Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, The Mystery Of The Missing Stalin Statue

It is going to be difficult to write about Mongolia. We spent two weeks here which were mostly spent in a Russian van driving around the country side. But the experience was so amazing and so different to anything that I’ll not be able to accurately describe it, and even my incredible photos I got won’t do justice to the beauty of the land.

Ulaanbaatar

The marching band army of Mongolia

The first two days were spent in the capital city of UB, staying at the appropriately named UB Guesthouse (US$5 a night, great deal). Here we used most of our time sorting out a tour to go on around Mongolia, and a little bit of time partying with friends made on the train into town.
The city is quite similar to Russian cities, big industrial plants are interwoven with ugly apartment blocks. But the Asian influence and general Mongolian feel of the place gave it a refreshing feel. There are numerous building projects going on showing that the place is experiencing economical growth, although this might just be all the American dollars flowing in as aid, which is most likely secretly going to the exploitation of untouched mineral deposits around.

Chinggis is a big dude, watch yourself around him, he is crazy

The first day we explored a few local sights, after seeing the Ulaanbaatar square with Chinggis Khan sitting appropriately at one end over looking his empire we headed to the Museum of Natural History. The museum is stocked with poorly taxidermied animals and some fossils included a full t-rex skeleton. Presentation had obviously not been included in last years budget, as every animal had fully visible stitch marks and facial furs which had been stretched poorly over their skeletons.

The natural history museum's priceless artefacts are protected by this dude

That night we went out for a local dining experience. The place chosen had a cheap menu to persuade us in. After accepting the invitation we were invited down into the basement of the restaurant, this was one of those horribly uncomfortable situations where you have no idea what is going on due to language barriers. We assumed we were actually being seated at the very last available seats which happened to be large couches which looked like the place where local mafia would sit around and have vodka and cigars while being entertained by some 'women of the night'. Then after watching some dodgy man trying to convince a young lady to go with him into the bathroom we were finally seated in our actual seats out of the basement. Mutton was the only real option on the menu, so variations of this was ordered. The best being buuz (pronounced booze) a dumpling filled with tasty mutton. YUM!

Prayer wheels, turn them clockwise to send off a prayer

After getting in a feed Tom, our two European friends from the train and I headed off to a nightclub that according to the good old lonely planet had a 15m Stalin statue inside. Disappointingly the statue was now a myth, but the club was still pumping Mongolian styles so we stuck around. Even though Mongolia is kind of a backwards country, you’d assume they could still get talented DJ’s in the clubs. The DJ was well off point, playing terrible techno from the year 1999 while struggling to mix together two tracks without completely screwing up, but nothing yelling into the microphone couldn’t fix to get the 10 people large crowd pumped again. Loads of classic cheesy dance moves went down until the clubs midnight closing time was reached.

Gandan Khiid's main temple, inside the giant buddha (example here)

The following day we got up early enough to get to the main monastery in UB, Gandan Khiid , in time to see the practicing monks do their morning prayers. The monastery was really good, slightly over run by pigeons, but the guano and feathers gave the place a real Buddhist atmosphere. The highlight was the 25 metre Buddha statue contained in the main building. Obviously very different from western views on idolatry but was quite fascinating. After turning a few prayer wheels we headed off to the black market of Ulaanbaatar.

The kids play with the pigeons

The market is one of the biggest in Asia and contains nearly everything you could ever need and none of it the real deal making it all fantastically cheap. We got everything we needed for going out into the wilderness for two weeks at a super low price and didn’t even manage to get pick pocketed while doing so. Although some other travelers told us they’d purposely placed a few lose bills slightly hanging out of their pockets after reading about the notorious theft that occurs and managed to have it all flogged.

Next we ran back to the hostel to make our tour meeting. We managed to, while heavily sweating, arrange a 12 night adventure with an American couple around the Gobi Desert for 6 nights and then up around Central Mongolia for the rest of the time. This begun a mad rush of things that needed to be completed before going into the middle of nowhere such as applying for a Chinese visa and getting train tickets out of Mongolia. The following 20 hours were the most stressful of the entire trip after doing endless odd jobs and having to deal with an incompetent train ticketing office multiple times. Needless to say that tears were shed and getting into the van to leave on our stress free adventure was the perfect remedy for nearly wanting to kill everyone around.

