It's been a while... in my absence from this blog I've been on a train from Moscow to Irkutsk for 4 days non-stop... 3 days by lake baikal... and 2 more days getting to Mongolia and now sit in the renoun 'Internet Centre' in Ulaanbattar near the capital's circus!
There is so much to catch up on and so little time, I need to jog off in 20 minutes to meet our guide in this city... so I'll start from the top and see where we get:
The four days non-stop on the train have actually proven a highlight rather then a drag... maybe this suggests I havn't had much fun in the cities but I have... on the train me, Kate and Anna (the two other people on my tour... there was also Joe and David but they are now back in Bristol and Melbourne respectivley) befriended some locals... from what I could gather they were train drivers from somewhere like Saratov returning from some kind of work in Moscow... ... I neglected to learn their real names but we began to know them each by their own little tag-name... there was: Robert Di Nero (wait till I put his picture up on the blog... he was the spitting image), Gold-teeth-not-Robert-Di-Nero (for both he and Robert had Gold-teeth), Two-wives, Anna's boyfriend, Marina (not the most imaginative nick-name, being her real name and all), Stripy-top... and well, those are all I can remember at this second! I was alone in a cabin with Robert, two-wives and Marina to start with and they seemed to enjoy the fact that I was English and could speak a little with them... I was in a separate cabin from Anna and Kate who shared one with a couple and their 6-week old baby for the first day and a half... The clock struck noon Moscow time (all trains go by Moscow time even though Russia has 5 time zones) out came the beer... My tea was swiftly decanted and a mug full of 'Bagbeer' was poured from a 2.5L plastic bottle (I was later informed that this is the crappest of all the beers)... with the suggestion of drinking comes the Russian words "Budesh Peet" (will you drink) and many Russians flicking their neck with their index finger (apparently, a well known Russian sign for 'let's get pissed')... Then in came Anna and Kate and the festivities continued... a cabin made for 4 had 8 people inside and 2 or 3 hanging around outside (I know I haven't given that many names but trust me, it was that full!)... the Russians got slowly drunk as they day drew on... we survived and stayed the good side of jolly through stringent beer-managment and vodka avoidance... ... they really do love the vodka here... for a normal relaxed lunch of a pot noodle (the only way of cooking on the train was hot water... and any food that needed refridgerating would go off rapidly as the powerful heating bought the train temperature up to about 30 celcius)... with a pot noodle Robert di Nero had half a coffe mug of vodka and drunk it like water... even in the buffet carrage a man was eating alone while doing shots of vodka! ... anyway, the Russians got gradually more and more drunk... two-wives even treated us to a lovely bit of air-balalika, I had to use my good manners and fear from the experiences in St.Petersburg to stop from LOLing...
... ... ... sorry, I was on a roll there but I've got to run now... I know that seemed a rather lengthy summary of a single day on the train but don't worry, I'll try not to drag on when I pick-up later... ... I desperatly need to catch up or I'm gonna run out of memory to keep everything!
Anyway, keep well all... I'm off to the freezing streets of Ulaanbattar:)
Matt
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