well as glancing at beautiful fountains.

At the bus stop we awaited our bus. Conductor was hurrying us up to get into the bus. As we found out later it is custom to do things fast - jump into or out of the bus almost while it is still moving. Conductor also showed us where to get out and where was the park with columns and beautiful fountains. Some public thermometer showed 38­ degree C a while ago. So while waiting our contact persons we were sunbathing, taking photos and lounging near fountain.

We divided into two groups. One group went with let’s say “woman” and the other with “girl”
One after another we went to the shower at hers place. Feeling was much better. Woman made some sandwiches and omelette, and some other viands - cheese, sausages, tomatoes, etc. Very, very nice and kind from her.

After that we decided not to go to the observatory and nearby lake as it seemed to be very expensive. Instead we would be going to museum of music instruments. On the way there we enjoyed waterworks and flower gardens. Unfortunately museum is closed on Mondays. After quick chat with guard we went on. Clouds began to gather and it looked like there will be a thunderstorm soon. Indeed after a short while rain was starting to fall. We decided to go into some coffee for a lunch. Not all of us were so fortunate to get such a large meal at their couchsurfing place… Everyone ordered what they want. Me, Anders and Everita only beer and snacks. Unfortunately after a meal there was some misunderstanding about the the prices we had to pay. After 20 minutes and loud discussion situation was more or less solved. I don’t like to participate on such events, so I didn’t.

At that time the Sun was no more shining, it was warm and it was not raining. We decided to go to Kok-tobe by cable-way to watch the city from above. Up there was lot of commercial stuff. Not really interested in. But overall very nice and clean. We were walking around, taking some pictures, visiting mini zoo (free).

Slowly not hurrying anywhere we decided to go to the train station by foot. Everyone was worn-out. Some took a nap. Some recovered by eating something. After a while Agnese notices that we can go to the train and there is attendant who speaks only Chinese. The train is nice, made by Chinese plastics. The attendant is checking our body temperatures by some infrared thermometer. Everything is OK. Again, we need to fill up some papers for Chinese border. Soon after that we go to sleep.

Continued - based on Emīls notes.

July 12

The morning starts with the words “приготовите паспорт” again, though this time it is MārtiņšK who says them. Nevertheless some of us including me are disturbed, awake at once and reaching for the passports. It could be nice to watch us from the side at this time :D.

At the stops various things are sold in many trolleys. We buy melons, a watermelon, a bottle of Kazakh wine “Кардинал” (”Cardinal”) and a (too) small bottle of very delicious cognac “Казахстан” (”Kazakhstan”), the most delicious >20% alcoholic drink I have ever tasted. The melons cost around 20-30RUR each, the wine is 400KZT (there was another, “Kagor” for 300KZT in the kiosk). We still don’t have Kazakhstan tenges as they could be get nor in Latvia neither Sweden banks, that’s why we pay for everything in Russian roubles. Maybe the rate isn’t the best (from 1 RUR to 5KZT till 1 RUR to 4KZT), but things we want are still cheap enough in roubles and we don’t mind.

The melons are ripe, aromatic and also very tasty. We also open our daily cans of meat which means that the backpacks will be lighter. Yesterday we ate canned meat of some forest animals like deer and roe, but we didn’t know the English name for roe, so Mārtiņš told to Anders that it was “deer girls” meat. It turned soon to “pretty deer girl” and we will remember this expression for quite a long time since then. That’s why the canned moose meat of today gets a title “pretty men moose” meat.

Emīls has got a bit sore throat. Riču-raču and card games again. At one stop some policemen step in the train. They will come with us till Almaty and check the baggage of newcoming passengers, because in the coming region many people are growing and trying to transport cannabis. Later in night we also see a big fire of a great area at the horizon. Our neighbors told that it’s a normal sight - the police is burning cannabis fields there. It is not allowed to take photographs of policemen in uniforms. Also it is not allowed to take photograph of our provodnitsa in her uniform.

Two melons for one day are enough for us, though we have another two of them left. They are not light and we don’t want to carry them around the whole day in Almaty, that’s why we eat the biggest of them. It is very tasty again and we eat it fast after cutting in pieces. Tomorrow we will have to get up early, that’s why we put most things back in the backpacks already. In the night we try to dance salsa in the corridor of the train, but it’s too narrow for turns. The radiators along the corridor side take up more space than it seems. Although the early waking up next morning, we go to sleep pretty late. Our provodnitsa Zhannar wake us up at 5:30am. We pack the last things, the bags seem lighter.

At half past 7 we arrive in Almaty.

Continued - based on Emīls notes.

July 11

The morning starts with words “приготовите паспорт” which means “get the passport ready”. The fact that we crossed border to Kazakhstan yesterday doesn’t mean that we can put our passports away till Almaty. The train has an interesting route - it crosses the Russia/Kazakhstan border 3 times as you can see from the map in the 1st page of our site. It could be because of former Soviet Union and common railroads to Russia and Kazakhstan at that time. Though double entry visa is NOT needed for either country. People in both embassies informed us that they think we will need double entry visa when we wanted to check whether the information on internet about not needing double one is right. But it appeared that our visas were already processed at that time, so we couldn’t change entry times and got single entry visas. There were no questions on the 2nd or 3rd border crossing.

