Monique and Sander to Russia, September 2019

Pictures of this chapter can be seen at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/HnxgTBvCsasrDFQNA I am writing this as we approach Vladivostok on the last leg of some 8 or 9 legs about which you can read in the earlier chapters.  As you can gather from reading these chapters, we were not impressed by the quality of the trains and even less by the quality of the service and food.  The distance between St Petersburg and Vladivostok is 5500 miles which is almost exactly the distance in Canada between St John's Newfoundland and Victoria, BC. The trip in one stretch would take 6 days and 7 hours. Between St Petersburg and Moscow, there is a high-speed new train but then one is on trains which stop at least 62 times between Moscow and Vladivostok.  The stops are mostly for 15 to 20 minutes in desolate places where there is nothing to see and less to do except some 8 big cities. The cost of a first-class ticket runs about US$1000. The reason this trip takes so long is first the many sto

           First Bridge over Golden Bay in Vladivostok. We arrived in Vladivostok at 7 AM after spending 3 nights and 2 days on the train from Ulan-Ude.  We were both racked as we really did not sleep well.  Monique got little or no sleep. We were met at the train platform by our Vladivostok guide Juliana.  We unloaded our 4 bags down off the train which stands about 5 feet above the platform down 4 almost vertical steps.  It was a relief for me as this was the last time we would have to schlep our bags off the train.  Vladivostok is our last train station but it was also one of the worst as we had to carry our bags up 4 flights of stairs consisting of about 100 steps! What a country that they cannot install elevators or moving stairways to get up and down in rail stations. I would really think that old or handicapped people would almost not be able to use the rail system as it is now. We put our bags into a rather dilapidated, right-hand drive car imported used from J

Old Believer in traditional garb. An Old Believer member who was the lead singer. She is wearing jewelry on her head which they call KITSCH. We arrived in Ulan-Ude after an 8-hour train ride from Irkutsk. Interestingly, at that hour of the day, 8am there were no security personnel and one did not have to put the bags through x-ray as in all other stations.  The stretch between these two cities cost more to build than any other stretch on the Trans-Siberian rail length.  Until this 400 km length was built, the train only went to Irkutsk and then the train, passengers, and freight were loaded onto large vessels which made the 25 km crossing to the east shore of the lake.  This, of course, was a very time-consuming process but the south end of the lake abuts rather large mountains which no one was sure how to get through.  The railroad had been built simultaneously from Vladivostok west and to Irkutsk east with both ends ending on opposite sides of Lake Baikal. Finally, the r

 View of the eastern shore of Lake Baikal from our hotel balcony. The mountains are about 10 miles on the other side. Pictures we took in Irkutsk and at Lake Baikal can be seen at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZZ8Epa5jXS7wUA5w8 We were met on the platform by Elena who will be our guide for the next two days.  When we arrived,  we were immediately subjected to the endless staircases which are the trademark of Russian train stations with no elevators no moving staircases. Our guide Elens in Irkutsk and Lake Baikal. As a matter of fact, the whole tourism industry in this country is still in its infancy with very little being invested to promote tourism or to make tourists feel welcome. We saw that throughout this trip. We hear it from our various guides who feel the brunt of the negative views of tourists they guide.  There are very few signs in any other language than Russian, trains are uncomfortable with old carriages made many decades ago, rail stations have alm