CATTLE CLASS
JOURNAL ENTRY NO. 5
Moscow to Novosibirsk on the Trans Siberian
17th - 19th JUNE 2007
Back home the Trans Siberian is elevated to “Extremely Wonderful” travel status and is made out to be a special service for travellers, where in reality it is a regular train service having a few trains aimed and setup for travellers. It basically runs from the west of Russia, and now further west into Europe, through to the east of Russia and south through a few other countries, namely Mongolia and China amongst others. It is like taking the train from Perth to Melbourne and then Brisbane to Cairns. It is also EXTREMELY over-priced!......through a travel agent $1800 - $3000 Australian dollars and roughly $1000 - $1500 Aussie dollars for our trip – Moscow to Novosibirsk. Our research showed we could buy the same tickets in Moscow for a lot less! A LOT LESS!!!! Approximately one tenth of the price!!!! Which we did of course. We saved ourselves $1300 each. EAT THAT travel agents!
Needless to say for $150 we had a four share open cabin on a public train with no baggage compartments for the bikes.... crap! Oh well, at least the price was awesome. So after our pre-organised driver helped us to carry our gear (in the cardboard boxes in the pissing rain), weigh it, negotiate baggage tickets (with Dylan on the mobile phone organising, and Cavey being security), bribe (perhaps) train attendants and saying goodbye, we sat down drenched, ready to enjoy the Trans Siberian train trip to Novosibirsk. That lasted all about two minutes before the train attendant came and sternly told us to move our boxes from the end of the carriage to the tiny baggage shelf above our beds. Give us a chance to relax will ya? So with the help of four local people at our end of the carriage and lots of laughter, we dragged carried and lifted our rigs into position above our beds...... now we can relax for real...... we are on our way to Novosibirsk and the commencement of Ride To Everest. WhooHoo!!!!
Hoping to be blown away by the amazing scenery that lay ahead, we keep our eyes peeled, but the scenery never shows. As the 3 days progress we realised that this part of the T.S. is the most boring. After the first day or so we came to the conclusion that eating salami, cheese, bread, chips, coffee, beer, chocolate, sleeping and gazing at grass, trees and swamp going by is about as exciting as eating sawdust from a cardboard box with tweezers! Man are we glad we didn't pay two grand for this section!!!! Apparently the second section is like watching a cockroach race in Mungindie, Queensland!!!! Better at least.
So here we were, it seemed the only westerners, crammed in this sardine can with the real people and not in a train filled with tourists insulated from true Russian public transport culture. Sweet!...... exactly what we were up for! Our accommodation...... an open ended cabin, shared with two friendly Russians, comprised of half a table and four undersized bunks complete with ultra thin mattresses. The type of setup that would leave a five year old feeling claustrophobic and cramped in pain. The bathroom/ toilet was definitely a stand out piece of luxury engineering, featuring a full stainless finish, a miniature sink with flowing water (sometimes) and a toilet with a through view to the tracks as excrement made its exit! Needless to say, our previous high levels of personal hygiene dropped off dramatically! Loved it!