Travel Diary: A trip along the Trans-Siberian Railroad

by Sherry Thomas

LW contributor

At least 10 times. That is how many times I saw the movie “Dr. Zhivago.” I was so impressed with his country. I was especially impressed with the Siberian winter. So when I decided to take the Trans-Siberian Railroad trip it had to be in the winter or late fall. In 2017, I found a trip with Lupine. It was 21 days and had stops in Mongolia, Irkutsk, and Moscow, ending in St. Petersburg. The cost was $1,200.

We started in Beijing. We went north through Mongolia. I went with three Australian friends. We all upgraded for our stays off the train. My friend, Sharon, and I decided to not upgrade on the train. We thought it would be fun to meet Russians, and share our cabin. We did meet Russians. We did meet Russians at all hours of the day and night because the train had many stops along the way. The dining car had a very extensive menu, probably 10 pages. But when you try to order most answers were “Nyet.” We had read about this. Once we started tipping heavily many items on the menu became available.

So we now had way more “Da’s.” The sleeping quarters were quite nice—four beds, dorm style, with soft down duvets. The attendants come around selling trinkets, and at first I didn’t buy anything. But we found out that once we purchased a few postcards or refrigerator magnets, our hot water supply now came with tea, coffee and biscuits. The military got on the train from time to time for passport checks. They were a little over the top about checking our passports—“one more time”—but mostly professional.

The local army was another matter. They were mostly drunk and made a few scenes in the dining car. They were mostly controlled by the Babushka. She literally would grab them by the ear and put their head on the table.

We spent three days in Mongolia and absolutely loved the culture and the people . We had a homestay in a yurt. The son of the couple hosting us was getting ready to be in the army and go patrol the Chinese border. They try and stop the Chinese who come over and take their livestock. Army service is compulsory and I think the young man was excited; his parents, not so much. We left Mongolia and headed into Siberia.

We spent two nights at Lake Baikal in a very cozy home run by a woman named Olga. If you could find a mother who you just wanted to return to, it would be Olga. She just made sure we had wonderful meals and constantly served us tea. We did see a former gulag. The whole island actually feels a little bit haunted. We then went to Irkutsk for a couple of nights. Our host was very generous and we took several walking tours of the city. We had to go to the train station at two in the morning and our host took us there. He said he would stay with us but we said we were fine for the short wait. The train was very late and no buildings were open. I decided one way to make sure we didn’t freeze was to play and perform YMCA using my phone. At first my friends were perhaps a little hesitant but within a few minutes all of us, including the Russians, were singing “YMCA.” It is a universal song. Moscow is a very modern and wealthy city.

We also happened to be there for the 100 year celebration of the 1917 revolution. All the museums we went to had exhibits around the revolution. Whenever possible, I take a walking tour of the city I am in. Moscow had several choices but we went with an artist who had tours in English, twice a day.

We got to ask people what they though of the government and Putin in particular. It is almost universal that the younger people don’t particularly like the current government but their parents are fans. This seemed to be the case in most former Soviet countries.

The older people had ties with Russia, schools and language, but the younger mostly want something different for the country. Our final stop was St. Petersburg, a beautiful city.