After the 2nd border it is still morning so most of us go back to sleep. When we finally get up, the train has a stop and there is no possibility to go to toilet, so someone of us has to contain himself till we are moving again. Toilets are closed before stops, because everything from there goes directly to ground under train and it’s not clever to allow it in stops. The train is still late. Outside the window we see “dry” cows (very thin, in a pale brown color) from time to time, first camels, steppe. We play card games, checkers, dices and riču-raču (Latvian version of the board game Ludo)

We stop at some station, I want to go to buy milk in a nearby shop, but our train hasn’t stopped at the 1st platform and between it and the terminal a very long train arrives. Since it won’t be possible to get back on time by going around, I return to our train before my time has come in the queue in the shop. Though Everita and MārtiņšK who have left at the other side get back by walking through the other train. The scenery outside the window stays the same. A beautiful sunset. I finally get to buy milk at some station. MārtiņšM buys yogurt for Kristīne and a bottle of mineral water. First stars, the night has come and the first educational astronomy lessons start. Our train neighbors are also interested. Unfortunately there’s some haze and not a better sight upwards than in Latvia. Or maybe the light ruins everything. The light in corridor, which windows can be opened, is always on in the night. Last year in steppe the visibility of the sky was much better.

Me, Emīls and MārtiņšM watch and take photographs of Moon and Jupiter from the corridor of the train. Others are already asleep. We go past Aral sea but as it is about 100km away, we can see nothing except some salt fields which in night are a bit lighter than the rest of the ground. The morning comes, it gets lighter. Venus and Mars can be seen in the Twins constellation from the window of our kupe. Also MārtiņšM and Emīls sleep when I finally go to bed to wait for Tjuratam station (closest to the Baikonur cosmodrome) there (with the alarm clock on). Last year I was sleeping in the car when we went by it. This year I want at least to look at that direction. There’s not much that can be seen - just rails that suddenly split away to north and some satellite receivers in form of big dishes. Still I feel happy. The sun is rising, I wake up Emīls for that sight and after the sunrise finally go to sleep.

Continued - based on Emīls notes.

July 10

We wake up late. It’s ok - we will spend all the day in the train. On some stops we get out of the train for some minutes to take photos or just to breath fresh(or just different) air. It’s very hot outside and we don’t feel very clean, although the train has a sink in the toilet. The toilet is quite the same as in previous train and we have got used to it. The train has a nice and very communicable provodnica (train attendant). She stops and tells something interesting whenever she walks by our kupe. She and everyone else on the train is speaking only Russian, so not everybody of us understood everything. Sometimes we translate to Anders, but sometimes we don’t as it is toooo much that needs to be translated.

This is the first day we eat the potato porridge and canned meat we have taken with us. This porridge is also very easy to prepare - just add hot water and stir. Each of us gets 3.5 spoons of hot porridge and a can of meat. It become less and less trees outside the window and the scenery changes. Still most of the stops are quite green. We are crossing river Volga not long after Saratov city terminal. A really huge river. It’s possible to see the railway bridge before crossing, as the train route makes a curve.

Something is keeping the train, apparently they are checking it especially carefully. We stand on the border 1 hour more than we were supposed to. But the provodnica says that we will catch up afterwards. After Russian side border there still is Kazakhstan side border. The border guards are looking at us for a long time while checking passports. Outside the window music is playing and two drunk local boys are fighting. It’s Friday - party, nothing special

We are going to sleep late. The trees outside the window have got small and short - first signs of steppe. Our carriage has around 4 of 110 Volt electricity sockets in the corridor and 1 220V socket in one WC, and a 120V socket in the other WC. Last evening we charged our mobile phones, this evening the electricity is gone. The provodnica suspects us for charging (malfunctioning) camera which we didn’t do actually.

Emīls made some notes while on this train, some of which I got to read recently. As it is a lot easier to remember this way, the following story will be based on his notes with my additions.

July 9:

We got on the Kazakhstan train in the evening. Also here it is not possible to open the window and it is bad as there’s some kind of not nice smell in the kupe. Though in some minutes we have got used to it and don’t notice it anymore. The good thing - the train has conditioner. The bad thing - the conditioner works only when the train is moving fast enough. But as it is moving the best part of all the time, we feel ok.

Our kupe is not very big, but - the more, the merrier - so usually we are more than just 4 in here. And for supper (and most of the following meals) we have proved that all 7 of us can sit on the lower bunks (quite squeezed, but still ok). There’s a carpet on the floor and some soft backrest on the wall. The berths are very soft. Later we will know that these berths were the softest of all the trains we took. The window has curtains which can cover the lower half of the window and also a shutter that can cover all. Unlike the previous upper berths, where a bump on your forehead would be a normal thing after waking up (very small space between the berth and the ceiling), here it is possible to sit normally. Each berth has a small not very bright light - bad for reading but good enough for searching something. Each berth has a little shelf and a hook. 2 bags can fit under the lower berth (1 of them inside the box and the other - outside) and if that is not enough, there is big space for something above the corridor with a width of kupe itself, usable from the kupe side of course.