Irkutsk and Olkon Island, the last of Russia

Hell Yeazz! Mystery pastries bought off a Babushka on a train platform somewhere in Siberia

Arriving in on the train to our final Russian destinations was quite exciting. In one respect it was sad that we were going to be leaving Russia soon, but knowing what was beyond outweighed this. As with travelling, it is all about the now and the excitement of what is to come. It is basically the ultimate form of consumerism, are you satisfied now, and will you be satisfied in the future, all without any social responsibility.

Welcome to Irkutsk, we love the industry

A shrine over looks the beautiful Lake Baikal

The ferry across the straight onto the island

The island is only over that little bit of water, which takes only about 20 minutes by ferry

We used Irkutsk as a gateway to Lake Baikal, as it is still 70 odd kilometres from the largest lake by volume in the world. So a day was spent wondering around before going up to Olkon Island which is on the edge of the lake. Our first task was to get a Mongolian visa, after having trouble trying to get one in Moscow we were slightly worried that it would be the same here. Moscow is a little bit crazy though, and the consulate in Irkutsk was very straight forward, an application form and some money was all we needed for a visa, and it took all of half an hour to complete everything.

Would have liked to go bear hunting, but you can't do everything

Another long train into Irkutsk is broken up with a snooze

After the visa business it actually got cold so sight seeing was postponed till later in the afternoon. Unfortunately that afternoon we failed to see what we set out to see due to not having a map on us. But on the other hand, seeing Irkutsk is one of the major tourist destinations of Russia for people on the Trans-Mongolian line it means it is full of travellers. So being in a real hostel, with real travellers was really exciting. It was the first time since Moscow where we’d actually stayed with foreigners in Russia, so the lack of sightseeing was made up for by socialising with all the cool people.

Wondering the forests of Olkon Island, a magical moment

Another beautiful shot, we scored it awesomely with the weather here

If you ever want to feel awesome, have a moment like this, me standing over Lake Baikal

Leaving the next day to Olkon Island was great, being able to actually truly get away from the post soviet cities that had dominated our trip was a pleasure. The ride to Olkon Island took a solid 7 hours, which was not that great being in a minivan, but we got there in the end and got to have a sweet ferry ride across the straight to the island which gave us a great view of the width of the lake.

The town on Olkon Island was pretty futuristic

Olkon Island is about 70 odd km long and probably makes up about 1/10 of the length of the lake. When you are on here you are really isolated away from everything. It was surprising that the town we were staying in actually had any thing going on, but because of the natural beauty of the place and a couple of really well run guest houses set up for tourists and plenty of things to do that it was pretty good. But the best thing and one of the major factors of actually coming here was the food. The guest house we stayed in (Nakitas guest house), and I think all of them do it, served three meals a day, each with probably more in a meal than we’d been eating in a day prior. So apart from spending a lot of time eating, we did get out and go for some walks around the forest and shore, took a life lengthening dip in the freezing cold lake (see below video), and met lots of other travellers who had been doing the Trans-Siberian, but just not stopping off as we’d done through Siberia. The two nights here were fantastic and were capped off by going to the local night club, which was just someone's house who served beer and had a laser light.

Twenty five years added to my life right here

Getting loco in the club on Olkon Island

After another really packed minivan ride back to Irkutsk we got bought our final train ticket out of Russia and spent another night at the same hostel here went to some of the local markets for a bit of fun. In the morning it was a short dash off to the train station and then we caught the train on out of the mother land.

Rocking it on the main street, nicely paved with compacted dirt

Travel team stands by the greatest volume of fresh water in the world

Although I'll do another post about the train in the future, this is sort of the end of the Russian section of this blog. So in post analysis I'd say that Russia was totally awesome, period! Some things weren't all that great such as all paid service people being horribly rude, there being little set up for the backpacker crowd out of the Europe side of Russia, and it being quite expensive to stay anywhere. Discounting these things as being part of the adventure, it was a great place to visit. There is so much recent history everywhere which makes just about any destination fascinating. If you aren't into historical events, then riding the train might satisfy you instead. Meeting real Russians in there natural environment was really fun, especially being plied with unnatural amounts of vodka. The adventure of going across Siberia was really fulfilling in terms of feeling like you've achieved one of those things that people put on a list of things to do before they die, and kind of makes you feel as though you're a pioneering explorer.

Goodbye Lenin, will love you forever

If you were ever thinking of doing the Trans-Siberian, then totally do it. Don't be put off by the difficult visa regulations, or the language barrier, or the price of it. These things can all be worked out somehow. I'd also really recommend doing something like we did and going to smaller cities through Siberia. They give you another view on Russia you wouldn't get by just visiting St Petersburg and Moscow. And finally you should definitely ride third class (platzkart). It doesn't get any more real than the class of the people, we met others who'd travelled second class and got stuck in a carriage with two old Russian dead beats for five days (boring!).

