THE TRANS SIBERIAN EXPRESS (PART 5) IRKUTSK RUSSIA

We settled into our compartments on the Trans Siberian Express and soon found that there was little difference between this train and our last one. We had a 400 kilometer trip to the Mongolian – Russian border so we sat back and took in the view.

 

Our arrival at the border was accompanied with the banging of compartment doors and a lot of shouting. We were told to stay in the compartment and not move outside until our passports had been inspected. There were a number of Mongolian passengers in our carriage and they scurried from one compartment to the next with large bundles. They would enter a compartment with a bundle and exit empty handed, something which appeared a little odd.

A fellow passenger and a seasoned traveler on the Trans Siberian said that the bundles contained contraband that Mongolian’s smuggled over the border and sold in Russia. He said that this was a common occurrence and that usually they just paid bribes to the border police.



A Mongolian man tried to enter our compartment with his bundle but I turned him away as I couldn’t take risk of getting caught with contraband. The man just shrugged and moved on.

Soon gruff looking Russian border police entered the carriage checking passports. They entered our compartment and in a curt manner demanded passports. Whilst one checked passports another gave the compartment a casual search. Our passports were stamped and without so much as a “welcome to Russia,” or a smile they were on there way. Even though this was now Russia and not the Soviet Union of old there was still a little apprehension about crossing the border into Russia.


The rail gauge changed again in Russia so the bogies on the train had to be changed. The train sidled up to a bare platform and everyone had to get off the train. When we asked how long it would be we were answered with a shrug of the shoulders.

The platform was barren except for one lone shop and several drunks, a sight which we were to become accustomed to. We found a local market at the back of the station and wandered there to take a look. The pathways were muddy and everything was unkempt, even the local dogs. The people in the market paid little heed to us as no doubt they saw tourists from the train wander through and take photos.



Nothing happened for four hours and we just sat around the platform with the other passengers…….waiting.


Finally we heard the tooting of the train whistle and the clanking of carriages as they shunted towards the platform. Gratefully we boarded the train for 900 kilometer journey to Irkutsk a city of 590,000 people located 5,000 kilometers from Moscow.

 We alighted from the train in the late afternoon and our guide was there to meet us to take us to a local hotel in the heart of the city. By Russian standards the check in went smoothly as it only took a little over an hour.

 

Our hotel rooms were clean but Spartan with few of the trappings we were used to in western hotels. As a group we later went for a walk around the city to take in some of the sites such as the Russian Orthodox Kazansky Church where we watched an evening service. Later we stopped by the Angara River and people watched for a while. Whilst there we watched a group of high school children as they carried out a daily ritual whereby they march in ranks to place wreaths on a memorial to those who served in the Second World War.


Later in the evening we had a wonderful meal in a boisterous restaurant where the main aim appeared to be to drink as much as you can rather than eat as much as you can. By the time we left later in the night many of the patrons were passed out on or under the tables.



We had an early start the next day as we would be travelling by bus to Listvyanka which is some 70 kilometers from Irkutsk.