Welcome to Russia!

What a journey! The train to Irkutsk, in Siberia, was one of the maddest things we have ever experienced. The journey is a lot shorter than the one between Beijing and Ulaanbaatar, but because of the strict border regulations on the Russian side, it takes a full 46 hours to make it the 1113 kms. We were travelling with the New Zealand couple still, and we were ready with enough food and booze to feed a small country. There was no dining car on this train, so we had to make sure that we had enough provisions for the trip. We spent the time reading, chatting, and looking at the changing scenery.

We must have arrived at the Mongolian border at about 5 am. The bathroom doors were locked and the guard told me that we were at the border. She said that the doors would be locked until the Mongolian border officials had checked our passports. She also told me that there was a bathroom on the platform, so I wrapped up warm (it was -20) and headed off the train. When I got off, I saw that only one carriage (ours) was sitting on the tracks. It wasn’t connected to anything, and there was no engine attached to it. Nobody seemed to be bothered by this fact, so I went to the toilet and came back; marveling at how strange this isolated train looked.

The Mongolian Customs officials did not start work until 9am, so we had time to kill. We walked along the platform, took some photos, and wondered what was going to happen to our lonely carriage.

At about 8:00, loads of people started getting on the train. There were about twenty extra people on, and since our carriage was full, we wondered what they were doing. Suddenly, they were all giving the guard quite a bit of money. In return, she gave them a key. We had no idea what these people were doing. Then we realised that they all had boxes filled with salami and jeans! They started hiding the salami all over the cabin. Then, they started putting on 5 pairs of jeans each. We then realised that they were smuggling these goods over the border.

The Mongolian guards came on, took our passports and told us to wait for a further two hours. They didn’t seem too bothered about the extra people, the smell of salami, or the Mongolian women who looked like their bums were the size of Mars.

We got our passports back and drove for 30 minutes. An engine was attached at this point, but it was still only pushing our carriage. During that time, the Mongolian smugglers threw empty boxes out the window and made sure that all of their stuff was safely stashed. We also heard them taping boxes, so that the stuff looked like birthday presents. By the time we arrived at the Russian border, everyone was trying to look as normal as possible.

The Russian guards were scary! First, they were all massive. Second, they all spoke English, so unlike some other places, they were not embarrassed or afraid to ask you questions about your stay. They did not seem too concerned with us. They just asked us to move out of the cabin, whilst some Soviet giant searched it. They knew right away that the Mongolian guys were not legit. They made them open the boxes (which I think was a double bluff, because they didn’t find anything inside) and they searched their cabins about fifty times.

The guards took our passports and told us not to leave the train. By this point, we had been at the Mongolian and Russian border for about 7 hours! By the time we got our passports back, it had been 9 hours. By the time we left, the entire process had taken 10.5 hours! As soon as the Mongolian smugglers had their passports, they started unloading all the goods. The guard had given them a key to a special cupboard; from the outside it looked like a wall, but behind it, there was a huge space. The Russian guards had checked under the floors and in the ceilings, but this special cupboard seemed to be the place that no-one on the Russian side knew about. The ironic thing was that as soon as they left the train, the Mongolian smugglers sold their goods at a black market stall, which was overlooked by the Russian Customs building!

We finally left the border station and spent the rest of the time plowing through the food we had lovingly prepared. After a night of vodka, wine, and beer, we found ourselves being awoken at 7am, to the guard shouting, “Irkutsk, Irkutsk!” We had arrived.