Costs:
This is the final costing section of a month in Russia,
Average nights accommodation: 700 rbls
Average days spending on food: 250 rbls
Train tickets about 6000 rbls
Total spent in Russia: ~32000 rbls = NZ$2200
Running Total: $6873

Krasnoyarsk, Nature City Of Siberia

The original Trans-Siberian engine is much cooler than the modern ones

After a number of weeks of large industrial cities without much more than a central park to remind you of the natural world, it was decided that a stop in Krasnoyarsk should be done due to it being beside a nature reserve which would give us the opportunity to experience the great outdoors that actually make up probably 99% of Siberia.

The Yenisei River flows along beside Krasnoyarsk

There is a small problem with Krasnoyarsk, which is that the city is another industrial monster, and the great outdoors are somewhat spoiled by the rising chimneys billowing out dark thick smoke. It must have been the thick polluted air, or maybe we just left out intellect back in the educated city of Tomsk, but we decided to march around town with all our heavy gear certain the first hotel we walked up to would have a cheap room available. The haze in our minds kept us from being wise and doing what we’d found good at Tomsk which was to leave one person at the train station with all the gear while the others found accommodation. So after walking the entire city up and down, going to about six different places, we finally found one that was cheap and available. The theme of Krasnoyarsk was started which was for us to be tired and some what miserable.

The train station of Krasnoyarsk, photos of things like this are illegal in Russia

There are bears in the forest that we walked in, good thing I had my gun

Hotel Sever was the cheapest place we’d actually found in the whole of Russia which was great, even though it came without a shower and with central heating turned onto ‘roast-‘em-alive’. After sitting around for a while, we went out to a café called Ciao. Surprising as it is, this place was actually really good. Served the most delicious Vienna coffee I’ve ever tried I was well impressed. It came as no surprise though that this place was actually owned by some Germans, there is no way a Russian café could have such good service, with actual smiles and polite conversation from the waitress. Arriving back to the hotel it wasn’t long before the heat sent us off to a nightmare inducing sweaty night's sleep.

The rock formations in Stolby Nature Reserve

The next morning we were hoping for a fantastic sunny day, we got cold miserable grey turning to cold miserable rain with grey. But this didn’t stop us from our goal (which was basically all my desire) to go to the nature reserve and get in some of the good old great outdoors. If you are ever going to Stolby Nature Park, and have a lonely planet or any other guide book, do not trust its directions on how to get there. 7, 50a are meant to be the bus numbers which take you there, neither of these actually exist. Instead we found by walking half way there then jumping on a bus which can’t possibly go in the wrong direction that it was the number 30 that goes right past it. Only about 10 km from town is this lovely preserved piece of nature. It contains a number of large rock formations that make for good goals for hikes through the forested hills. Without any map (bad idea number 23432) we took off up a hill. Fortunately it was a small hill and after reaching the top we realized we’d just missed the main track, a big road, that goes into the center of the park. Not to worry, we scrambled down the hill side onto the road and took off to the rock formation we’d spotted from the top of the hill. The next few hours were spent walking along this road with a rock formation in sight that didn’t seem to get larger the closer we got to it. And as mentioned before the weather was turning to rain. So by about 4pm we’d reached somewhat near the bottom of the rocks (which were way more impressive from the first hill we’d climbed) completely soaked and freezing cold. Spotting the rocks through some trees we turned around and heading back to the bus which was fortunately all downhill so didn’t take too long. Arriving back in the grey city we went straight to the greatest café in Russia once again to warm up and dry off our clothes.

I get lost in the nature reserve

That was about it for Krasnoyarsk. There place had potential, but weather and poor success at finding a hotel marred its rating. This was somewhat unfortunate as it was my pick to go there, but there is some other things about the place worth a mention. The city is probably a great place to visit in summer, the nature park is right there just out of town, and the place is build around the Yenisei River which is very commanding and nice to look at. Also there is music pumped out of every lamp post along the main streets, Karla Marxa, Lenina etc, trying to lift the atmosphere of the city. This is actually rather annoying but good on them for trying. Along with the music are fairy lights in lots of the trees along the main streets so if you are festive you might quite like the place. Lastly a few sights feature on the 10 rbl note, so if you are cool you could try and take a photo with the note and sight in the same photo, I’m not that cool though…

The thousands of people who made the Trans-Siberian rail lie under it these days

Tomsk, Smartest Town in Town

Relaxing in Tomsk, ahh perfect

In the days of old strong soviet Russia, when social engineering was in full flight, the leaders decided that there should be towns devoted to universities. These would spit out intellectuals and having them all gathered in the same place would let their minds combine to create new and wonderful technologies that would destroy the capitalists. One such creation was Tomsk, a small city a few hours drive from Novosirbirsk, its big ugly industrial sister.

