Tag Archives: Moscow

Train to Almaty: 3rd day

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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.

Very tasty melon Dividing Delicious!

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.

Watermelon Lunch time again Pretty men moose

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.

Train to Almaty: 2nd day

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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)

Dry camel Cemetary Scenery Riču-raču

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.

Beautiful sunset Star watching class Moon

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.

Train to Almaty: 1st day

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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.

Porridge Saratov Railway bridge over Volga

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.

Train to Almaty: 1st night

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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.

Shelf Lights Bags under bed Space over corridor

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.

Hot water machine

Moscow

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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.

Moscow metro Museum of Cosmonautics Top of museum of Cosmonautics Lunokhod - Moon rover Buran - Russian shuttle

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).

Lunch Swedish dead-end Matryoshkas

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.

Kremlin star St. Basil's Cathedral Walk around Kremlin Rest near Kremlin Train to Almaty

Train Jurmala – our journey has started

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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 Beginning Neighbours and gadgets Everything's OK

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.

Sleep Morning Other sleeping places

Route, times, attractions

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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.

Looking over options in details. 1st.

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The dates when we have to buy our train tickets come closer and closer (it’s 25th or 26th of May), so it’s the last time to decide which train we will take.

There were 3 main options:
Riga-Moscow-Almaty-Urumqi-Shanghai
Riga-Moscow-Ulaanbaatar-Beijing-Shanghai
Riga-Moscow-Chita-Beijing-Shanghai

1st option.
We have to be in Shanghai on 21st of July at latest. Train from Urumqi to Shanghai goes daily and takes 3 days (departs evening, arrives midday). -> We have to be in Urumqi on 19th at latest, which is Sunday. Train from Almaty to Urumqi goes 2 days a week and arrives either on Monday or on Wednesday. Monday, 20th is too late for us, so 15th, Wednesday would be fine. In this case we have to depart from Almaty on 13th of July (evening).
Train from Moscow to Almaty goes every 2nd day. In order for us to be in Almaty on 13th, we have to take train which departs from Moscow on 9th July evening. So, departing from Riga on 8th evening, which means 2 not 1 extra days of vacation (not sure whether possible for all of us).
Looking from start – if we are in Urumqi on 15th, we can go to Xian with train 1086 (Urumqi – Jinan) and be there on 17th, visit Terracotta Army (takes 3h + getting to/from = 5h) and see city. Then leave in the evening to either Shanghai or Beijing.

Shanghai first
This means, we are in Shanghai on 18th round 2pm and can spend there 4,5 days till evening of 22nd. Then go to Beijing, arrive there 23rd before noon and spend there 3 days before departing home on 26th.

Beijing first
This means, we are in Beijing on 18th round 10am and can spend there 3days, 2 nights till evening of 20th. Then go to Shanghai, arrive there 21st before noon and spend there 4,5days before departing home on 25th night.

In short:
Riga-Moscow(Rizskaja)(004р) – daily, 18:10-12:16, 17:06h (departs 1st day, arrives 2nd)
Moscow(Pavlieckaja)-Almaty(007ц) – every 2nd, 22:50-07:14, 78:24h (departs 1st day, arrives 5th)
Almaty-Urumqi(014ц) – Mon,Sat, 23:58-08:58, 31:00h (departs 1st day, arrives 3rd)
Urumqi-Shanghai(T54) – daily, 17:20-14:31, 45:11h (departs 1st day, arrives 3rd)
Urumqi-Xian(to Jinan,1086), 21:48-07:29, 33:41h (departs 1st day, arrives 3rd)

Sites:
http://www.seat61.com/SilkRoute.htm
http://www.rzd.ru/
http://www.chinatravelguide.com/ctgwiki/Special:CNTrainSearch?method=1
http://www.tielu.org (+ google translate automatic language detection)
http://wikitravel.org/en/Xi’an
http://gochina.about.com/od/whattosee/p/TC_Army.htm