The New Nomads (Trans-Siberian Railway 2011)

It is well known that historically Mongols were nomads riding their horses miles away looking for the best place to live. When we entered the country for the first time, we thought that this tradition was already lost and that most of the three millions inhabitants had a sedentary lifestyle. It took few hours to change our minds, just the time needed to get to know our first Mongol fellow passenger…

Mongolian Horse Rider in the Gorkhi-Terelj National Park of Mongolia

We were in a rush when we took the last train of the day from Ulan Ude (Russia) towards Ulan Bator (Mongolia). We felt relaxed once we got in, at least until we found out who our fellow passenger was. A big Mongol trader was working hard to put all goods properly inside our train cabin. When we showed him our tickets, he was so "kind" of letting us a half-square-meter area where our luggage, Jimmy and me should fit in.

After a couple of hours listening to the packing noise of the trader, I managed to take a small nap, until he woke me up to order me to leave my bed… he needed that space to fit all his belongings… In a desperate attempt to forget this episode,  I decided to have a walk along the corridor of the train and I found out that all passengers in the train were traders doing the same thing. They were hiding thousands of parts in order to avoid customs check in the border.

The dish that the "New Nomad" recommended me.
"Buzz", a Mongolian steamed dumpling filled with
minced mutton, or beef meat.

Suddenly, we stopped in the border for passport and customs check. This stop took around four hours so I took advantage of it to get off and have a proper meal in a restaurant. Once I got into a bar, I was so shocked when I found our noisy and rude cabin mate having lunch with many other people. He came to me and helped me to chose the best meal, and then invited me to sit down with all his friends. He started to talk to me, explaining many things, and in few minutes I felt the "Stockholm Syndrome", where you become sympathetic to your captor.

He told me that he was doing the route Ulan Bator-Moscow-Ulan Bator twice a month, what means twenty days travelling on a train in a month. He was buying parts in Russia and selling them in Mongolia and vice versa. At that moment I realized, that while I was doing this train trip for pleasure, some people were working hard in order to get money to feed their family. Then I understood how tough their situation was and I stopped getting upset for the inconveniences.

It is a fact that traditional horse-riding nomads are fewer nowadays, but there are new ones that have changed the horses for steel carriages.

Iñaki

An Endless Journey (Trans-Siberian Railway 2011)

There are thousands of reasons to consider the Lake Baikal one of the highlights of the Trans-Siberian trip: its incomparable landscape, the untouched nature or the vast variety of flora and fauna along its shores among others. Definitely if you decide to go on this adventure the deepest fresh water reserve in the world is an obligatory stop. 

After having a tour around the Lake Baikal on the Circum-Baikal train, we decided to spend the coming couple of nights in Olkhon, the third-largest the third largest lake-bound island in the world.

We started the next day early in the morning, and once we arrived to the bus station, a long queue was waiting to get on the bus. Suddenly, a “nice” driver was shouting at us to leave our backpack in the luggage compartment. Once we sat down inside the crappy-old-dirty bus, while half of the passengers where smoking, Jimmy asked me about where my book and music player were. Obviously, I asked him to relax; man why should we take something for an hour trip? Just relax. His sarcastic smile was the start of one of the worst trip I have ever had.

When we asked to the driver about the arrival time, his answer was so meaningful: you know when you depart but never when you arrive… I looked back and many people were sitting down in the corridor, and the bus was overloaded with luggage.  The road was similar to a rally race one and the mix of powder in the air and high temperature inside was as pleasant as a sauna in the middle of the desert. When after a couple of hours I succeeded to close my eyes, my sweet dream was suddenly spoiled by a strong noise and shouts. We were already in road verge with a burst tyre. Everybody seemed to be used to this situation, as if it was the daily routine, so we took advantage of this time to grab some food and drinks.

Once the driver changed the tyre and had a proper meal, we continued with the journey. After stopping several times, for essential reasons such as passenger physiological needs or asking to walkers whether they need something, a suspicious yellow liquid started flow toward us… when we realized that fortunately it was tea, we felt even comfortable in the powder, heat, shaking road, smoke, stops and noise… After all, we realized that always everything can get worse.

Conditions in Siberia and surroundings are precarious. Roads are in bad conditions, coaches are extremely overloaded and maintenance does not exist. However once we arrived at our destination, the beautiful landscape had a balsamic effect in our apathetic mood. Definitely Olkhon worth thousand of such trips.

Iñaki

Moscow the City of Contrasts (Trans-Siberian Railway 2011)

Once I got home after this trip, some friends asked me to describe in few words each of the places we have visited. It did not take too long for me to give an answer to that request for Moscow: the city of contrasts…

On the train from St. Petersburg to Moscow, I was wondering about how Moscow would look like. According to what I learned, read and heard, I expected to be a city full of traces from the former system, where equality in all spheres of life was an irrefutable statement. Nothing is further from the truth! 

