Friday 30 September. Eastern Siberia

Bit of a rough night again, I reckon it might be because I am on the top bunk, so subject to a greater "sway" factor. Anyway the day dawned bright and sunny as we arrived in Krasnoyarsk quite a large industrial city. The suburbs as I guess they can be called are small townships of, in the main, smart wooden houses many with barn style steep snow roofs, and all with about 1 acre gardens, cultivated and now bare waiting for the winter.

The townships look quite attractive being set in birch woodland. I never would have guessed there were so many birch trees on this earth, let alone Russia!

It is now 10 to 1 local time, 8.52 Moscow time, which is the time the railway operates on. I assume you get used to going into a station and seeing the station clock set at the time 3000 kms away to the West.
Our carriage attendant has just offered us the first beer of the day! We tried to explain we hadn't had lunch yet!! He is keen to sell, I assume it supplements his wages.

He charges 100 roubles for a beer, the restaurant car is 80, but he reckons his Chinese beer is in bigger bottles, and better than the Russian?

This part of the line is supposedly the most trafficked in the world. The marshalling yards at each major town are enormous, and what I assume are ore or coal wagons, some oil tankers, and increasingly timber which form seemingly endless trains, the like of which I have only seen in outback Australia. They seem to pass us every few minutes. One yesterday with 4 enormous locos, took 5 minutes to pass, and we were both moving (in opposite directions).

Dinner in the diner again. Red wine tonight because the dining car operator had been shopping along the line. Apart from the ladies with trolleys and baskets there are also kiosks with wine, beer, vodka etc.

The shopping trip

The alternative

So what fine vintage did we enjoy? Well it was Russian and Merryn reckoned it reminded her of something she used to drink as a child?! Blackcurrent flavour I presume! And why is red wine served straight from the fridge?

I have to say that while not exactly gourmet, what we had was at least more than edible, although not entirely sure what it was. Getting tired of two minute noodles.

We weren't the only diners who were a little confused!

What you mustn't do is drink the water on the train, only boiled or bottled. The train water is pumped into the tanks from underground tanks at each stop. So no salad. Some of the diners who chose the "healthy option" meals seemed to be spending a lot of time going to the end of the carriage!

So our third day on the train ended.