It is no secret that most people think that the Trans-Mongolian route is the most beautiful train route from Russia to China, although the Trans-Siberian (Moscow to Vladivostok), Trans-Manchurian (Moscow to Beijing through Russia and China) are older more established routes. But it is the Trans-Mongolian that gives you the most variety in culture, experiences and scenery. It was this variety that appealed to me, that filled me with the inspiration of wanderlust to strike out and follow in the footsteps of the great European travellers whose only choice was to take the long road overland. So after an out-of-the-way excursion to St Petersburg, I picked up the trail towards the Trans-Mongolian line that would eventually take me through Siberia (including Yekaterinburg and Irkutsk), and crossing the border of Mongolia into Ulaan Baator, through the Gobi Desert and coming to rest in Beijing two countries later. For now I need to catch you up with our journey through Russia.

Yekaterinburg

The next stop on the line for us was Yekaterinburg, and the first real taste of how cold a Russian winter really could be. In Moscow and St Petersburg I had seen plenty of compacted snow and ice; usually a couple of inches thick on pavements and drainpipes. But now, on a train steadily and remorselessly trudging its way through the Russian countryside, the waves of snow were piling 20 to 30 feet high alongside the tracks in big drifts penned in by the evergreen trees. Occasionally the trees would disappear and a wide-open vista would flash into view with odd ramshackle buildings and single story huts fighting to stand against the onslaught of winter.

 

This section of the train journey between St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg was to be around 38 hours stopping at some really rural stations, sometimes for a few minutes sometimes a couple of hours. One thing for certain was the further east we went, the colder the station thermometers got. The images of white snow outside, and knowing the temperature was dropping below -20C and then -30C you would think it would be freezing on the train. Far from it, it was absolutely surreal; being sat on a train full of hardy Russians whilst I was wearing a vest, shorts and flip-flops watching the temperature hit -40C outside. It seems to be a Russian point of pride that the trains are kept sweltering hot in winter and freezing cold in summer, the exact opposite of the world outside!

Although if you step into the end compartments by the doors, it’s like a scene from any apocalyptic Hollywood film, with thick ice that you can physically see creeping up the walls and doors.

There seemed to be a never ending battle against the elements, every station we stop at has an army of workers who come out jogging across the snow with 6 foot long metals bars. They use these to start attacking the under carriage, to break off the ice formations so the train is able to continue. Even inside we see the same. Every hour, like clockwork, the Provodnitsa took what looked like a hot water bottle and rubber pipe down to the other end of the carriage. Eventually the Russian man across from me, who I had been having a conversation with (well, we exchanged messages over Google translate), leaned across and said in a thick Russian accent ‘Hot water, toilet frozen.’ Imagine that folks, trying to use a toilet that is so cold it has frozen solid!

I may be laboring the point, but I just want you to know it was cold, even for me!