Another great moment with the man Lenin

The streets were lined with autumn trees; leaves slowly falling to the ground, the hazy orange/brown glow contrasting the green fields of parks. The architecture is stylised wooden two storey cosy homes unfortunately not maintained and left to the moving muddy ground to slowly topple. Along the main street large classical roman styled university buildings are sided with cobble stone path ways, containing modern contemporary sculptures which seem to be meandering along the adjacent Tom River. Arriving into our cheap hotel (TGU Hotel) that we managed to intellectually find by only sending two of the team out while I looked after the bags in the train station, we were welcomed by a newly renovated room well superior to a lot of other places we’d stayed at, at a margin of the price. It felt like we were one with the university crowd, well looked after, deserving of prestige, and with a hope given to us to achieve great things.

The cabbage patch kids came from Tomsk

The two days we spent here were too short, and the time was well enjoyed. The weather for one day was a balmy 15 degrees which meant t-shirts, and sunglasses were a necessary accessory. After having a rather wild time on the train prior to Tomsk, a day of relaxing in the park and visiting local cafes and restaurants was a perfect way to wind down and re-energise. The favourite pick of all joints was the pop art café on the corner of the main park along Lenina Prospect. With its array of tooth decaying sugary cakes and cheap small portioned meals it made an excellent excursion from the comfort of our hotel.

The River Tom floats on by

Aside from the fantastic relaxing feel of the town, there were a few things that were found to be unexpected here. The night we tried to go out to have a drink at a bar was rather difficult. We found somewhere to go, but it was more a restaurant than a bar, and was somewhat spoiled by the terrible lounge singer who we were forced to pay 50 rubles each to hear. But upon leaving we realised where the actual partying of the youthful town took place. The main avenue was littered with people out in the dark drinking and hollering on the sidewalks many benches. This was quite interesting as you’d have thought that such a young vibrant population would be filling the typical trendy drinking holes found in any other city. But instead the intellectuals have realised that brews can be bought at all the street vendors along Lenina all night and at a fraction of the price compared to the same tipple in a bar. Unfortunately our flash hotel had a terribly policy of a midnight curfew (although it was probably just a rule the receptionist of the night made up so she didn’t have to man the door).

Autumn is a beautiful time to travel in Tomsk

Tomsk seems to be a city with a good future, as long as the youth stick around. It is managing quite well without being on the main trans-siberian line. So if they just bring in a strict building code so that all the buildings stop falling over, (it seemed our hotel was renovated by high school students, with door handles on backwards, and bathrooms that were as sealed as a punctured tyre) then there is no doubt that Tomsk will be one of the great Siberian cities.

The classic wooden architecture, example is not falling over

Yekaterinburg, A Real Industrial Town

Hostels are rarities in Russia, and if you come across a city with one it is a good idea to make the most of it. I’ve no idea why you’d actually want to stay in a cheap hotel over a hostel. For the same price as the cheapest of hotel rooms you get a place with a pretty comfy bed, a kitchen, bathroom with a shower, usually a laundry, and the chance to meet other travellers. This is the entire reason we chose to visit Yekaterinburg. The sites to visit here are limited and the city isn’t a hip and happening place. But seeing it had the hostel we went for it.

Look out woman, no sleeping outside the train station

The hostel was named Europe Asia hostel and was about 700 roubles a night, was located at somewhere quite out of town and was pretty small, but was totally worth it. Throwing in the bonus of free wifi and a free breakfast made it a well enjoyed break from all those unfriendly hotels.

Romanovs unite to your death

The rest of Yekaterinburg actually is sort of interesting, as has some history that is little known to most people. It is the city where the Romanov family was executed in 1918 due to the Bolshevik government fearing the power of the Tsar. Also the city is the birth place of former president Yeltsin, not that there is anything here to commemorate that.

