Current mood:reminiscent
Pre-note (I love coming up with my own terms).
Sorry everyone for making you wait forEVER for this next entry. So, uh, YA. Here it is.
Recap of whole journey (for a little clarification)
Trans-Mongolian RR: Beijing to Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) 24hrs
*spent one week in Beijing and one week in Mongolia
Trans-Siberian Pt. 1: Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk (Lake Baikal) 42 hrs
*spent 3 days on Olkon Island in Lake Baikal
Trans-Siberian Pt. 2: Irkutsk to Moscow, 4 days, NON STOP
*spent 2 days in Moscow (then ran screaming).
**I have already gone over the Trans-Mongolian RR so it is time to continue on with the Trans-Siberian Pt. 1!!! So without further ado, here she is!
How I came to travel with Marky-Mark and Mike
Oh were to start. How about back in UB (Ulaanbaatar)? So in the last few days I was in UB, right after I had gotten back from my Gobi excursion with the half-breed, which was not QUITE as I had expected it would be (the Gobi was AWESOME, but my travel companion not-so-much) I just happened to be wandering around a grocery store there and ran into two Japanese girls that had been staying in my hostel the few days before I left for the Gobi, AND 2 guys, American guys, they were hanging out with. The first guy I saw, Marky-Mark (obviously a nickname) was pretty nice looking, tall, dark, kinda goofy looking, but the second guy, Mike, as soon as our eyes met, my heart literally SKIPPED a beat or TWO because he was/is the SPITTING IMAGE of TJ, a really close friend of mine, who, quite honestly I have liked for quite some time (I mean YEARS really). But it wasn't just how he looked, he SPOKE like TJ, had the same gestures, mannerisms and expressions as TJ and if THAT wasn't enough HE SMELLED LIKE HIM TOO AND!!! AND!!!!! ------he was ALSO married. The illusion was complete. (The only difference was that he was not a cowboy, he grew up in the city, and he had blond hair instead of brown). So, in other words, Julia was hooked. And, as it just so happened we had quite a bit in common too. They had both just finished a year in Japan, teaching English (and were taking the long way home) AND we pretty much had the same travel plans. What can I say? It was fate. So, we teamed up. And Julia was quite happy.
The Smugglers
Until she had the realization that they were just like any other mortal, hot-blooded, American guys that came with the abrupt and unwelcomed coming of the Smugglers. They were two women. Two OLD, like 40-something, women who were not even attractive. They burst into our tiny 4-bunk compartment early in the morning as the train was waiting to be cleared for customs between the Mongolian and Russian borders and frantically started shoving bags EVERYWHERE. They took the table cloth off of our table and DUCT TAPED stuff UNDER the table, the lady even had the audacity to shove bags behind where WE were SITTING and then to also mix up some stuff of hers in our bags, etc. UNBELIEVABLE! I was personally outraged. When they first burst into the compartment I was like "WHOA, HOLD IT! What the BLEEP do you think you're doing?!!!!" Apparently she had the ticket for the 4th bunk in our compartment, so there was really nothing we could do about all the stuff she was stashing away. In between when she and the other lady made "deposits" in our compartment, we kept moving her stuff so that it was all together on her top bunk, and NOT behind us or on our bunks. I was so furious at her because there was no way in hell that I was going to end up in a Russian prison for someone else's smuggled goods. The last straw came with this random man came into our room and tried to stuff a pair of jeans in our compartment. (The whole time the two guys were just kinda sitting back, watching it all happen, commenting, but not really doing anything). I let loose on that guy. I started yelling at him, shoved him out the door and slammed it. Who on earth knows WHAT was actually wrapped up IN those jeans. I sure as hell did NOT want to know.
So then the customs border police get on the train. The woman comes back to our car and sits on the bunks with us waiting. And do you know what my two MALE American counterparts DID?
Anywho. I'm done ranting. My apologies to all the men out there reading this now. But, HONESTLY. Come on. How many of YOU would have acted EXACTLY the same way???? SERIOUSLY?! My last comment to that subject: GERRRR.
Conclusion of THE SMUGGLERS
After the border police had cleared the train for entrance into Russia (they miraculously had only taken away one bag from the lady in our car) Marky-Mark and I got off to go find the bathrooms in the station and on our way back to the train saw the two women setting up all the goods they had smuggled in our compartment (and others I'm sure) in a small little market area right next to the train station. Cheeky little b*&$@s.
57 Grumpy Russians
Well. I think I am going to skip my 3 days on Lake Baikal and save that for another entry because this one is getting pretty long. SO! Onto the 57 Grumpy Russians.
I guess there is not too much to say about this really. When Mike, Marky-Mark and I were buying our tickets for the LONGEST part of our journey, the 4 day trek across the ACTUAL Siberian plain we didn't speak any Russian and had no idea what kind of tickets we were getting... Before we had spent the previous two 24/42hr journeys in our own private little 4 bunk compartments and just kinda figured we'd get the same on the last stretch. Well. We were quite wrong. Since we could not communicate with the lady at the ticket counter, it came down the point where she just showed us two prices: one was for 4,--- rubles and the other was for 2,---rubles. We chose the lowest, the 2,--- ruble tickets. I guess we should have figured they were the 2/3rd class tickets. Didn't really realize it until we hopped on board to find ourselves surrounded by 57 OLD grumpy Russians and no walls or doors at all to separate or close-off the bunks. So in normal train cars, it is separated out into compartments with 4 bunks/2 seats. Imagine the same thing, except without any doors or walls and then having the hallway also lined with 2 bunks for every section. That's what we were in. For 4 days non-stop. Funny thing is, when we went and checked out the other cars, they were filled with much younger, happier, social people. Our car just happened to be where all the old, tired, grumpy people were.
Anyway, you're all probably thinking to yourselves (like we did) "What the HELL do you do on a train for FOUR DAYS?!" Am I right? Well, actually, it really wasn't that bad. We read, played cards, wrote in our journals, tried desperately to avoid the very loud, insistent old Russian lady who sat directly opposite of us, made ramen with the "Amazing Pasta Cooker" my mom had bought off of some home shopping network (which actually works--it's just this special plastic cylindrical container you put pasta in with boiling water and it cooks it within minutes), and bought really dubious looking food from women who had cooked it in their own homes when the train stopped for 5 minutes here and there, and slept quite a lot.
The only other person that spoke any English on the train, came on the second day, a really nice man named Dennis who was from Kamchutka (that huge peninsula right by Alaska) and was an outdoor guide. Chatted with him quite a bit and taught him how to play good ol' American poker. Oh, and during the last night and day our Marky-Mark had himself a fling with a cute little 17 year old Russian chick.
It was sure one magical journey. (Actually, the "magic" happened back at Lake Baikal, but I'll get into that in my next entry. HA. You'll just have to wait.)
10:50 AM
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