Entertaining guests

Scenery en route

We woke around 0830 to a little country mountain town.  There was more evergreen conifers her in between the white bald trees.  We didn’t quite repeat last night’s dinner and supper for breakfast, but it was closed.  We substituted ham for lime-flavoured canned tuna.

As we approached Krasnoyarsk, we had a green burst from normally bald trees.  By early afternoon, we were back to bald trees.  I guess at this time of year, there could be bits which were warm enough to generate spring growth, either from altitude or simply random weather patterns.

At our stop in Krasnoyarsk, Kim ran into Liz.  They’re in third class; oh the humanity!  While we found many people working in hotels, cafes and restaurants to be cold and rude (perhaps of that Soviet official job mentality), vendors on train platforms were often cheerful and friendly.  Likewise with those at the markets.

Entertaining guests

Liz and Sarah joined us around 1400 (Irkutsk time) in our cabin.  We also invited a couple of Japanese boys in second class that we had met on the platform.  They turned up a little later.

We had decided on first class for this longest leg of the journey, lasting about two days.  It proved perfect as we had room to entertain guests!  We played cards, chatted, nibbled peanuts and dried squid till around 2030.  The day went very fast!

When Liz retired back to third class, Sarah came back for more.  We managed to send her to the Japanese boys’ cabin shared with a Russian fighter plane crew and a maintenance engineer.  She talks non-stop to them in English as if the Russians understand her!  It’s the alcohol talking.

We prepared ourselves for bed after a ramen.  But when we stopped at Novosibirsk it was just too tempting to not hop out for an ice-cream.  Novosobirsk seemed to be a nice city with a very good feel and a wide river.

Whalers

We asked the boys what they did for work.  They said they’re fishermen in Antarctica.  Gesturing like holding motorbike handles, they said “boom”.  Oh, they’re whalers on icebreaker ships!  We decided not to ruin the day by showing by showing our disapproval.  Their ship breaks ice up to 2m.  Beyond that, they reverse 400m and ram into it!

They are at sea for five months at a stretch and return to Japan for two days off.  Then back to sea.  They have a total of two weeks off per year but this year they’re squeezing a Trans-Siberian into their time off!

With only two weeks off per year, they only get to use their cellphones or their cars only two weeks!  So, one could be up for replacing it due to obsolescence after only a few months use!  Bloody hell!  One of them has a Harley Davidson and the other another make of some sporty bike; both don’t get used very much.

Train-ing observations

Railway crossings are much safer than in New Zealand.  In Russia, in addition to the barrier arm that comes down, a plate pops-up on the road so vehicles can’t easily choose to barge through the barrier arm.

Also, this appears to be the Russian flagship train.  It got vacuumed twice today.