We got shocked with the big differences there are in Moscow. As an example, it is quite common to see a car that only few people in the world can afford parked close to an old Lada car from Soviet times. According to a survey from Forbes magazine 25 of the richest people in the world are living in the city. This can be extended to the whole country, where Russia is the 3rd country in number of billonaires. It seems to be an extremely unfair situation,  when Russia is ranked in the 53th position in terms of standard of living. I wonder why some people are buying foreign football teams instead of investing money in their own country… I wonder also why people in the east do not have electricity or water while some people are wasting their money in the city showing off...

But Moscow is not only a city of contrasts when it comes to money, but also in terms of construction. Some of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen in my life are located in this city. However, it is not a surprise to find an extreme ugly soviet building close to those amazing constructions. It is difficult to understand how these kind of atrocity were allowed by former leaders.

Dozens of such examples could be mentioned to show the big and unfair differences in this country and specially in this city. Sad to see how none of the former ideas are valid anymore in the country where a system based on equality was established.

The Trinity (Troitskaya) Tower, entrance to the Moscow Kremlin. 

Inside the Moscow Kremlin - The State Kremlin Palace

Saint Basil's Cathedral - Red Square

Christ the Saviour Cathedral

Red Square at Night

Soviet Union Flag

Statue of Soviet Soldiers in a metro station

Ostankino Tower - 4th tallest tower in the world

Russian Friends in Moscow

Soviet Buildings in New Arbat Avenue 

Soviet Buildings in New Arbat Avenue

Soviet Buildings in New Arbat Avenue

Iñaki

A Youth Looking to the Future (Trans-Siberian Railway 2011)

Our first contact with Russia was definitely a shock. We felt like when you enter the house of someone who does not want to host you. After struggling with russian customs lady to get a latin alphabet form, we went into a old bus where everybody seemed to be sad looking down. The weather was cold and rainy, definitely not a good start!

As every rule has an exception, Sasha, our friendly host in St. Petersburg, had an endless smile to receive us. Kindly he explained us that we should not take the first impression of russian people as the real one. Our trip through Russia helped us to confirm what Sasha told us. We met great people, happy and positive, but we realized that some time is needed for them to be open to new people.

Probably the reason for the Russian cold behaviour is the recent history, since Russians have gone through so much. Actually, one of the main reasons for going into this travel was to hear from local people why the former system, an ideal one in theory, collapsed. We got so many interesting answers to that question: some thought that everything was based on a big lie, others believe that the bad leadership performed at the end made everything to crash and some other thought that  everything has a begining and end.

The funny thing of all this, is that the answer to the question turned to be another question itself: why to worry about it? Young people, does not really care about the mistakes or smart moves of former leaders. They don't mind to go to a McDonalds to have a meal or to live in a global world based on Capitalism. They just want to live a new era, happy and with a more democratic government. That's  why we felt that Russian Youth is looking to the future.

Sasha and Jimmy in front of the Church of Saints Isidor and Nicholas (St. Petersburg)

Griboedova Canal (St. Petersburg)

St. Isaac's Cathedral (St. Petersburg)

Palace Square and Alexander Column (St. Petersburg)

Portico with Atlantes, Historical Entrance (St. Petersburg)

Winter Canal (St. Petersburg)

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood (St. Petersburg)

Church of Saints Isidor and Nicholas (St. Petersburg)

Jimmy, Ainur and friends in her farewell party (St. Petersburg)

Iñaki

From Europe to Asia on a Train (Trans-Siberian Railway 2011)

When some months ago my fellow traveler Jimmy and me decided to go on the Trans-Siberian Railway adventure, we could not expect at all, what we have seen, learned and experienced. Although our first idea was to write down in a blog everything happening during the trip, it turned to be difficult to find some time to sit in front of the computer. Since we had many requests to write about our trip, we decided to do it afterwards and we will try our best to transmit in a proper way all our thoughts and experiences.

A great amount of blogs about this trip are surfing the net, and far away from the conceited idea of creating an innovative blog, we will try to add something different. Most of the related blogs give so much information about the journey or describe what might be visited. We think there is nothing to add in that sense, but what we will try is to express what we have felt and learned from the people and cultures we have met rather than describing every single day of our trip. Of course we are aware of the fact that many people are planning to go into this experience in the future, and their main interest might be the information of the places we have visited. Therefore, we will try to keep a proper balance between the itinerary information and thoughts.

Finally, we believe that a blog is nonsense without feedback from readers. Therefore, we would like to encourage you to express what your feelings are towards what we write, regardless of being positive or negative criticism.

Iñaki