We have Latvian porridges for supper - either oatmeal or buckwheat, which are ready just some minutes after you add hot water and stir. To my mind - a good and easy way to eat. We are quite tired during the day in Moscow and go to sleep soon after the supper.

We arrived in Moscow around 12:00. Weather was nice - it was cloudy, not hot, and it was not raining.
First we went to train station to get information about possibility to buy ticket Almaty-Urumqi. We were told that we should try central railroad booking office. After that we went with metro to Cosmonautics museum. Riding with metro was very fast and easy way to get to destination.
We spent about 2 hours in museum. We saw space suit that belonged to third guy on the Moon as well as stuffed Belka and Strelka - real or Chinese fake - don’t know ;). Also there was 1:1 model of living quarter of Mir space station. Also lot of other models and parts of various man made space objects.

After museum we went back to metro to ride to central railroad ticket booking office. Bureaucracy was great, we were sent from one responsible person to another. At least they realized that they can only try to reserve tickets, but not to order them. Computer showed information that there were no seats available. It meant for us only one thing - we will need to buy tickets in Almaty railway station.
Outside station we had quick lunch, some ordered kebabs, some took salads or other food. After that again to metro to go to museum of Matryoshka. It was quite a walk from metro to museum, carrying baggage full of heavy food. Some time after passing by monument of Pushkin, we spotted a street named “шведский тупик” which means “Swedish deadend” and of course, took a photo of Anders under the streetname. Sadly we arrived late at the museum and managed just to take a quick look into souvenir shop full of various sized matryoshkas. Museum was closing (open till 18:00).

Next stop - Red Square. Little bit of walking and there we were. Just settled down in the lawn near some flowers across the memorial of unknown warrior for a rest and enjoyment of view, when Russian militia came and sent us and others like us away. Then we divided in two groups - one who watch over the baggage while other walk around and explore Red Square. The roadway of Red Square was not red. And Kremlin was closed (closed on thursdays). Saint Basil’s Cathedral had just taken last tourist group, we missed it. We walked around the Kremlin wall to quest how large area Kremlin takes up. And then the second group took the tour similar to first one. Although we didn’t manage to see these two objects from inside, it still seemed that we have seen much in this one day without any stress or haste.
Rested in another lawn we took a metro to our station where we stepped into a train that will take us to Almaty.

9.07.2009
So our adventures have begun. We left Riga train terminal at 18:10 with bunch of people that came to say goodbye. First minutes flied so fast that I didn’t even notice that my town which is 35km from Riga, is already behind. In some 3 hours we started to think that the journey will be very long and we have no idea what we will do all the time. Though I didn’t feel bored at any moment. We chatted, drank tea and Brengulju beer. In a while we stopped by the border. Time went very slowly, but we had very nice neighbors who gave much of good advice during those times.
Latvian border guards looked in our passports and soon went away. In some half an hour train went further to Russian border. The guards there checked the used bed linens which were kept in a hole under the floor and wanted some of us to open their bags. After that a dog came into train. Luckily he had been fed enough and didn’t want to check the taste of our sausages. Then we washed and went to sleep.

The first impression of the train “Jurmala” was not very good but in a while it became better. We had platzcard tickets because it was too expensive to pay 100LVL just for 1 night ride. Our seats/sleeping places were quite soft and we also put mattresses on them when we went to sleep. I was a bit surprised that there are actually 6 places in one “compartment” - 2 (lower and upper) at one side of the window, 2 at the other side of the window and 2 next to the opposite window. In day there is a table, in night you can fold that to the bed. In day the 2nd “floor” is folded near ceiling. That is why when I looked train pictures on Internet before, it seemed like there are only seats, not sleeping places. However, those seats were really hard in our train, not like the 4 “normal” places which are opposite side. The bed linen were included in the price as well as small not-very-soft towels. The hot water was free of charge and it was hot all the time. 2 cups of tea were free, 0.5 liter bottle of water was free, coffee cost 1LVL. Although it was written that we can get board games and get pack of free cookies, the carriage attendant told that last time they gave free cookies was 3 years ago. And we did not get any board games - they did not have them.

We are about to leave in some 4 hours. Everyone has packed (I suppose) except me, but that is ok.
My best friend gave me link about riots in Urumqi today and I decided that maybe someone wants to know what we are planning to visit in each city.
As well as - it doesn’t seem so obvious but the map in 1st page, when you click on it, contains all the train stations where it stops as well as times when the train will be in that station.
Here is another link to that map: The MAP.

We will be visiting 7 (or 8 ) cities (click for the objects that we might be visiting):
Moscow (Russia)
Almaty (Kazakhstan)
Urumqi (China) - yes, we plan to visit the places where riots take place, but don’t worry, we will think twice.
Xi’an (China)
Beijing (China)
Shanghai (China)
Hangzhou (China) - no map yet
Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) - Anders will visit this on his own after being a bit more time in China.

So, follow us on twitter, look into map at right side (below Twitter block), and you should know where are we right in that moment.