Finally, the train was everything that I hoped it would be! After my last experience of getting sick on the train, I was a little nervous about getting back on the next one (once bitten, twice shy, and all that,) but actually I felt fine and the scenery from the windows was amazing!
On the previous train from Moscow to Irkutsk the scenery was a little less inspiring (although being ill, I was also less receptive to feeling inspired.) There were definitely some nice aspects to it – for instance many of the trees in the forests we were passing by were beginning to turn red yellow and orange and were very pretty to look at when the sun shone on them, and many of the silver birches had already shed their leaves so that they stood out like shining white skeletons – but in general much of the landscape was non-descript grey/green with few defining features.
On this trans-Mongolian train however, the view from the window really was the main entertainment! Shortly after leaving Irkutsk, the train joined the shoreline of Lake Baikal, where I had been Kayaking the previous day, and we were able to stare out over its watery vastness. Stretching away to the distance, it looked just like the sea, especially on account of the wind that was whipping the water up into waves (I had evidently been lucky with the weather on friday.) looking out at it from the train, I relived the previous day’s kayaking in my head, and marvelled at the vastness of both this incredible lake, and the world in general.
As we left the shoreline of the lake, the scenery began to change gradually from what I had come to recognise as ‘standard russian landscape’ – the trees became sparser, the landscape became more rolling, and the vegetation gradually courser and more sand-coloured the further we went along. As the light gradually faded on Saturday evening, I listened to Maz O’Connor’s “This Willowed Light” as I watched the landscape roll by – its folky melodies providing a pleasing soundtrack to the changing and beautiful landscapes.
When I woke on Sunday, the sun was already shining down onto the sandy, rocky grasslands of Mongolia. Looking out of the window I could see occasional herds of cattle and horses grazing on the plains, and the distant yurts of their nomadic keepers. Birds of prey wheeled overhead or perched on power lines, probably looking out for the small, scurrying rodants that could be seen running around in the grass every time that the train stopped. Occasionally we would pass by villages of mostly wooden houses, or industrial facilities such as a coal mine, but for most of the day the the view has just been sunny rolling plains, with endless variations of sandy greens browns and golds – it was glorious!
On Sunday evening, the magic was slightly broken when we were herded off the train in the middle of the night into a building and made to pass through airport-style security in order to cross over the chinese border. This was a step up from all the other borders I had crossed, where the guards just came onto the train, and while it was all done fairly efficiently I was still slightly grumpy because I wanted to be in bed. However by Monday I was back to exalting the changing landscape as it gradually became greener and more mountainous before we arrived in Beijing.
Scenery wise, this truly was the train ride I had been hoping for when I booked the tickets, not to mention all the friendly people I met along the way! For anyone thinking they might be interested, I would definitely recommend it. Now onwards, to adventures in Beijing! 🙂
Dancing in the Dawn 