Train, Trans-Siberian Railway, Travel → Trans-Siberian Railway, Day 5
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Russia stretches over two continents; from the Gulf of Finland to the Bering Strait. With a territory containing 1/7 of the world total inhabitable area, it is the largest country on Earth. No wonder that, after four days travelling, we haven’t reached Mongolia or China yet.
5345 kilometers have been travelled from Moscow already… we have 2510 kilometers yet to go!
Apparently, it is 4:37pm in Нижнеудинск (Nujneudinsk) and the sun is already setting… (remember that in Moscow, at 9:55pm, the sun was still not completely set in the first day of our journey (see the first article)). In fact, the time displayed here is not the actual local time, but Moscow time. There is a four-hour time difference between Moscow and Нижнеудинск, therefore the actual local time was 8:37pm. But only Moscow time is displayed in all of Russia’s train stations, regardless of its geographical position. One of the difficulties encountered by the travelers in the Trans-Siberian railway, was the total loss of the sense of time. The sun was rising when our clocks showed us that it was 2 o’clock in the morning and was setting early in the afternoon, as we were heading eastwards. In Mongolia, that problem disappeared, because the official time was that of the capital city and also the local time, and it was displayed everywhere.
During that early night, the Equatorian Fransk replaced me to translate Viktor’s words.
In the morning, we arrived at one of the greatest tourist attractions in the Trans-Siberian railway: lake baikal, a huge lake located in Russia’s Far East; and the world’s purest lake, according to Viktor.
Because he trusted the purity of this lake, Viktor did not hesitate to buy some smoked fish at the next station.
…which he boned and shared with us.
Here are some pictures taken around the lake.
Workers at some station.
Снежана (Snejana), a Ukrainian lady with Mongolian origins, was added to the passengers. She was going to do some business in Ulaan-Baatar.
Customs! Here we are. We are leaving Russia and entering Mongolia.
While the authorities were dealing with the passports, we had some time to visit that last Russian city of our journey. There was one shop where we could buy some food.
The store from inside.
Three hours were planned for the stop-over at the customs. The Russian locomotive was detached from the train and replaced by a Mongolian one.
A Croatian tourist shows me his tattoo on his back.