The Afghan monument was quite an emotional, cool, but nothing on the keyboard

We spent our full day here looking at some pretty good sites, including a memorial to the failed Afghan invasion by Russia, the cathedral with it memorial to the Romanovs, and a giant keyboard monument. That’s right a monument to the qwerty keyboard. This was probably one of the highlights of my entire trip. A monument to the thing I’ve probably spent half my life at, is there anything better? Well the monument wasn’t that impressive, but it was the thought that counts. Also in the city was a great restaurant called McPeaks, which is totally ripping of McDonalds, so I was happy to spend my hard earned dollar here in a hope that by eating here will support them enough to become large enough to have McDonalds sue them and therefore cause a huge legal battle that bankrupts all chain fast food joints that prey on little children to make them fat, and results in an open market that allows for diversity in our eating choices and hopefully giving people the power to eat healthily...

Best monument ever, period

The next day we’d had to wake up at 5am to catch our early train, this was a chance for some sweet justice. Hostels are awesome, but there is a price to pay. The fact you are sharing a room with random people can mean that you might be in for a terrible nights sleep caused by the random's sleeping habits. It seems the hostel in Yekaterinburg only other visitors were a bunch of large men who would arrive back at the hostel at 4am and snore as loudly as possible until who knows when. Our 5am wake up call was not done in a polite fashion and we rummaged as loudly as possible to pack our bags and head out.

Another day, another train, platzkart is awesome

Costs:
Euro/asia hostel: 700 rbls a night for 2 nights
Food: typical supermarket shopping all the way through russia...
Hold on for running total at the end of russia posts...

Kazan, the Muslim Meets The Communist

Sticking it to the man, giving the middle finger to Maccas, and to Vegetarians

Typically you’d travel through Perm on the way over the Urals to Yekaterinburg if you’re doing the Trans-Siberian. We opted for the southern version of this rail because it goes through the city of Kazan. Kazan is a interesting city that has recently been redeveloped due to the 1000 year anniversary of its founding. That mixed in with a new wealth created through recent exploitation of near by resources makes it a great place to stop.

Another train station, Kazan Station, on the way to many more

We spent two nights here which were rather pleasant. The first day we had that fun battle of finding a place to stay. It happened to be a Saturday which meant that every hotel in Kazan was booked up except for expensive rooms that hotels keep for suckers, such as us, who don’t pre book anything. After walking around town for about 4 hours, getting in a good view of the city with the addition of a 20 kg pack on our backs we’d found a tourist information centre which got in touch with one of the hotels we’d previously tried and managed to find they had a room for 2500 rubles, 700 less than we’d be told at the hotel. So we headed back there, but unfortunately weren’t allowed to check-in till 7 pm. Waiting around we finally were allowed in, paid for one of the most expensive nights in Russia and blobbed out for the rest of the night. Waking up early, we continued the search of hotels for a reasonably priced one, and managed to find somewhere straight up, so by midday having spent about 24 hours already in Kazan were finally settled.

The Kremlin, at night!

The mix, cathedrals and mosques

Seeing we’d seen a lot of the sights already by scouring around for a hotel, we decided to go in for a deeper look at the best ones. The Kremlin in Kazan is amazing. The place is built up on a small hill overlooking the great rivers of the city and also giving views to other well developed parts of town. The kremlin hosts a mixture of Islamic temples and Russian Orthodox cathedrals. This makes for an interesting mix, but shows that religious harmony is possible. The mix represents the whole city which is getting close to the country of Kazakhstan which doesn’t share Russias orthodox views.

I ponder life as nature puts on an awe inspiring display

After seeing the cathedral we went for a long walk out to the port on the Volga River. Hopeful that we could get a ferry to go for a short cruise over the immensely big river we walked for ages to find out that there was nothing available. But all was not in total vien as the river was a really impressive view, it stretches about a kilometer wide and the overcast skies were breaking allowing a divine touch to be intervening with the rivers majestic flow.

A youthful Lenin strides into university

A walk back past a statue of Lenin when he was a university student studying at the local university was capped off with some drinks at a café with supposed free wifi and an expensive german styled bar. After staying the night in the cheaper hotel, Hotel Fatima, which had way better facilities than the previous nights Hotel Volga (eg a shower), we spent the day waiting around for our train out of town which was pretty non eventful. But we did visit the best supermarket found in the whole of Russia, which was near the Kremlin, with actual aisles of food instead of the typical aisles of vodka and no food.

