On the Train

Sunday, July 27,  2003

From Skovoradina in far east Russia, it was necessary to take a train past a small section of no road onto Ulan Ude. After our usual Russian language bumbling we managed to locate the train depot where the train was leaving the same day and unfortunately was already full, which meant another night in a comfortable hotel which was very much to all our liking considering we were as usual . . .Exhausted.

That night Matt had his tank bags stolen off his bike, unluckily for the thief they were just filled will very smelly clothes but kids will take care of anything.

The next day we headed down again to the train yard and had to wait a good 6 hours before the train showed up and we were allowed to board.

In typical Russian fashion only after we had boarded did the 'owner' of the carriage tell us the price which turned out to be 3 times what we had been quoted the day before. However with the help of a German speaking Russian missionary we were able to get this down to an acceptable price.

After tying our bikes to the inside of the carriage we settled down to a long and sleepless night with me sleeping right beside my bike fervently hoping that the bonds I had placed on the bike would not break. Luckily for me they did not, as I am sure that would be a rude awakening.

The next day we after a delightful journey we arrived in a small town which was clearly not Ulan Ude. Undisturbed by our protests we were escorted of the train along with the rest of the passengers and left to our own devices.

After figuring out we were still over 1000km from Ulan Ude we quickly jumped on our bikes and headed of into some murky rain clouds and what we assumed was the right direction.

Luckily for us it was and we made it to a small city called chita that night where we settled down comfortably in what was for us an expensive hotel - about $60 USD a night for the 3 of us.

The next morning it was still drizzling but with the help of the much better quality roads we were able to cover the extra distance before the end of the day to the comparatively large metropolis of Ulan Ude besides lake Baikal to spend the next 2 days preparing for the left turn down to Mongolia.
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