Train Life - Trans Siberian

When we did (part of) the Trans Siberian train, there are a few thing we had to take into account. Because knowing this made our train life easier, and more fun, so I thought I'd share them.

Train life

Some TransSib basics:

• The lower the train number, the faster the train. The Rossya (Red train) is the number 1 towards Vladivostok and the number 2 goes towards Moscow. This is the fastest train. It takes 7 days for the entire trip. Most of the route is single track, this means you might wait for 10-90 minutes at a station for a lower numbered train to pass. 
• For express trains (all numbered trains) you have to reserve a seat/betrh. A seat always equals a berth on overnight trains. You can make a reservation at the counter of a train station or through an (online) agency. Bedding is provided (a top and bottom sheet, a pillowcase and a towel)
• Most trains continue for several days, but not all trains continue along the entire route.  
• There are 4 classes on express trains: platzcart (bunk bed carriage), kupe (4 bed compartments) and spalny vagon (2 bed compartments) and luxe (1st class).
• Bring your own (instant) food, and supplement with foods sold at the platforms or in the train. 

Passing Lake Baikal

Booking

We've booked most of our tickets through an internet agency (Real Russia). And that worked really well! We could pick up our tickets at St. Petersburg station by simply showing the lady at the counter our passports and picked the other up at the Moscow office.
The major plus, we found, was that booking through this agency meant we travelled in the carriage with the Russian folks.We met some other tourists that booked with a non Russian agency and they we all seated together in the first carriage. That would be missing most of the fun!

Another option is to book through a hostel or at the counter of the train station. The last option is a bit adventurous, since most of the people speak only Russian. But since they generally would like to help you, usually a means of communicating is found. Either by writing, pointing or with the help of a random student passing by...

Another advantage of booking through a local agency is that you can decide to book platzcart (3rd class). A service not reguarly offered by non Russian agencies.

Krasnoyarsk station

 Classes

The cheapest class is platzcart, or 3rd class. Platzcart is a open carriage, bunk bed style. There are 54 beds in each carriage.  

Two beds above one another, the lower bed is used as seating during the day. So if you plan on lying down a lot, choose a upper bunk! The upper bed is a bit claustrophobic.
One row of beds is orientated lengthwise (so if you're quite tall, your feet might not fit in), then the aisle, then the transversal beds: 2*2 per 'cabin'.

Platzcart carriage

We were quite curious what platzcart would be like, but not adventurous enough took book 3 nights without knowing what it would be like. 
This class has the most people per carriage, so not a lot of privacy, but more than adequate to spend 1 or 2 nights in. Since this is a cheaper class, people here tend to speak less English or German.
But you might meet a student avid on practicing his English, as we did.
And if you are a single woman travelling, you might want to consider platzcart: less privacy but more social monitoring.

Kupe is the class we travelled in for the longer hauls; 2nd class, 4 bed compartments. We travelled as a couple, and this provided some interaction with locals, without the complete lack of privacy in platzcart. The compartment can be closed with a sliding door, and the aisle is usually the place to chat, walk and meet more travellers.
In the compartment were 2*2 bunkbeds, the lower beds again used for seating during the day. There are 9 compartments, so a maximum of 36 people in a carriage.

Aisle in kupe carriage

 

Toilet facilities

All carriages have 2 bathrooms at either end that are shared between all passengers. These have a toilet and a sink, but no shower. You can get very inventive with this (I've heard of someone filling a soda bottle with lukwarm water, punching holes in the bottom and using that as a shower) but I reckon baby whipes serve a purpose here...

Train attendent - provodniza

Every carriage has 2 train attendents (provodiniza) that are in charge of daily affairs. They check your ticket, provide bedding and clean! How often and how well your bathroom (and the aisle) is cleaned depends largly on you provodniza, but we were happy with it.Once we were shooed into the compartment because the carpet in the aisle needed to be vacuumed and turned!

 

Food

Oh... the food! Where to start?  Ehm.. Let's say I am not a huge fan of Russian food. As I told some friends: I feel like they have a deep fear of spices and herbs... Most of it is just pretty bland for my liking. But maybe I haven't tried the right places or foods.

Culinary highlights

All carriages on the train have a samovar; a boiler filled with hot water. You can use this freely to make coffee, tea or instant foods. We packed instant noodles, soups and other instant 'delicacies'.

When the train stop, there are usually some locals selling their cooking the platform. This may vary from meatballs (frikadelki) to apples (bloko), to pancakes (blini) and others. The further east you go, the more common it is to see this. But not on all stations so do NOT count on it.

The 3rd option is of course: buy food on the train! Most provodnizas have a little business going on, so you can buy some basics with them. Tea, served with sugar in a pretty glass, chocolate, biscuits etc.

Some trains have a restaurant car, but we've never made it to one of those, so I can't tell you al lot about them.

Platform bought food

What route to take?

This is a hard one! There are 3 main routes:

• Trans Siberian (Moscow to Vladivostok)
• Trans Manchurian (Moscow to Beijing)
• Trans Mongolian (Moscow to Beijing via Mongolia)

To do an entire stretch without stopping takes about 7 days in a fast train. 

It really comes dowd to what you prefer...
What destination: Vladivostok or Beijing?

If you want to visit different interesting places means you'll make more stops en route. 

If you want to get into train life you might want to take on long trip without stops.

To see what we ended up doing, visit this post.