Costs:
1 Night at Hotel Volga: 850 rbls, 1 at Fatima 550 rbls
Train ticket to Yekaterinburg: ~700 rbls
Food: eat at supermarket = cheapish...
Running total ~ $5400

The Golden Ring

The Women's Cathedral

Around Moscow there are a number of small towns together forming the Golden Ring. These places are basically little collections of how Russia might have been prior to the industrial and communist periods, with central cathedrals and monasteries surrounded by a small number of homes and little shops then quickly becoming farmland with the endless plains and forests beyond.

We went to Sergiev Posad, Suzdal and Vladimir. I’ve described Sergiev in the previous post and Suzdal was where we spent a night while Vladimir was the town that was the doorway to Suzdal so we spent an afternoon here.

The train from Moscow to Vladimir was technically the first section of Trans-Monglian rail that we were on. Although we did take a 4 hour suburban train, so not really a big long over land adventure like other sections of the rail. Upon reaching Vladimir we found a bus to take us on the hour journey out to Suzdal, supposedly the gem of the Golden Ring.

Another Cathedral

We arrived soon after and found the hotel we were to stay in. We’d been told by another traveller in Moscow that the hotels price had gone up significantly from what was described in the Lonely Planet which we have based on a year prior. So instead of being some really cheap stay was 2500 roubles for the night which is way over the top considering our room had no hot water, a shower that didn’t work and a terrible interior that hadn’t been updated from those terrible decades of the 60s or 70s. But on the plus side the hotel was based in a monastery so the extra price was kind of like paying for the novelty of staying with monks.

The Peasants Homes Outside The Nice Monastery

We had one day to spend in Suzdal, which was more than enough time as there is basically one thing to do here, which is look at cathedrals. The town has about one cathedral per thirteen people. So basically on every block of the town which is about 3 km by 3 km in size there is a small chapel. If you are the type of traveller who gets off on seeing old churches and stuff then go to Suzdal, it will honestly be enough church building visual stimulus to last you a life time. After going here I’ve pretty much had enough of domes/spires/archways etc etc to see me right through Russia, and am looking forward to getting out of the Russian Orthodox setting and into something else.

Riding In Style On The Suburban Train

After 4 hours and about 50 churches later we got the bus back to Vladimir. Here we bought a train ticket to Nizhny Novogrod. The train didn’t leave for a few hours so we got to walk around Vladimir with the aim of buying snacks for the train. The town again being a Golden Ring town was based around loads of cathedrals, which was not that impressive now. Although at 5pm there was a huge ensemble of bell ringing as all the cathedrals started competing with each other for the ringing of the 5 pm bell.

Another thing about cathedrals is that they make a good place for wedding photography, and Russians love getting married. So far we basically haven’t had a day where we haven’t seen a wedding party being photographed at some famous sight. I try not to take photos of all the brides in front of all the statues and churches that we see, but honestly they are everywhere, and especially in the golden ring towns. The day in Suzdal and Vladimir we must have seen approximately 20 wedding parties. Mostly we see the wedding party being photographed, which is basically the bride posing and looking ridiculous while the groomsman stands around looking bored. Russia is totally the place to go if you are a chick who has used her whole life to plan her big day.

Another Beautiful Wedding

Eventually the train came and we hoped on to possibly the best train I’ve ever been on. It was just a day train that runs the main line from Moscow to Nizhny Novogrod, the first and third biggest cities in Russia which takes about 10 hours (our section about 4). It was seriously awesome, the seats were similar to those out of an airplane, and the cabins had two tvs in them and we got served food and sparkling water on top of all that. It was far better than the third class overnighters we’ve been taking and beats the suburban trains hands down.

Unfortunately Nizhny Novogrod was not our final destination, but we were to go onto Kazan. We were hopeful that arriving at Nizhny around 10 pm would be early enough to get the night train to Kazan. But we were not so lucky and the next train wasn’t until 5.40 am the next morning. So we got to spend a surreal night in the train station. The train station seemed to attract all the typical rift raff of society that just need some government care. So basically we didn’t get any sleep due to constant pick pocketers, drunks, dogs, security guards and bright fluorescent lights keeping you well awake. Finally once we got on the train after a very long, long, long wait we managed to sleep well in the over heated carriage which had somewhat comfortable seats. Popping in about 6 hours of sleep before arriving in Kazan.

Price List:
Trains: ~$50 from Moscow to Kazan
Accommodation: 1 night ~800 rbls each
Food: I cant remember, but it wasn't that bad as we shopped at supermarkets
Total: $5150. This is becoming rather inaccurate at the moment...