Seventy-six hours on the Trans-Siberian Express.

After so many months of planning – and we could have missed this – the third and final leg of our Trans-Mongolian/Siberian adventure. Left sitting for 28 minutes, double-parked on a busy road by our errant driver, we are really really unhappy with him when he does return. It’s a mad scramble to the station where our train pulls in thirty seconds after our arrival. The joys of travelling.

The Trans-Siberian Express is not a train but rather a route that many trains travel. Depending on where you board can depend on its nomenclature. We embarked in Beijing to travel the route through Mongolia, thus Trans-Mongolian Express. If we had started in Vladivostok, it would have been called the Trans-Siberian. At Irkutsk, the routes intersect thus we can now say we are travelling the Trans-Siberian route. This third leg will see us experiencing 76 straight hours of train travel.

With a routine now established, we settle in quickly once onboard. Strip down to shorts and t-shirts – the trains are very well heated. Makeup bed if it hasn’t already been done. Unpack coffee cups, cutlery and have our pre-purchased food handy. There is a dining car, but we will only use it for meals now and then.

Travel is all about absorbing new facts and recently we have learnt that Russia is two and a half times bigger than Australia. We have also learnt that its forest – known as the Taiga, covers an area greater than the Amazon. We become intimately familiar with this Taiga. Comprising of various species of conifers such as pine, spruce and larch and a huge amount of deciduous birch trees it’s all we view for most of our journey. Covered in snow for the first part, as we lose altitude and conditions change travelling west, the snow lessens.

We are actually travelling backwards in time. Our first night we lose one hour then awaken on the second and thirds nights to find we have lost another two hours each night. In all, we travel backwards through five time zones. It’s a disorientating experience.

Next door are two Kiwis and on the afternoon of day two, international relations between Russia, New-Zealand and Australia are strengthened with a little bit of a session in the trains bar. With no handy Google translate, it’s all about single word questions – “Putin?” and the accompanying gestures – thumbs up or down. “Military?”- points to chest. “Retired?”- mimes sleeping.

The train comes well equipped. Plenty of hot water and a shower if you want it. I take advantage of the shower on day three. It’s a few carriages away and returning to our cabin, snow falls on me as I cross between the carriages.

At the end of each carriage, a samovar (hot water urn) is well guarded by the resident babushka. To support her income, she also sells small food items such as noodles, biscuits or chocolates.

Yesterday day three we crossed the Ural Mountains – being the boundary point between the continents of Asia and Europe means we are now in the latter.

Right now, day four and we are approximately five hours from Moscow. The Taiga has thinned somewhat but it’s still there. After days of observing mainly small to medium-sized townships comprised predominantly of small wooden houses with large yards, now we are seeing a few grey, concrete cities no doubt satellite cities to Moscow. 

The trip has been easy and mostly enjoyable. The lack of variation out of the windows has been surprising. Would I do it again – yes, but now I am looking forward to a nice Moscow hotel room complete with bathroom.

Fun facts. 99% of the houses we have seen so far are made from timber. Russia is the largest country in the world. Russia lost its superpower status with the breakup of the Soviet Union in the mid-nineties.