Last night was not a good night for sleeping. We crossed the Urals and the train was heaving about, at one point nearly throwing me put of bed. We don't seem to have brakes on this carriage, consequently when the train slows down on a downhill section we slow down by hitting the carriage in front. Can be
quite dramatic! So with going round tight bends and slowing/speeding it was quite a night.
Also stopped at a couple of stations. Quite why public address announcements preceded by a tuneful attention grabber have to be played continually to an empty station at 3 in the morning, with only a train-full of poor souls who only want to sleep, heaven knows!
Dawn came up on Siberia with a golden glow and a huge deep blue sky, the birches looking as though they were on fire.
I saw this stunning dawn only because the condition of the track was such that it threw the train all over the place, like running over the corrugated concrete test tracks vehicle makers use.
We passed the test - just.
This bit of Siberia is so different from the central republics we passed through yesterday. Whereas yesterday the country looked poor, the houses in the villages looked like hovels, rotting black timber, small, dilapidated and situated on muddy potholed tracks . The people did not look happy! Perhaps the grey sky made it appear worse than it was, but I suspect not!
Today the villages although clearly not wealthy show a care about them. The stations are well kept.
We are now 2000+ kms from Moscow, another 4000 to go to Ulaanbataar.
20 minutes in Omsk, while the train was re-coaled (re-bunkered?) from a small tractor pulled trailer. The re-coaling is for the carriage hot water and heating.
On the station 60 roubles for a coke and just 27 roubles for a packet of cigarettes?! Not sure what that says?
Tonight we had dinner in the restaurant car. Full of noisy Swedes. Table set with brandy glasses and a plastic flower in a plastic soft drink bottle. Flags still draped across the ceiling. They look a little like bizarre bikini bottoms!? Had a meat dish with pasta and some salad, washed down with a cheeky little Spanish semi sweet white wine called El Toro. "That is all we have".
The Orient Express this isn't!
Bought a bar of chocolate and a beer to take "home".
We know how to live the high life .....
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