Trans-Siberian railway

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Trans-Siberian railway

Postby wide.eyed.wanderer » Sun Feb 08, 2009 12:31 am

A freind of mine and i are going on the Trans-Siberian railway mid this year and were are deciding what towns to stop in along the railway. We were wondering which towns will be a lot of fun and very interesting.

cheers
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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby coldharvest » Sun Feb 08, 2009 7:59 am

How should we know?
tell us what interests you, what you do, what you hope to gain, etc, etc, blah, blah.
want to see abandoned military sites? vodka factories? the Izhmash plant?

we're a lot of things here but psychic isn't one of them
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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby bajacalal » Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:17 am

coldharvest wrote:How should we know?
tell us what interests you, what you do, what you hope to gain, etc, etc, blah, blah.
want to see abandoned military sites? vodka factories? the Izhmash plant?


Sign me up for all of those please. That and the show with the trained raptors over in Mongolia from a previous post.
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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby coldharvest » Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:36 am

I know the law. And I have spent my entire life in its flagrant disregard.
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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby Aussie TJS » Fri Feb 13, 2009 4:41 am

Woa Look out for Mr Cranky Pants

Military sites sounds interesting. I'm after some info on the Trans-siberian Rwy too, info on military sites sounds good
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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby vagabond » Sun Feb 22, 2009 2:10 am

First of all, sort your visa stuff out at home and start as soon as you can.

seat61 has all the train info: http://seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm

WayToRussia is a pretty informative site: http://www.waytorussia.net/

Check the Thorn Tree or at least the user everbrite's Russia pages: http://www.myazcomputerguy.com/everbrite/Page3.html

LP also has a guidebook and I'm sure someone else does too.

For off-beaten track type thing, surf wikipedia focusing on Russia-specific stuff. For mil stuff, start with Closed cities (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_city) and work from there (not that it's likely they'll open the gates for you but...)

Learn to read and write Cyrillic. It's not that hard: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/russian.htm

Learn some basic phrases:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Russian_phrasebook
http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/russian.php
http://www.waytorussia.net/WhatIsRussia/Russian.html

If you're looking for really off the beaten track, try Kamchatka.

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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby jphripjah » Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:41 am

I rode the Trans-Siberian 4 years ago. Technically, I guess I rode the "Trans-Mongolian," from St. Petersburg to Ulaan Baatar.

Anyhow, I recommend the "Trans-Siberian Handbook" by Bryn Thomas. The LP Trans-Siberian guide is also good. Both books have mile by mile descriptions of what you're seeing and where you are stopping.

I'm not sure what the schedules are like now, but four years ago the train stopped for 30 minutes in the town of Ulan Ude, near the Mongolian border. I saw from the guidebooks that the town square of Ulan Ude was home to the world's largest head of Lenin. And the town square is only about 1 km from the train station. So a Danish girl and I decided to leave our bags on the train during the 30 minute stop, run to the Lenin head, then run back. You would think this would be easy to do in 30 minutes, except that (a) it was late November and a throat-burning 5 degrees Fahrenheit, and (b) we didn't calculate that we would also have to run the length of the train to get out of the trainyard, as well as climbing stairs up and down leading over the tracks and out of the yard.

Anyway, we did it with a few minutes to spare, which included about five minutes for a few photos with Lenin. It was good fun, and I recommend it. Do it drunk if you want more of a challenge. Also, if you don't get out at Irkutsk, I recommend at least waking up early and watching the train go around Lake Baikal that morning, it's pretty impressive.

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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby coldharvest » Sun Mar 01, 2009 6:32 am

...that's a big head.
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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby vagabond » Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:01 am

Whatever you do, don't buy a McLenin t-shirt or you will feel my wrath
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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby wide.eyed.wanderer » Sun Mar 08, 2009 11:20 pm

Thanks everyone for the info and will take them up
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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby jphripjah » Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:25 pm

FYI- There's actually a new Lonely Planet guide to the Trans-Siberian being released on or about April 15.
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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby rickshaw92 » Sun Apr 05, 2009 7:36 am

jphripjah wrote:FYI- There's actually a new Lonely Planet guide to the Trans-Siberian being released on or about April 15.



I hope it has a chapter on combing hair and bathing but I some how doubt that!
Im reallly fuclimg pissed but fespite that I can still hit a tarfet at 1000m plus. mayVRVe bnot tonight but it qint beyond the wit if man. Nowhammy.
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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby jphripjah » Sun Apr 05, 2009 4:29 pm

rickshaw92 wrote:I hope it has a chapter on combing hair and bathing but I some how doubt that!


Probably not. I'll bet the LP loyalists love the Trans-Siberian, because no one on the train washes for 5+ days, and there's almost nothing to spend money on.
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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby BigFire » Fri Jul 03, 2009 5:36 am

What to do on this epic train ride depends on what season you are there...I would do a one way, then enter China and leave through Beijing... you did not mention this little factoid...if you have never been to Russia previously, then you are in for a eye-opening vodka drinking and kilbassa eating extraordinaire extravaganza...watch your things while on the train, maybe lock your door at night as you sleep with wire, watch when the train stops to see if certain thieves might get on, keep your cash and passport down your pants. Remember to have fun and take many photos...spend much time in Mongolia...then China, etc.
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Re: Trans-Siberian railway

Postby marie-angelique » Mon Jul 06, 2009 7:35 am

i spent waaay to long in siberia this spring. seems like most of those tranny-siberian train riders got on in moscow and off in irkutsk and never saw a damn thing in between save for what you could see from the train window.

i saw loads of swamps and trees.

for f*cks sake, get off the damn train and spend at least a few days in one place.

i think most of them were just scared to buy a train ticket. to be certain, none of the women selling tickets speaks a word of english. but if you can write down the date and the name of the destination they will sell you a ticket. some trains don't run every day. you can find out the name of the train and the dates and times on that website that sells tickets, but they are loads cheaper if you just buy them at the window.

my favorite places weren't on the trans-sib line.
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