6-12 October 1987

Moscow to Beijng:
The Trans-Mongolia Express (1)

Tuesday, 6th of october 1987 - In the night at 23.58 the Trans Mongolia Express leaves from the Yaroslav railway station in the north of Moscow for the long journey to Beijing. The next monday, nearly a week later, we will arrive there late in the afternoon. (Click here for the train time table). The Trans Mongolia Express is a variant of the Trans Siberia Express. The last runs mainly along the same lines to the east coast of the former Soviet Union, to Wladiwostok. The Trans Mongolia Express goes to Beijing, just like the Trans Mandzjuria Express, but the latter goes past Mongolia and then turns south to China (I took it the other way round in 1992 - see My second journey on the Trans-Siberia Express - Trans-Mandzurija Express from Beijing to Moscow). Our train, the Trans Mongolia Express will turn south at lake Baikal to take us through Mongolia to Beijing.

The compartment where we find ourselves (see photo's) seems to be reserved especially for people from the west. On the way we hardly ever get in touch with Russians.( Later in 1992, when I make the trip in the reverse direction this will have changed completely). Even at dinnertimes in the dining-car a seperation seems to have take place. The attendant of our carriage is Chinese. He, amongst other things, keeps the big samovar (hotwaterkettle) filled so we can make tea, instant coffee or Cup-a-soup any moment we want. The porcelain cups with lids are already there.
The openinghours of the dinig-car are adjusted to the timezone we travel through. Together with the stops at the railway stations the time spent in the dinig car makes for a little change in the daily life in the train. The menu looks reasonably good but most of what's on it is not available (and availabiltlity decreases rapidly along the line). Concerning the provisions we were warned (by the Lonely Planet Travel Survivalkit) not to trust on the dining-car too much. But we went food shopping at home and are well provided for, I myself drag a big shopping bag along ever since we left Groningen, filled with food stuffs, amongst which a delicious and very popular chocolate cake made by my sister. But, though not much use for food, the dining-car is quite a diversion. At the end of a meal the account is made up at an acabus!

For bathroom facilities we are totally dependent on the train-lavatories (basically the same as in any European Intercity train) one at each side of a compartment. To my satisfaction I even succeed to wash my hair, mixing hot water from the samovar brought along in a flask with the cold water from tap of the tiny wash-basin.

Along the track we stop once in a while, about every four hours - day and night - at railway stations. Except for the border-stations it is never for more then a few minutes. Our travelcompanions from Rotterdam disappear from view at once with their video-camera. The girls from Amsterdam join some Danes and Germans in gymnastical exercises to compensate for the lack of movement in the train. Nobody ventures far from the train, we don't want to risk to miss the starting signal and be left in a place like Ilanskaya, Dozorne or Balabinsk for a week!

In Siberia

The view is boring and fascinating at the same time. The first few days we see lots of mud en endless birchtree woods with every now and then - flash - a small wooden village. The little Russian I learned at home is of no use, apart from having no Russians to speak to, the railway stations fly past too fast to even decipher their names in the cyrillic alphabet. The third day, thursday, the view changes little by little: mud, birch trees and wooden villages are covered by a growing layer of snow. Friday and saturday the train takes us through a snow-white Siberia......
(Click on "The Trans Mongolia Train Experience" - renewed !- have a virtual experience of the passing of time and distance and the gradually changing landscape)